Hello family!
How are you! It sounds like your vacation week has been great! Our week has been pretty crazy. The missionaries here are switching around apartments...and so we have been living with the other sisters in Brussels for a week and its been pretty crazy. In addition the apartment we were staying in for the week's water heater and heating system broke...so its been a very cold week involving lots of hair washing parties with boiling pots of water on the stove...and nightly planning in front of the open stove.
Because of all of this apartment craziness Soeur Murray brought up what it would have been like to be some of the first missionaries who didn't even know where they were going to sleep that night or what they were going to eat. But they always had the faith to just keep going. Although this week at points I wont lie, I got pretty worn down, exhausted and pretty lacking in faith and opptimism, the Lord still took care of us. We had three new amis this week and they are amazing!
Because of all of this apartment craziness Soeur Murray brought up what it would have been like to be some of the first missionaries who didn't even know where they were going to sleep that night or what they were going to eat. But they always had the faith to just keep going. Although this week at points I wont lie, I got pretty worn down, exhausted and pretty lacking in faith and opptimism, the Lord still took care of us. We had three new amis this week and they are amazing!
One couple is named is Norah and Dizzy. Last week Soeur Murray woke up and felt like we needed to go contacting on a certain street. We went there and Norah was getting stuff out of her car. We stopped to talk with her and she invited us back for this week, after Christmas. When we got there this week, not only was she actually there, but her husband was there waiting for us as well! The rendezvous was amazing, they are really open to everything and it was so exciting! And they have three adorable little girls. We are so excited for this family!
This week also had some disappointments. We saw the part member family that we've been working with for the first time in two weeks. And something has happened to the dad. He was completely back to the beginning and told us he never felt the spirit with us, it was just his emotions playing tricks on him. It was heart breaking. Keep him in your prayers.
Because this week was pretty crazy I didn't really have time to think about New Years and everything. But then New Years Eve we were all sitting around the open stove wrapped in blankets and I had one of those "never in a million years did I think I would be here" moments...and I thought about how amazing this year has been...and how excited I am for this one to come! Our stake president's wife bore her testimony this week and she spoke about her son who just got home from his mission and she said that as he bore his testimony she asked herself "why do I love him so much?"...and she realized that its because she has sacrificed for him. And as she thought about that...that we sacrifice for those we love...her thoughts turned to the Savoir...and all that He sacrificed because he loves us. Well that turned my thoughts to my mission...and all that Ive sacrificed.
This week I sacrificed good nights of sleep, warmth, and showers...but just had to just keep working through it. I realized these are not big things...and people are often asked to sacrifice so much more, but this week it just felt like alot. And the harder this week has been, and the more I felt like I had to give just to keep going, the more I honestly felt the Savoir picking up my slack. He's helped us somehow still have little miracles this week...maybe like helping people to not be scared of us even though we haven't showered in a week, or even just having the courage to get out of bed in the morning in a freezing apartment. And when an investigator has completely rejected those spiritual experiences you know he has had, you still have hope for him. If you cant tell Im in one of those exhausted, rambling moods. The summary is- I love my mission. I've sacrificed. I've asked my family to sacrifice...but because of this I love it here. I love the people...and right in this moment I don't want to be anywhere else. I hate to think in 2012 my mission ends, rather than begins like in 2011...but I know I have so much more to do and learn...so we won't think about those ending moments.
I'll just think about all I have left to still give!
Love you all!
Bonne Année!
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