Okay, well, this week was crazy. I discovered I am a very "Adventure is out there!" sort of missionary. I'm also that kind of missionary that REALLY needs to pay attention to the "it's not requisite that you should run faster than you have strength".
First of all, our president has said that we are now including active family lessons in our key indicators. So we took that and ran with it. Not only did we teach a lot this week, but next week, we have a ton of appointments lined up! And then we taught seminary twice and did some guest appearances in Primary. Primary and Seminary. Pure molten AWESOME.
This week was also a pretty sweet miracle week. For Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, our schedules were JAMMED with appointments and exchanges. It was incredible!! Tuesday, we challenged Marta and her daughter, Teresa to baptism and they both accepted! it was such a powerful lesson that Sister Christensen and I had to sit in the car and recover for a second afterwards. The Plan of Salvation means so much to me... and teaching 3 generations at the same time has brought it all into perspective somehow... It's really cool! One of the members we brought on an exchange to teach them is super concerned that they're not going to be ready by April 19th.... It's a little deflating to hear someone not be quite as excited as you are, especially when we're all working towards the same thing. Especially over baptism. And yes, we recognize that they have a long road to walk, but they're not walking it alone. We see them almost every day. If they come to church and read their scriptures and follow the commitments we give them... they can be ready. Even if they're not, that shouldn't discourage us from setting goals. We must always be progressing, but there's a handful of people who don't know how to progress. That's why we use a baptismal date: perspective. So that they know where they're going and they can get there a little faster than just aimlessly footling about in the mists of darkness, praying that maybe, just maybe, one of the specs of mist will make sense and give them direction. How productive is that?
Anyways.
Like I was saying before, we had a crazy week. And so Friday afternoon, after lunch, I opened up to my companion. (See, all week I've grown more and more wired and anxious... even my Friday morning studies were frantic and crazy too! I do this thing where I over-plan my studies and that's "supposed" to help keep me focused, but that day, I was like "I HAVE TO FINISH 2 NEPHI RIGHT NOW SO I CAN STUDY THAT ONE ELDER HOLLAND TALK AND GET INTO PMG!!! RIGHT NOOOOWWWWW" And that's not very conducive to the Spirit, now is it?) So I told Sister Christensen that all I wanted to do was look at pictures of Christ. I thought "maybe if we go to the church, we can walk around and look at those pictures..." but I was torn because I had "the best thing for missionaries is work" going through my head... But for the sake of my effectiveness as a missionary, I needed to stop for just a second. But the thought of napping made me more anxious... so what could I do? (wow, that's a lot of "but"s--are you visualizing the anxiety yet?)
We live with members. And sometimes, members have artwork... sometimes they have the "Reflections of Christ" book by Mark Mabry. As I was venting outloud, I found it. Everything in me stopped and I said "SIster, I'm taking 15 minutes to look at this book." Within seconds of opening the book, I felt warm comfort and relief wash over me. It was like when you're crying and Mom totally engulfs you in a hug after a rotten day. I curled up on a rocking chair and was sucked into these beautiful pictures... I'm telling ya, I hope I get to meet Mark Mabry one day and tell him "sir, you saved me that day. You and the Man you depicted."
And afterwards, I thought "how could Jesus Christ NOT be the promised Messiah? If simply looking at an artist's depiction of what He did could fill me with such... serenity, such love... It's just not possible unless Jesus was who He really said He was."
All y'all, The Savior loves us so much. No matter what we do. He has perfect love and although He will rebuke us when we're being stupid (I doubt He enjoys that...), He LOVES to comfort us. If it weren't for the whole "walk by faith" thing we're supposed to do in life, I would stagger to guess that Christ would LOVE to walk and talk with each of us as He did with His disciples on the road to Emmaus. Personally. Physically. and Lovingly. So many times in my life, I've felt like the Savior was right next to me. I realized this week that I miss Him. I haven't seen y'all in a long time, but I haven't seen Him in a much longer time. It's hard to be away from your Brother for so long.
As hard as this week was, it was so full of tender mercies and crazy random happenstances. We saw a woman painting a fence, got out and, without knowing her name, asked if we could help. We'll probably get to help her at least once a week with her house-fixing projects for a while. And yesterday.... long story short, we might be having a baptism on Saturday. If we do, I'll tell you about it next week.
Because a lot happens in a week. Too much, almost. We get up VERY early in the morning for this kind of stuff.
Have a great week!!
Love, Sister Gunson
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