Cedar falls - week 7. Second baptism

Feb 17, 2014
Hello! 

Sorry (to email so late in the day): our cars got grounded because it snowed like 6 inches! Once the snow plows made it at like noon we were good, so here I am! My companion is from San Diego so she is HATING life right now, but I was thinking all morning how much I would love a little family ski day in Jupiter Bowl.....then I log on to pictures of you skiing with the Framptons: SO JEALOUS!!!!! Loved the pictures, though: thank you!

I LOVE MY LIFE! This week was full of growing experiences and tender mercies from the Lord and I absolutely loved it. My brain is super jumbled today, so welcome to the mind of a missionary via some bullet points:

Updates:

1. I'm still in Cedar Falls! With Sister Monroe! I am so happy: I love her. It has been nice this week to realize that we are kinda over the getting-to-know-you part of the relationship and are onto the working-together-more-efficiently stage. I don't think I ever hit that in Iowa City #1 because I was so amazed by sister Lloyd that I just spent the whole time learning from her every word. #2 because second transfer there, we got Sister Murphy, so our teaching never really hit a routine.

2. J--- GOT BAPTIZED! I haven't talked about her a lot to you yet, but she is AMAZING. It didn't hit me that it was happening until she was in the water. She is 51 but has had a ROUGH past. She has been through so much and wanted a new life SO badly. She quit smoking and now is CLEAN!!!!! This is the second baptism I have had on my mission, and it doesn't even feel like I did anything. I just showed up. She wanted it so badly. It was amazing to witness.....but also very very stressful. Addictions SUCK. I think I want to study about them more when I get home. (side note: It's really frustrating as a psych major to not have access the the reference books I normally have. I have really tried this week to just focus on the principles of the Gospel because I know those are the things that change us quicker than any earthly theories could......that is my favorite quote by Elder Packer.)

3. WE MOVED!!!!!! This week we had the biggest tender mercy ever: on friday Sister Monroe and I woke up in our old dumpy house, just wishing that we could move to our new place. We called the office with our last glimmer of hope and they said the keys were ready for us: a week early!!! We dropped EVERYTHING that day and moved in! Luckily, we had like zero appointments. It was the biggest tender mercy from the Lord. OUR NEW APARTMENT IS BEAUTIFUL! I will send pictures next week!

Well, today marks a whole 2 months of happiness I have had since I said goodbye to Sister Lloyd. I feel proud, in a way, that I have done so much growing since she left. But I still miss her like never before. 

~Sister Chloé Michelle Sumsion~