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

Moline week 7 - hashtags...

WOA! What a week! Time here in the mission is so precious/slow moving. I can't even begin to tell you all the things that happen in one day and yet here I am at the computer like, "Is it already Monday?"

Well, here's the life of Sister Sumsion this week:

My Companero:

Is a CHAMPION! "Holy CRAP, Dad." Like seriously. We got a call this week from the mission nurse about Sister Batty's headache. It's like a constant one that never stops. It's crazy. So we go into the doctor and he's like "yeah, that's strange. have you tried pain pills?" Batty: "Yes, nothing works. I feel like it's something else that's causing them." Doctor: "Ok. Sweet. You need an MRI." So we schedule one. Mission nurse calls and says if you need an MRI, then you might need to go home. Batty is a champion and prays hard core and gets a blessing and tries everything she can to conform her will to the Lords. After days of waiting, MRI indeed DOES get approved. MRI scheduled for a few weeks from now. #NUTS!!!!!!!! Sometimes I pray really hard for her: and other times I am so peaceful about it because she is so great and is so prayerful about it and feels like the Lord is leading her and OH MY WORD she is amazing. What a trooper! So much faith!

My mind:

I swear sometimes I have short term memory loss. The Lord is so good to me and the next day I am SUPER exhausted and the only thing I can think is "sleepsleepsleepsleep" and then I pray and I'm like, "um......what am I supposed to do?" And the Lord answers me super gently and amazingly. Happened twice this week. He knows everything! It's so cool! And He's so nice about it. #mostpatientparentEVER

My heart: 

Sister Hannah Rackham emailed me and all week I had a few Jeru flashbacks and we did our first service (hopefully many more to come) at the public library and I was overwhelmed with how much I loved my life. They are things I miss (Hannah and books), but they are still part of me and sometimes I forget that. So I had this huge "I LOVE MY PEOPLE" party. It was kind of hard, but some comforting words came to me and I determined to do MUCH better at writing the ones I love.......hense this email to my closest people. I MISS YOU SO MUCH!

My studies:

because of said experiences post-Sumsion-tiredness, I had a huge attitude change and my morning studies are slowly improving. POSITIVE ATTITUDE CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!! Sister Batty's headache was so bad one day that we stayed in and I had the coolest studies ever thanks to D&C 123 and my trainer. #stillbeingtrainedbyLloyd Sometimes you get so wrapped up in worry about righteous causes that you forget how AWESOME you are and how awesome the Lord has made your life. #Gratitudechangeseverthing

The Work:

So Friday after attitude change but before tiredness went away, I randomly felt like talking to this girl who was sitting outside. Her name in Ca---: her daugther's name is Ja---. She reminds me of Summer, who's daugther's name was Jaden. Freaking out. Want to teach her family SO BAD! The Lord is so merciful. He sends us super awesome people in our lives!!!!!! So then we teach this LA lady and she just starts bearing her testimony of the Gospel and answers ALL of my prayers and I don't even feel tired and I'm crying like OH MY WORD THE LORD LOVES ME!

The Truth:

So I'm feeling relieved after awesome stay-home study and LA-pep-talk and then we teach Ni--- and I about keel over with happiness. Ni--- was baptized right before I got to Moline: she's 20. She has truly been changed by the Gospel. We went in thinking we would teach her about keeping covenants and instead she teaches me about how to feel the Spirit. I was FREAKING OUT like, "ohmywordhowcananyonebethisawesome?" She really knows how to feel the Spirit. She told us these two experiences she had this past week and "feeling good" about going into this coffee shop and then she met this super awesome Christian lady and another about "wanting to get away" from the way a co-worker was talking and about how she studied them out and planted a seed of faith and OHMYWORDWHYAMINOTMOREFAITHFULTOMYFEELINGSFROMHEAVENLYFATHER?!?!?!?

My district:

is a huge family. The elders here are hilarious and I laughed SO hard at district meeting and it felt SO good. A few of the elders transferred this week, but my favorites (Elders Wright, Sellers, and Henderson) are still here. #RockISlandersforlife Also: Sister Weist and I had an epiphany about how we grew up in the same ward together on Michigan avenue and then she finished her mission wednesday and then on sunday she brought her mom to church and they were in the hallway and were like "CHLOE" and I was freaking out hearing my first name and seeing people from home. Crazy!!!!!!!!!

My family:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAMMY!!!!!!!! 

Grandparents: I often wish I could call and talk to you. I love you 4 so much!!!!! Thank you for all you have done for this family because of your testimonies and hard work! I love you so much!

So yeah: Moral of the story is the Lord is really merciful. And also that I missed you people a lot this week. Please know I care about you and constantly beat myself up that I can't communicate the extent of that to you. Thank you for all your words to me: I hope some day I can make it up to you how much they help me and strengthen me. Thank you for being one of the channels of the mercy and love of the Lord in my life.

-Sister Chloe Michelle Sumsion

Shoutouts:

Can you tell the Barbers thank you for sending a note with some cute quotes: they are being used around the apartment and given to investigators and members. so great!

Moline with Sis. Wiest  (family friend) and Sis Batty