07-18-2016

HELLO.

Another week here and gone. How does 7 days fly by so fast. Too much
happens to fit in one email.

This week was a week full of tender mercies. Both physical and spiritual.

We were helping a couple with some yard work and they offered to feed
us lunch. They had made us spaghetti and meatballs. We started eating
and my meat balls were practically raw. And you guys know how I am
about meat. It's a touchy subject haha. I was about to say um the
meatballs are raw when she cuts her meat ball open looks right at the
raw part and goes oh yes and  bites it and goes this is the best
meatball. I didn't want to say anything and be like mamm your cooking
and she be like ungrateful ungrateful.. so I took a bite of the
meatball and oh my goodness I thought I was going to die. I
practically felt ecoli growing inside of me hahaha so that might be a
slight exaggeration but at the same time not. I looked at sister
Morrisons face and she had an equal face of terror. One bite was
enough for both of us and we disposed of the meatballs secretly. But
tender mercy that neither of us got sick afterwards and all was well.
But no more spaghetti and meat balls for me haha

My companion is afraid of dogs and cats, really she's afraid of
anything that moves haha ALMOST every person in Fairfield has a dog or
cat that we go see. There is this one lady that has a lot of animals
and they are all crazy and jump on your lap and lick and nibble at
your hands and my poor companion DIES every time we have to see her
haha this week she prayed so hard that the animals would be less crazy
and be asleep when we would go inside. As we opened the door all the
animals were crazy and I thought oh no poor sister Morrison is not
going to make it. But to my surprise within 5 minutes all the animals
were either asleep or calm. As we left the lesson, my companion
couldn't get over the tender mercy. It reminded me that God is aware
of the small matters of our lives that at times seem so small. We seem
to limit the ability of the Lord to help us in every aspect of our
lives. All we need to do is ask.

On Wednesday night we had lessons with two of our investigators right
after each other. The first lesson went horrible and our investigator
was looking to argue with us and the spirit was not there and then we
got to the second lesson and it went just as bad as the first. We got
in the car and just felt so defeated. I was feeling so weak so
unprepared to be a missionary for Jesus Christ and here we had just
had two bad lessons and I'm supposed to be helping sister Morrison
along and then wam I blow not just one but two. As we got back to the
apartment I was feeling overwhelmed and felt so discouraged and felt
so so sad for the people we were teaching that weren't recognizing
what was right in front of them. We started our nightly planning with
a  kneeling prayer and I offered to say it. As I began my prayer I
said "dear Heavenly Father I am grateful that you use weak things to
proclaim your gospel so that through you we can be strong" As I
finished that statement I can't describe with words adequately the
overwhelming feeling that came over me. I physically felt arms around
me and felt encompassed by His love. I could barely hold the tears in
and as I continued to pray the spirit was so strong in our little one
room apartment. It was such a special moment. I love that God calls
weak things to proclaim his gospel. Why? Because a lot of the time I
don't feel adequate to be a servant of him, to do this important work,
to bring souls to him, but he needs us to be weak so we can be humble
so that when the days get hard we look to the one person who knows
what we are going through.

I was reading in my journal this week and I went back to the very
beginning of my mission to Day 2. And it reads "day 2 and Im ready to
cop out. Oh my goodness what were you thinking mckaylee. How are you
going to do this...you have 545 days left". As I read that it made me
smile and tear up at the same time. Because seriously mckaylee ...Day
2 and you were ready to cop out haha madre mia but that if I would've
coped out I would have missed out on the past 161 days. I would've
missed out on all the CATS in the West Sacramento, crying cause I was
so happy when Rick came to church, and all the people that I have
grown to just love so much.  But MOST OF ALL I would've missed out on
the hard days, the days where I felt weaker than weak. it's only
through those days that my testimony in the Savior has grown leaps and
bounds.

I know that He lives. He is our redeemer our savior. This is His church.

God is oh so good.

I love you and miss you all very much.

Godspeed always

sister t