Hello friends and family!
This is it. I leave tomorrow morning for Arkansas! The next
time I email, I will have met my mission president, as well as my trainer and
will have been in my new area for a couple of days. Sister Allison and I are so
excited to get up at 3 in the morning to catch our flight.
This week we went to a workshop/class where we watched a
video by Elder Bednar. In it he said, "It is not enough to be on a
mission. You have to be and become a missionary." This hit me kind of hard, because for the
longest time, I've been looking forward to going on a mission, but I've never
really thought about being a missionary. At the MTC, the theme is "Become
as He is." Who else do we have as an example for the perfect missionary?
In class we talked about faith, and how it was the
antithesis of fear. Our teacher Sister Severe then invited us to take one of
our fears and give it to the Lord in faith because fear and faith can not exist
at the same time. I'd invite each of you to do the same thing. Take the thing
that you're most worried about and offer it to the lord. Do as the
Anti-Nephi-Lehi's did when they buried their weapons of war. Put trust in the
lord that he can and will orchestrate things for your good.
One of the TRC lessons that we taught was with a girl named
Vanessa. In our last lesson with her, I don't remember a word I said. Towards
the end of the lesson, Vanessa said that she wanted to feel the way she did
during that lesson all the time. She told us that every time she was with us
she felt happy and at peace. Just like we were 94.7% sure Ethan was a member,
we're 94.7% sure that Vanessa is a nonmember. We left the lesson floating with
joy. That's really the only way to describe it. As we were walking away, I had
the thought that if I never saw any more success in my mission, if no one else
came closer to Christ through my efforts, then it would all be worth it,
because Vanessa did. The thought came completely out of nowhere, but I knew it
was true. I haven't even left the MTC yet, and already, the next 18 months are
a success because of the one.
Last night, we had to say goodbye to our district, because
some of them were leaving this morning. It's absolutely crazy how much I grew
to love them in the three weeks that I've been here. I absolutely think that I
have 9 eternal friends. I hated that to say goodbye, we just shook hands. I
wanted so much to hug them goodbye, and all of you know how much I like hugs.
As they were walking away, Elder Felt called, "God be with you 'till we
meet again." I started to cry because it's very likely that the next time
I will see them all again is when we're at "Jesus' feet." It was a
very sad moment.
The subject line is a quote from Sister Severe. Any time
anyone says something memorable or especially profound, she says, "Someday,
I am going to embroider that on a pillow."
That's all I have for this week.
God is Good!
~Sister Slade
Pictures!
1. Sister Allison and I at the temple last week.
2. Us sisters in our mission t-shirts before exercise time.
3. Sister Law, Sister Ho Ching, Sister Allison and I. They
were our roommates for the last 3 weeks.
4. My favorite tapestry in the MTC. It's moses leading Israel through the Red Sea.
5. Elder Felt made me an origami dragon.
6. Sister Allison drew us
No comments:
Post a Comment