HA! I did it! I
am sending you my last email (probably) from the mission field. And thus It is
almost finished - one more week and a half to go. It's hard to tell you what a
mission is like without giving you a list of very cliché sayings. I could go on
forever telling you things, but I would rather show you. My mission is a
montage of moments that's made up a clearer picture of life, the gospel, the
Savior, and myself. These are some things that I've seen, felt, and heard.
A lady ran out of her house
carrying a strainer, chased us down, and told us to leave the street.
A Turkish Muslim man showed
my where to find Allah's name on my hands.
A member of the seventy
asked us to express our feelings about a song we listened to about the Savior.
I wanted to share, but I was too shy to raise my hand. A few moments went by.
He looked at me, and pointed at me to speak.
I listened to Sufjan
Stevens songs for Christmas countless times on repeat for the last year and a
half.
I sighed after leaving a
less active members house and said, "I really thought he would come back,
I guess there's nothing we can do." The next day he came to church and
bore his testimony.
My companion and I each
talked to 150 people in the center of Birmingham. Only 3 stopped to talk to us.
We sang "Sweet Hour of
Prayer" at a zone conference and all I could do was weep as I realized the
ultimate being of the universe asks us to talk to Him.
It was the middle of winter
and there was so much snow that we couldn't drive. It was late at night and all
we could do was tract near our house. We stowed away individually
wrapped Cadbury chocolates in our pockets and rewarded ourselves
periodically.
Someone asked us to sing
them a carol, and afterwards looked completely unimpressed.
We were finding on the
streets of Birmingham early Sunday morning. No one was outside. I thought it
was useless, but we felt prompted to go a certain way. Within a half hour we
gave out 5 Book of Mormons.
Our investigator was
struggling, although the answers were right in front of their face. We left the
house and cried as we walked into the windy night.
The water was so hot at
Ann's baptism that they had to jump in and out as quick as they could.
The Relief Society's little
boy threw up everywhere while she was holding him and giving announcements in
the front.
A woman's son had broken
her finger in a drunken rage. The gospel principles lesson was on forgiveness.
She asked, "How can I forgive my son?"
My recent convert passed me
the sacrament, I passed it to a returning member who was able to take it for
the first time since coming back, who passed it to another returning member.
When Sister Clark left
Evesham, Maddy Barnes decided to fast for her. She skipped breakfast, and then
decided she had to eat two marshmallows.
I cried myself to sleep
countless times and then God answered my prayer.
A young man we talked to in
the streets called us to ask us why his heart felt like it was on fire when he
was talking to us.
We were going to go visit
an investigator at 3:00, but it didn't feel right, so we went earlier.
When she opened the door
she said, "oh, it's a good thing you came now, I have a hair appointment
later this afternoon."
A drunk man offered us his
chips then asked if we could have a group hug before we split up. We hesitated,
"uhhhh" and then he said, "only a little one," lifted his
hands a little bit, barley touching our backs, "like this" put his
hands down, and we split.
I cleaned the flat every
p-day in my gold stretchy spandex.
Before a zone conference,
Elder Magpantay, who was our zone leader, was on exchange with Elder Baxter. Elder Magpantay suggested watching some clips
from the missionary DVDs "the
district." At the zone conference the area seventy showed us
some of the DVD clips. Elder Baxter told us that they showed every clip
that Elder Magpantay had previously chosen to show him.
We were the first dinner
guests ever at a less active family's home.
We smelled like smoke for
days after teaching a chain smoker.
We read Moroni 10:3-5 with
an investigator who had studied with the missionaries 12 years earlier. I felt
the spirit so strongly that I looked up. She was in tears. "That same
feeling I had the first time I read this 12 years ago is here again."
Garry Barnes was
baptized, confirmed, received the priesthood, and ordained his eldest son.
We listened to the April
Conference. President Monson asked us to all go to the temple. I had an
overwhelming desire to go to the temple. I wished so badly to go, just once on
my mission. There isn't a temple in our boundaries, so we don't get to make the
trip. I listened to the desire and offered a heartfelt prayer that I would
please be able to go to the temple on my mission. Two days ago, on Saturday, I sat in the
sealing room of the temple and watched my cousin Bradley Stewart, hold the hand
of his wife, Jessica, across the temples' alter to be married and sealed for
time and eternity. I watched the little hands of their baby boy and little girl
be placed on theirs, and see them sealed for time and all eternity as well. I
got to hug my family and enjoy that time in the sunshine of the London Temple.
This is what my mission is,
and this is what the gospel means to me. The gospel is my life and I living it.
I absolutely know that my Savior lives, and I love Him!
See you soon.
I love you. Thank you for
every prayer, every letter, and every encouraging thought.
xo
Sister Pope
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