WHAT A WEEK!!!
I will begin by telling you about the conference with Elder Ringwood. From the seventy. It was absolutely amazing! I had been praying and studying to prepare for the conference, and I feel like every word that came out of peoples mouths that day addressed exactly what had been on my mind! The main thing I got out of it is the more we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more Jesus Christ helps us live better lives! And I felt the great urgency of this work. I was ready to get to work again just like I felt after leaving the MTC!
I was also blessed to be able to have an interview with Elder Ringwood after the conference! We talked about my mission and my family and President Welch and things I learned from the conference. He loves Idaho. He told me he would trade any 2 missionaries from Utah for 1 from Idaho haha. At the end I asked him a question and to answer it, he talked about exhaustion exhilaration. He talked about how the best kind of days are those when you get home at night and you are SO exhausted because you have given it your ALL, and even though all you want to do is fall into your futon, it is such an exhilarating feeling, and all you can do is rejoice. He taught me how I can plan and work better in order to feel that feeling even better. It was a great interview!
Right after the conference, though, things kind of took a twist. I was pulled into a room with the assistants and President and his wife and a few other sister missionaries, and I was told that to accommodate a sister returning home early and the need to train a new sister training leader, I would be transferring!!!! Bahhh!! I do not know if you have sensed from previous letters how much I LOVED Yonago, but I will tell you, it really hurt hearing I would be leaving!! After that I had two days to get back to Yonago, call everybody and meet as many people as possible to say goodbye, and then I was out of there! It was painful saying goodbye and a huge shock to my system (seriously my body reacted...).
One goodbye that I am grateful for was with Nakada shimai. She is the bright less active member who has been completely changing since we first visited her in June. She expressed very deep thanks for coming to her door and showing her so much love and helping her learn gospel things again. She talked about how she had been thinking about church and wanting to change a lot, and how when we came to her, it was perfect timing. She also expressed her desire to change and feel the happiness she felt 30 years ago when she was at church. We had a great lesson about the atonement and Jesus Christ and I do not think my testimony of the atonement had ever been more sure than in that lesson. ( I am grateful for the Spirit.) By the end of the lesson, she made a goal and committed to return to church!!
Anyway, now I am here in Niihama, part of a little island south of the mainland.
Let me tell you about Niihama. This area is the most countryside of all the ones I have been in. There is never anybody on the streets! Just lots of rice fields and factories. It is a tiny little branch with less than 20 members coming to church each week. It made learning all of their names on the first day pretty easy. But they only have Relief Society/Priesthood once a month here, so church was only 2 hours! And one of the 2 primary kids turns 12 next month. It is so different than Yonago!
I had kind of a Laman/Lemuel moment. I was sitting feeling sorry for myself. Sad that I had to leave such a wonderful ward family and without even having time to say goodbye coming to this little old place on another island. BUT THEN. The Lord helped me overcome that. He blessed me with such a calm assuring feeling. He helped me feel a lot of love for this area and the people here. I know this is where I need to be now and I am excited to see how the Lord will use me to bless the branch members and investigators here! It is going to be a FABULOUS time of my mission, I know that!
One thing that I know more than anything else is that God loves His children. I feel that no matter where I am and what is happening. It is a privilege to be serving them as a missionary.
I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!
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