Ours has been a
little crazy, but nonetheless good!
Let's start with our
crazy adventure of the week, right at the beginning on Tuesday morning!
I just gotta
say...that you truly don't appreciate the things you have...until you lock
yourself out of the apartment for 6 hours with only the exercise clothes you're
wearing and your nametag.
We go outside and
run each morning as soon as we wake up, and we didn't realize that we forgot to
grab the keys until we heard the click of the locked door shut behind us.
...oops...
It being 6:30 in the
morning, I decided that we should just go on our run, because all our neighbors
that had our landlords number were still fast asleep. We weren't afraid to take
our dear sweet time running that morning, and even by the time we got back, we
had to wait for 45 minutes until we forced ourselves to knock on their door.
Angry, sleepy tones greeted us at the door and after snagging their phone for a
second to leave a voice message for our landlord, we quickly took our places
back on our cement patio.
[2 hours later]
The hardest thing
was that we literally couldn't do anything! We had nothing with us, and the
only way we could know the time was was by peering through our kitchen window
and looking on the clock above our stove.
It was almost 9am
when we decided that we just needed to walk to the Spanish sisters apartment
and see if they could help us. We had a lesson at 10am!
We began walking and
with the plentiful time we had on our hands, Sister Teters and I had many
conversations and played many games! We were laughing about the whole situation
the entire time, so overall, we had a good time!
We knocked on the
hermanas door and they opened it with so much concern on their faces. As soon
as we told them we had been outside for the past almost 4 hours, they rushed us
in their apartment, pulling out every breakfast food they had. So sweet!
We both borrowed
clothes and shoes from the hermanas and with only copies of the Book of Mormon
and a notepad and pen (just in case we needed to write something down) we went
to our morning lesson! It was so funny how unprepared we felt, but hey, it went
pretty well! We met with Dorothy, someone we are currently teaching, and we
read in the Book of Mormon!
We had some other
fun things this past week too! We had exchanges with the sisters in Stayton and
I was with Sister Cloward! She is a newer missionary and has such a fire for
the gospel! She is so sincere and open and I loved being with her!
We had a ton of
member lessons this past week that allowed me to get to know the ward and it
was so fun for me! My companion, Sister Teters, is actually going home this
week, so it was super good for me to get to know the area and the people here
as much as I could before she leaves!
My new companion
will be Sister Morgan, who I already know and love! She is awesome and I'm
excited for all the miracles we will see together!
I have a testimony
of the "immediate goodness of God". There are very few things that
are easy about being a missionary and it is so easy to get done on yourself.
There may even be times, no matter what stage of life you're in, where you
don't think you can go farther.
I know I have
reached this point on more than one account on my mission, but I can promise,
that the "immediate goodness of God" does come.
In Mosiah 24, the
people at that time are under bondage and are facing many hard things-
physical, mental, and spiritual. They beg God for relief and sustaining energy,
and they receive their answer in verse 14:
"And I will
also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot
feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that
ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety
that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."
The people were not
delivered from their trials immediately, but rather, they were immediately
blessed with the strength to endure.
I can definitely
testify from the experiences of my own life, that He has not immediately
delivered me from the things I find to be so hard in my life. How would I
expect to learn and grow if I was?
We can't grow in the
comfort zone and there is no comfort in the growing zone. That's just how it is
because He wants us to grow and learn, and He knows that in order for that to
happen, we need to trip and experience failure and sadness. But what He has in
store for us as we take each step in faith...is the gift of eternal, glorious
joy.
And He has it in His
hands, ready to give to us.
I have felt the
immense power of life-sustaining goodness of God. It is real and I have felt it
through prayer. I love my Savior and the sacrifice He made and the role He has
as the Only Begotten so that I could have that daily communication with God. What
a glorious gift prayer is! I encourage all of you to reach out to a Father who
is always there for you, and loves you unconditionally. He is always there to
listen!
I love all of you
and am so thankful for your support! Have a wonderful week!
Sister McCown
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