"I've Always Been Okay"

Weeeeeelllll..... This week was a glass cage of emotion. 

So, chronologically speaking. Zone Conference was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I got to see my old zone, most of my best mission friends are in that zone. It was really fun to talk to my old buddies and GUESS WHAT LANTANA WARD PROVIDED LUNCH SO I SAW A TON MORE PEOPLE! I talked to Sister Simmons and the way we were talking affirmed to me that I will probably be giving my homecoming talk in the Lantana ward... move my records, that's where I belong. Sister Simmons said that they're all proud of me and it just made me feel like I had family here in town. Relatively speaking, Lewisville is 20.8 miles exactly from Euless. 

I'm sure you're all wondering about these extension rumors.... Mom, you'll be happy to know that I'm not getting one. I was NOT HAPPY. I ran to President right after Zone Conference and said "Guess what time it is!" and he showed me his ministerial certificate and said "this is the only calling with a release date, Sister Gunson, reap while the day lasts." So... Even with a good deal of time left, this week felt like I was dying. I had to deal with the fact that my mission will have to end and that just made me really really sad. But enough of this mess, good things happened this week! 

We (with the Elders with whom we split Euless) gave a church tour/ interview with someone we met at the library. He's doing a "photographic essay on religious diversity in the Euless community." The interview went really well!! He was very polite, asked a lot of Book of Mormon questions and gave us complete editorial rights to everything we said... so the first thing we said was "WE ARE NOT THE CHURCH'S PR.... We're just kinda Christ's PR." 

We also got an AWESOME REFERALLl!! "El Salvador" had a friend getting baptized this past weekend in Detroit. She knew this friend in High School and this friend had done some pretty hardcore stuff... so inspired by his total turnaround, she asked missionaries to stop by. We took one of our Ward Missionaries with us, Sister Norton, and it was AWESOME. Just.... dah!! She was like "Can I read the Book of Mormon?? Can I come to church??" before we ever offered! Honestly, we didn't have time to extend invitations, she was asking us about it before we said anything!! 

We were also able to get in contact with a lot of new people. Our teaching pool went from a puddle to a pond this week!! So this week, we could probably turn it into a pool if we keep working hard!! 

Funny story, so, yesterday, Elder Sheeran and I were asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting... 5 minutes before the actual meeting started.... I talked about the Plan of Salvation and how much comfort it brought to my life. A lot of people said that they liked it, so for writing a talk during opening exercises, it couldn't have been so bad!! 

"True Grit", as usual, continues to strengthen my own testimony. She's such a solid individual, there's no better nickname for her. For once, she had a calm, quiet week. Nobody bothered her, her ex left her alone, and she quit smoking for good. We taught her tithing and she interrupted us talking about the blessings of tithing by saying "yeah, I've been thinking a lot about tithing and stuff and I don't want to go into it with the expectation that I'm going to get something in return, I don't want to do it that way. The way I see it, I'm coming into a family and I gotta do my part in that family. Paying the 10% isn't gonna be a problem for me. I'm a part of this family, and I love my family." 

She also said "when I get to Heaven, I'm gonna ask God for like 30 seconds with the Devil. That's all I need." I said "Um... You know he doesn't have a body, right?" she paused and said "I'll figure it out." True Grit would be the only person to figure out how to beat the crap out of the adversary. 

In closing, she said "I know I'm gonna be okay, I've always been okay. I'm a very strong individual." And I just love her confidence. She has confidence in the Lord and that gives her confidence in herself. I think about my life and I know I'll always be okay too. SO why worry? Worrying is just prepping for failure and that's no way to live a life of intention (as my good friend Bro. Vigil would say). 

I love my mission. 

Have a great week! 

Sister Gunson