Sister Gledhill, the Pusher

Hello out there!

I think I forgot to mention this, but this marks the end of another transfer! Me and Sister Batschi are both staying here in Scituate for another 6 weeks. Everybody was making me nervous and telling me I was going to leave (probably because Sister Batschi is so awesome that she would have no problem taking over the area if I did.) But they were wrong! We thought that half of our district would get cancelled, but alas, not a single person left! Which is great because our district is SO AWESOME. (As pictured below.)

In other news, since I last emailed:

• We had a semi-ridiculous Valentine's themed Zone Meeting, complete with heart doilies and rose petals on the ground. (Don't even get me started on Elders and their dating -themed analogies)
• The Olympics are happening AND NO ONE EVEN TOLD ME! Way to leave me out of the loop guys! It's just a WORLD WIDE CELEBRATED EVENT. Help me out - we're trying to convince people we're not Amish over here!
• We got red-dotted (forbidden to drive) whilst on the opposite side of our area from our apartment and had to sleep over at the Providence Sister's apartment. They're apartment is like 3 times the size of ours and has been inhabited by sisters for many moons, so it contains all kinds of interesting and spiritual junk.
• We had an appointment with a less-active man who then didn't invite us in to his house when we arrived. So us and the semi-elderly couple we brought with us had a five minute lesson on his porch, at night, in the below-freezing temperature and lost the feeling in our limbs and faces. We make appointments to avoid these kinds of things, but oh well.
• Sister Batschi and I finished memorizing The Family: A Proclamation to the World and are currently mastering saying the entire thing switching off every other word. It's super obnoxious but mildly impressive.
• We sang "If You Could Hie to Kolob" and "Oh My Father" in the same Sacrament meeting. This led to slightly confused looks from our investigators and recent converts, and panic stricken looks from the Elders as they tried to define Kolob and explain Heavenly Mother. Oh dear ...

So basically life as usual here in the MBM! Another night we visited a less active who hasn't been for years who told us he knows the church is true, but won't come because the people who go aren't perfect. We had a great chat as we discussed his concerns and his testimony and shared a little message about God's hand ALWAYS being stretched out towards us. He talked about how he has definitely seen this in his life and especially because he knows God answers prayers - ALWAYS. So of course, we invited him to pray to have his heart softened towards the imperfect people in the church and his response was something like this, "I knew the second you pulled in who you were and why you were here. I knew you would come in here and push me." But he didn't say it in a mean way like most people do. He just seemed to know that he needed a good push in the right direction, as he put it a "whack in the head from God".

Now as missionaries, we get that a lot. That we "push" too hard when people aren't ready - and it's probably true sometimes! But in reality, we all know that we don't grow or improve with out change. The Savior asked us to take up our crosses and follow Him, and sometimes that's a lot of work! Sometimes I don't want to pick up that cross - it's heavy and I'd rather leave it alone, and we all know how much I hate working out. But the amazing thing about following Christ and pushing ourselves to become like Him is that the more we change, the easier it becomes. Or maybe the stronger we become. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

So, moral of the story is that sometimes, a good whack in the head from God is what we all need. Pay attention to it next time it comes.

Hope you all have a great week! Happy Valentine's day! (Can you believe it's already been a year since I got my call?!)

XOXO,

Sister Gledhill