June 15, 2014

Well... this is my last email that you will receive from me as a missionary. This week has been really strange, pretty difficult for me honestly. Filled with lots of questions like, "Are you excited to leave?" and "what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" (always answered with: hug my brother). I have experienced so much as a missionary. So many life-lessons learned, so many miracles seen, yet I'm still imperfect after this year and half (and that won't be changing any time soon). No one can really understand the lows a missionary reaches, unless you have served a mission. Satan works on missionaries possibly harder than those you are teaching. On the flip side, because we have experienced such deep lows, we experience the most intense joy I have ever experienced. The feeling of finding someone new to teach, someone that the Lord has prepared for His missionaries to find, is the most elating feeling I have ever experienced. "Have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we since the world began." THAT is what being a missionary feels like.

We had a fireside on Sunday night, and it was a tri-stake event. David Hatch, a world-renowned pianist, played with a few of his child-prodegy students. WOW!! The spirit was so strong, it was just amazing, indescribable. Right before the event started, my companion Sister Patterson said, "Look! Sister Woodbury and her companion just walked in!" There were probably 500 people there, and not enough time to get through them all before the event started. So afterwards we shot out of our seats and ran to the back of the gym and i snuck up behind my old companion and tapped her on the shoulder. The second she turned around we embraced, and I just started bawling, i couldn't let go of her and i couldn't stop crying. She said, "i was praying so hard you would be here! There are so many people here, I just asked Heavenly Father!!" That is what Ammon felt like in the Book of Mormon, I think. She was sitting next to her companion who had just come from the MTC 3 weeks ago, and they had their investigator their that is getting baptized at the end of the month. Wow, her success, the person she has become, the missionary she is choosing to be.. that is reason for my heart to rejoice. (For those of you that don't remember, I trained Sister Woodbury.)

Although I have experienced so much joy as a missionary, I am just so exhausted. I don't have a doubt in my mind that I have put my heart, might, mind and strength into the work of the Lord, and I feel good about it. I will so miss being a missionary, but the thing I have come to realize is that committing to be a missionary 1.5 years ago, signing that paper and sending it into the prophet of the Lord, was actually an eternal commitment, not just one that is over after a year and a half. Hopefully I can live worthy of that.

I know that this gospel is true with all my heart. As Ammon says, "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."
i love you all,
Sister Rose

June 9, 2014

This week we had a lesson with the investigator that came to the baptism and cried really hard. We talked about the plan of salvation. We've been using the Ensign magazine in our teaching lately, and got to share with her a great talk that really summarizes our purpose in our life on earth, how we must persevere. (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/04/the-blessings-of-perseverance?lang=eng) In it, the article talks about how the Lord needs us to keep going in this life, and in a sense, he says, "I love you, I sustain you, I am with you. Don’t give up. Repent and persevere on the path I have shown you. If you do, I promise you that we will see each other again in our heavenly home." What a great promise :)  In the lesson, she told us her mom got after her for coming to church and taking the lessons seriously. And guess what? SHE STOOD UP FOR IT! She told her mom that she felt good at church, and she learned a lot there, and that she was going to "follow her heart." Wow, that is amazing!! We feel so lucky to know her :)

Also, VIVIANA IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!! We were on exchanges and Sister Patterson was there with Sister Hammon and a Mexican member from Wellington to translate. They had planned to talk about faith, and guess what? Viviana had 'randomly' opened up to Ether 12 (all about faith) before they came when she was reading her scriptures. Sister Patterson powerfully asked her if she wanted to show her faith in Christ, and she said yes. She then committed to baptism. Wow, we are so happy for her!! This is a great step for her and her family, to be eternal :)

Also... on exchanges... the Sister missionary i was with took me to a woman that i had never heard about before. We sit down, and she's a bit eccentric. She begins to tell me that she put her head under the water years ago when she was at a hot pool and contracted meningitis long ago. She then grabbed my hand, picked my pointer finger out, and bowed her head. She started dragging my pointer finger around her scalp, through her short brown hair. Then she came it to... there was a HOLE in her SKULL!!  She stuck my finger in it, then proceeded to look for the OTHER TWO HOLES  as i looked at the sister missionary, about to vomit. Okay, if i was ever in that area and needed my day to get brightened, i would go visit this woman. Only a insanely funny person would do that to someone they just met. I hope i never forget that visual.

The Harbour ward had me bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting to say my goodbyes. I only cried a little bit, so that's good. This week is going to be crazy.

We are going on exchanges this week, and i get to help a sister missionary that is struggling with her testimony. Wow, i love my calling. This is the kind of thing that i love to do; i love to really, really help people, like the way that they actually need and want it - and spiritually helping is the only way that will actually give them lasting peace. I love being a missionary, i love my calling as a sister training leader.

love,
Sister Rose

June 2, 2014

Wow, this weekend was crazy! 3 people we were teaching got baptized!! In the morning we saw a Chinese girl enter the waters of baptism. The spirit was so strong there, it was a sweet, comforting feeling. Quite indescribable. We got to sing at the baptism, which was fun. (minus me losing it during the song.. i'm sorry! the spirit was just too strong!) When Jocelyn entered the waters, the spirit just descended; you could feel that the Lord had accepted this ordinance. We went with her into the changing room, and as she was changing in the stall, we asked her how she felt. She didn't answer, and we just stood there for a while. A bit later we asked again. She said, "I'm crying but I don't know why." Even in the bathroom we could feel the spirit. We made our way back into the chapel, and heard another talk about the Holy Ghost, and then Jocelyn got up to bear her testimony. We heard this sobbing behind us; it was our investigator that had come. She was literally bawling at the feelings of the spirit she was experiencing. Wow, one of the coolest things in the world.

We did service that day, visited some people, and then headed up to Wainuomata for a Samoan/Nuean family to be baptized!! A mother and her daughter; her oldest daughter was baptized a few months ago, and her husband has just recently started attending church again, after years of absence. This baptism had more of a family atmosphere, which was kind of fun; lots of kids, all of us trying our best to keep them reverent. What a special thing to see the family be united in the gospel, at long last :)

On Sunday we had to go on splits because the confirmations were at the same time! (that's a great problem to have haha) The confirmation i attended was beautiful, and the investigator that came to the baptism was at church that day! Later on in church, there was another person there that wasn't a member; we asked if she would like to meet with us later that week and she was really shy. The first investigator i mentioned, invited this girl to her lesson that week at her house so she wouldn't feel shy about learning alone. Whaaaaahhhh??? This investigator is already a missionary!! :)

life is good :) But just so you know, getting to baptism is not easy, even for the missionaries. We literally felt like Satan attacked us with trials and temptations this week; if he couldn't get the people getting baptized, he tried for the people who were helping them get there. So annoying.

i love you all!!
Sister Rose