Moline Week 10 (Davenport week 1)

FAMILIA!

Monday: I thought a lot about you this week. I keep trying to get to the American Pickers shop, and obviously the Lord has other plans for me. Sister Batty and I talked a lot today about the Lord's will for us. Mostly because of the talk we had with Mike last week, we talk about the nature of the Savior. About how much He cares about us. How merciful He is and how much we have grown to trust Him. His side is the side to be on.

Tuesday: Went on exchanges with the Clinton sisters. We go on one every transfer with our Sister Training Leaders. So far, half of mine have been with Sister Cannon. She is adorable and I have sort of followed her around the mission. Working with her is always easy. It felt like home and we just went out and talk to everyone. That day, Sister Batty made a very huge decision to go home from her mission and figure this all out with her head. The four of us cried to see such a wonderful sister go home, but each felt a HUGE amount of peace that this was really what the Lord had in store for her. He knows best. Even if it's not the side you thought you would be on.

Wednesday: packed. Sister Batty. Said goodbye to her favorite member family. Got a call that I would be staying with the Davenport sisters until transfers. The IOWA side is always good to be on.

Thursday: crossed the bridge to my new life in this little town.

Friday: crossed the bridge like 40 times to see people in both areas. Turns out the grass is equally green on this side.

3 sisters. 2 areas. 2 phones. 1 car. 1 work.

My life is an adventure. Always. Always always. And I love it. It was so sad to see Sister Batty go, but being here, I feel that I am exactly where I need to be.

The hugest tender mercy is that I am still in the same zone. A few of the elders have become friends of mine, so I am so happy to have their support through this transition. AND! This zone only has 2 districts so between our 2 phones than we can call ANY missionary in the zone. hahahaha it has been fun.

Sister Stahle and Sister Johannson are my new companions. I shared a car with Stahle in Iowa City so I feel like I was already her companion. And Johnnson has been in a trio before with a sister in the same situation as me so she has eased my stress tremendously and assured me that both areas would be covered. 

The Lord's way is really the best way. I am very happy to be busy and just diving into the work. Too much love to handle. Sometimes I get overwhelmed because I just love EVERYONE! Everyone just needs to listen to the Gospel. Period! hahahahaha! But seriously. :)

Love you,

-Sister "Sumsph"

New companions in Davenport

Moline Week 9, Week 46 mission

8-18-2014

I am doing good. Sister Batty is getting worse and thinking about going home. it has been tough emotionally on her, but she was given a blessing that she had been given a companion to "listen to her and counsel with her" so I am trying to do that.

Not much is happening with the work. Everyone is really slow to progress but I am trying to really focus on the Savior and NOT on myself. I am trying to teach about Him more and think about what He would have me do. It's been good. We have one lady Maria who does not understand ANY of the doctrine, but came to church yesterday, so that is fun. :) I love missionary work.

I love you daddy. thank you for your faithfulness......to the Savior and to your wife. That single thing means more than perhaps anything else you have done for me.

 

Moline Week 8, Mission week 45

Woa. Another 7 days of "sheer awesomeness." (can you guess that movie?) 

The Lord is my Grand Orchestrator. He has perfectly planned out each note, each move we take so that it can all fit together in perfect rhythm of His Masterpiece. How beautiful it is to be one frail instrument in His all-encompassing song!

He taught me a lot this week. Mostly about Him. And how He works with his siblings. Please note:

We finally got everything squared away for Sister Batty to get to the doctor. They did a few basic neurological tests and took a blood sample to run some teats. We hear tomorrow if they found any "simple" answers to her headaches....and if not....well.....she could be on a plane in 5 short weeks. She is a champion. She had many talks with me this week about doing what the Lord wants for her. Sometimes He requires us to do hard things. Why would He do that? 

This week we listened to a talk by Elder Holland about how we, as His disciples, MUST experience and understand what it truly means that we "have a Savior." It means He knows us. Right now. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And that means that at one point we knew Him. We talked with Him, we talked about earth and about what we would face. We talked about how it would be hard. And then we chose to come. 

I thought a lot about Ben and I. And how we both left our home at about the same time, knowing we were taking upon ourselves a very hard and exhausting and grueling task.

And that task is to bring people to Christ so they can know Him like we do. As missionaries, we spend all day thinking and talking and learning and testifying of the Savior and what He does. I don't think I do that enough, honestly.

We saw Mike this week. The son of the lady we live with. He reminds me very much of Alexis. I feel like I get to talk to her all the time. (Sorry you never get to talk back to me, Lex!!!!!!!) We just sat talking to him for about an hour and a half, nothing to do with the church, for he hasn't been a part of it for many years. The entire time, the sentence from the subject line of this email was so thoroughly imprinted on my mind that it almost yelped out of me several times. Instead, I just listened. Listen to his life and his stories and his ideas and his feelings. I hardly said two words. I left that night with a new love for my testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because I know that there is no way in the world that the Atonement could not have taken place, my life is beautiful. I can be relieved of burden and have hope in the only thing that is firm in this world. What does ANY of this matter if we don't know the Savior?

I'm afraid I don't talk about it enough. Often times I am just devastated by the fact that people reject the Light and Goodness of the world. I want to be better. I want to testify to every person on the street that the Lord really knows them. And is watching the conversation that we are currently having: and that if they listen to us He will show them more about Him then they ever thought existed in this world. 

Who cares about the rules and the how-tos and the whereabouts of religion and church and preaching if no one really understands that they knew the Savior once before and He is trying everyday to re-kindle the memory we had of Him so that we can have a personal relationship with Him and truly know who He is and how He works with His siblings. 

A lot of the times, Sister Batty laughs at my sad attempt to teach people this concept. My words never come the way I want them to. It's incredibly frustrating when you see the Lord reach out to people and you watch them turn their back to your message.

But it's true. 

And that's why we do it. As our small and somewhat pathetic attempt through our imperfect little 18-22 year old minds to show that the Lord loves them.

Pa--- and Be--- and Ma--- were all "busy" this week so we taught hardly at all. :( Sad face. Is anyone too busy to feel the Lords love for them by learning about his sacrifice and how all things are made fair through it? He gave us agency, and then volunteered to be our Redeemer, so that we could have the possibility to make mistakes. So we could try. And fail. And that all of that would be perfectly fine, if we know Him in the end.

This is my testimony after months and months of worry about the ones I love, a blessing I got this week, and Elder Christofferson's talk in the Ensign this month. :) The three best ways to learn, in my opinion. :)

Love, from Moline, Illinois:

Sister Sumsion

Elder Christophersons Ensign August 2014 talk:

 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/08/why-we-share-the-gospel?lang=eng