Mom,
This Saturday Elder Nelson came and spoke to our mission. The Elders
let the sisters sit on the first two rows and I was on the very end. So I got to
be the first person to shake his hand, I was so nervous. Then I got to sit back
in my seat and watch as he looked into the eyes of each of the missionaries in
my mission and sincerely greet them. Mom It was powerful. I still feel a special
peace and spirit that came when I was in his presence and has not left. I looked
into His eyes and saw that He knows our Savior. It was different, even among
missionaries, this man is not an ordinary man. He is an apostle of the Lord,
filled with the spirit. As he taught us he taught how I imagined the Savior
would teach. We would ask questions and he would respond with a question, or a
story (parable), or tell us that we already knew the answer. And some questions
he didn't know so he would just laugh and say, I don't know! Oh it was
wonderful. He also had with Him a member of the 70. I keep thinking about how
blessed we are. 6 billion people on the earth and I got to be in the midst of an
Apostle of the Lord.
Last night I was laying in bed and thinking about
my first six weeks as a missionary. We have seen so many miracles, but the hard
part is all these miracles happen and then we hit a wall. Two weeks ago a man
walked into district meeting and asked if there was a pastor around. Did I tell
you this story? That day he was going to step in front of a car and end his life
but something pulled him to the church. Our district leader and companion
stepped out and taught him and invited him to be baptized. They got his
information and later found out he would be in our area. So we went to his house
but it was the wrong address and the phone number he gave us stopped working and
we havent gotten a hold of his wife. We also had 2 investigators with baptisimal
dates that we havent been able to see in three weeks and so have stopped
concentrating on them. I was wondering why all these miracles were happening and
then seemingly wouldnt complete themselves. I realized that these past 6 weeks
have been amazing and I have grown SOOOOO much. I feel different. I am more
patient. I have more purpose then ever before. I try hard to listen to the
spirit. I love people more. I have changed, because I wanted to and the Lord
blessed me with this. But why did I want to change? I want to change so that I
am a better person, so that when I come home my family sees a difference, I want
to change for my kids and my future husband and my future callings and the list
goes on. These are all great reasons but there all about me. I should be
changing my whole mission but I dont want ME to be the focus of my mission
anymore. I really dont. I want to start changing because it will make me better
for my investigators, the people I teach, the people of Clarksville. When I
start focusing on them, then I believe even more miracles will happen. I have
been trying and I know the Lord has accepted my try. But I dont just want to
change for me. I dont want to make it to Heaven alone. I want to bring a whole
bus full of people with me, a whole DOUBLE DECKER BUS!
Mom I don't want
you to read this email and think that I am just being hard on myself. I know I
have done a lot of good, but I know there is so much more to do! And trust me I
am still as weird as ever. I laugh a lot and make jokes and sometimes I think my
district leader is like What are we going to do with the Sisters. Haha we are
nuts. I am trying to become the most Christlike Sister Oldham I can be, I am not
always sure how but I am trying and learning.
Sister Mckee is making
progress. She has now sat up and can respond to people by blinking and moving
her lips and toes and stuff. We know she will heal. The best thing we can do for
her is work, be obedient, and baptize and so that is what I plan on
doing.
President Nelson blessed our mission with many things, one was
that our family would have renewed feelings of peace and the importance of our
callings as missionaries. I hope you have felt that.
Also one of the
areas in Clarksville is so busy that they called a set of sisters in Clarksville
1 (we are clarksville 3) and guess what that means! We get to share the car so
guess who is going to be a biking missionary in the winter! THIS GIRL! We are
hopefully getting bikes from ward members or the missions so I dont need a bike
just yet but I will keep you posted. We dont know the details
We helped
deliver gifts to the less actives in our ward and we had miracles. It was lady
and we were in a scarier part of town. We realized we were going to have to walk
around the complexes to find the apartment we were looking for and we weren't
sure if that was a safe thing to do but we felt we needed to visit this sister
so we said a prayer and Sister Vandenberg heard the words in her head, "Walk,
I'll protect you." So we got out and walked. We found the apartment and when the
Sister came to the door she explained that she was tired and had a long day, you
could tell she wanted us to hurry and wasn't up for a visit if that is what we
were hoping for. We explained that the Relief Society just wanted to give her a
gift to let them know she was loved. She took the gift and it looked like she
was almost going to cry, we then asked if we could visit again and she said yes.
We said a prayer with her on her doorstep and as we prayed she started to cry. I
felt like I should hug her so after the prayer I gave her a hug. She thanked us
and then we left. As we were leaving she reopened the door and said an extremely
sincere thank you, and then closed the door again. I know that Heavenly Father
knows all His children, He knows when they are having bad days and He knows when
they need a gift, a prayer, a hug. I loved being his tool.
Another
miracle from the gift giving is while we were out we knocked on a door, the
sister no longer lived there, this was now the home of her Sister and her
Sisters Fiance Josh. Only Josh was home but we talked for a bit on the door
step. I felt like I should ask him if we could come back and talk with him about
Jesus Christ, just as I was about to He asked if we only do stuff like this for
Christmas time or if we come by for other visits. We explained a little of our
purpose and he said he would love it if we came back. We then gave him a Book of
Mormon, as soon as we gave it to him he told us the best time to return so his
fiance and daughter would be there. Wow! He made me so happy we practically
skipped to the car. We are going to visit them this week.
I am so
grateful I get another transfer in Clarksville, I love these people. I was
sitting in church I was filled with even more love when I realized the Lord was
blessing me, allowing me to labor among these beautiful people. I feel we are
really becoming a part of the ward. Although the work has been slow number wise,
miracles are happening, and I am expecting more. I love this opportunity, I love
this calling, I love being in His army.
I love my family more then
anything. I hope you know that. I hope you feel that.
Love, Sister Oldham
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