Week 31

I honestly don't even know where to start this week. Not trying to be dramatic, but this week really has been the hardest week I have had on my mission by far. In fact, I can't think of many weeks I have ever had that were harder than this last week. It was one of those times where you are just like, wow I could not take anything else - and then it gets a whoooole lot worse. It seems like every person we teach is struggling with something so hard and so beyond my ability to help them. I can't really say what happened this week because these are really people with real problems. But everyone's struggles came to a climax this week and pulled Sister Ferre and I into it. It wouldn't be so hard if I didn't love these people so much. Life would be a lot easier if I didn't feel like I was going through their trials with them. I guess that is how the Savior must have felt to some small degree. I read a talk this week that said the Savior could have known how we feel by revelation, but he chose to suffer and go through our pains and struggles and heartaches. I am in no way comparing Sister Ferre and myself to the Savior, but I think that this experience has helped me understand the Atonement to a new degree. We kept thinking that this week must be preparing us for something. I'm not sure if I will ever find out if that is true, but I do feel stronger. I don't remember who said it or exactly what they said, but a woman in general conference once said - speaking of an experience talking to a friend going through a really hard time - I don't know your situation or how you feel, but I do know the atonement, and because I know the Atonement I feel like I can help you. Or something along those lines…

I know I could not have gotten through this week without sister Ferre. We are so close and this week has just brought us to a new level of closeness. I can't imagine having any other companion, and I am a little stressed by the fact that I will obviously have a new companion next transfer. But I know that everything will work out. God knows us, he knows the people we teach, and he will get me through anything. I trust God and know he wouldn't put me through anything I couldn't handle or didn't need to go through. I know my savior lives and I will preach that during the toughest times.

The girl in the middle is getting baptized :)

Along with an amazingly supportive companion I know I wouldn't have been able to make it through this week without the leaders that I have. I have a new love and respect for my mission president, President Sweeney, who we called multiple times this week to give us advice with things that were frankly above our maturity level. We also ended up driving to Scottsdale to meet with him for a meeting filled with a lot of crying on our part and a lot of kindness and love on his part. I also got the chance to work a lot closer with the bishop this week as he worked with us to help the people in this area. He just got called as bishop two weeks ago and is so amazing and understanding.

Along with the high emotions of the week, we did find a lot of reasons to laugh (sometimes out of stress, but mostly out of joy) and be happy. We found a new investigator this week that is AMAZING. It's kind of a cool story how we found her. We knocked on her door about two weeks ago and talked to her roommate who was mildly to not at all interested. Then we got a self-referral on our iPads for someone who wanted a bible. Luckily, we had one in our car, so we drove to the address and realized we had already contacted there. But anyway, we met the woman and gave her the bible and we were able to set up a time to meet for the next day. We have now had a lesson with her four days in a row – every day since meeting her. She is so excited about the church and says how she knows it is true because of the way she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon and from the circumstances we found her in. She came to church and mostly just cried the whole time (happy, spirit cry). She even got her own ride and stayed the whole time, which never happens. She has also started inviting people to her baptism already, which is just preshy. It is amazing how God blesses you when you are going through hard trials - I have seen that this week in my life as well as those we are teaching.

I also realized that I really gained my testimony of the church backwards, starting with the living prophet and ending with Christ. I think this week has taught me that the most important thing to know is that God is real, Christ is our savior, and then we can gain a testimony of the restoration of the gospel. I don't know how to explain it, because I don't feel like I lost my testimony ever, but I feel like I have regained my testimony from the ground up this week. Really just feeling that there is a God. The best part about this week was that at the end of it, sister Ferre apologized and said she had been praying for a humbling experience...Haha, oh man did we get one! But I know it was for the best and that my faith is stronger and I love these people even more.

Me and Sister Ferre

Okay, this email is so scatter brained - sorry about that. But here are some more upbeat things that happened this week:

We went to this Tongan family’s house for a pig roast. Like a legit pig that had just been killed with a stick through it slowly being turned by a large Tongan man over a fire. Our dinner conversation consisted of multiple stories of people eating their pets...and at the end the kids did the Hakka for us. It was sweet.

We went to a lesson this week and the members explained that the only way they could describe sister Ferre's personality was "yummy" and mine is “hippy.” It made us laugh SO hard. The lesson ended up being more for us (happened right after our trip to Scottsdale) than it probably helped them.

Sister Ferre also started this weird thing where she puts the food that she doesn't want to eat on my pillow. There is no way to explain this story over email that won't make us just seem so weird, but for some reason it made us laugh so hard every time. I think it started off because it was so gross that we started laughing and then it just escalated from there.

Anyway, as hard as this week was it really did help me gain perspective and helped me grow. This week will be better!

I love you all,

Hermana Doxey