Aloha mis personas :)
I swear I just emailed yesterday because I pretty much did haha
Life is grand in California. Life is always grand.
Last week we got to go to the Oakland Temple. It was absolutely
beautiful. The temple is so cool and you can walk up on the roof
because it has a garden on the roof. It is so cool. From the roof, you
can see across the whole Bay Area. It could be my favorite temple. Too
good to believe it.
Sister Morrison is my best friend which is lucky because I spend 24/7
with her haha so it's good that I love her lots haha We constantly are
finding weird connections haha it's like we were meant to be
companions for the mission and bff for life.
My favorite person in the entire world is a 5 year old named Andrew A.
Oh my goodness guys he is the best person ever. We were at his house
this week, and he just started kindergarten so I said "Andrew, how was
your first day of kindergarten?" No joke he gets 2 inches from my face
and says "It was ahhhhmazzzinggg" hahahahhaha then it was even funnier
when he brought out his backpack with its matching lunch box and water
bottle hahahhaha I have included a photo because Andrew is the best
ever. Wow when I leave here, I am going to miss him the most. When
ever we see him he runs to give us hugs. Heart melter for sure. At
church, we saw him and told us to come talk to us but he goes hey guys
I can't talk today, I'm seat saving today, it's my first time and I
got to do a good job" hahaha always team andrew. Always
This week we met with a less active, when we started the lesson, he
goes I have the lesson today and pulls out these papers with all these
scriptures and notes. It was so cool. I was in love with it. I was
like oh yeah brother trapp is getting his study on. Go go go. He was
so excited about scripture study, I was so happy. It was such an
awesome lesson.
We found a family to teach and she is the best thing ever. Her son is
the cutest 9 year old I have ever seen and wants to be Picasso. He
gave us an art tour of all his art pieces. He taught me about
different mediums to us and what type of paint is the best haha I'm
practically an artist now (come at me Mallory) It was such a tender
mercy to be able to teach them. I am really excited for our lesson
with her and her family this week.
At the beginning of last transfer, I asked a question to my mission
president at Zone Conference about miracles. I said if you are working
really hard, shouldn't you see miracles and I responded to my own
question, saying that I felt that I wasn't seeing miracles, I was
feeling discouraged.
It is now almost exactly 6 weeks later, and I can say with all I know
that if you work hard God gives us miracles. They are everywhere but
not always the miracles we thought. I may feel inadequate at times, I
may feel discouraged but I have to remember that out of anyone the
Lord, HIMSELF, is most concerned with our success as missionaries.
This is His work. Miracles will be granted to us as we show with faith
that we recognize that this is His work. I have done a lot of thinking
about success and I have come to the conclusion that as we work hard,
as we are obedient, God will bless us with success. Success isn't
numbers, you don't win or lose when it comes to success, there is no
keeping score, success is at the end of the day when you say your
prayers and you say " I did all I could do today, and my heart got a
little bigger and I love these people more than I did yesterday and I
will try harder tomorrow so I can love them more than I did today".
I love the phrase in D&C 4 "that ye may stand blameless before God at
the last day". When we stand before God at the last day He isn't going
to have a list of numbers and depending on "our scores" we will be
listed as successful. He's going to ask us "do you love me?" And if
the answer is really yes, then that's a successful missionary, a
successful life, a successful person, because we will have recognized
what it means to love him, to consecrate all we have to building His
kingdom in love because he first loved us.
The mission just keeps on getting better. I am constantly amazed at
how God has shaped me these past 6 and 1/2 months. Can you even
believe it has been that long? I feel like I just got out on the
mission field yesterday.
I love you guys so much and I miss you so much.
I feel so grateful for everything that I have and all I have learned
and the person I have become.
I was reading in the scriptures this week and I was reading in 1 nephi
4. In this chapter, nephi has been unsuccessful in getting the brass
plates from Laban, not once but twice and has almost been killed and
now the lord has told him to go back an additional time to get the
plates. I was thinking if I was in that situation, I would be feeling
pretty discouraged. I would be thinking "okay god I want to do your
work but it's not working and I want to live sooooo" but that's not
what nephi says at all he says "and I was led by the spirit not
knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went
forth" I love that. I think too often we are concerned to go forward
because we want to see the end from the beginning before we follow the
lords direction. We must learn to walk to the edge of the light and
then a few steps into the darkness, then the light will appear and
show the way before us.
Don't become paralyzed waiting for God to answer your every move.
Faith is action.
This next week my goal is to become more like Nephi, he is never
discouraged, never disheartened, always delighting, and always
determined to follow the will of the Lord. Persistence is key.
Work hard and then work harder. Good things come to those who
wait.....yeah maybe BUT good things come to those that go out and get
what they have sought after.
If the mission has taught me anything, it's that all good things come
from hard work and lots of love.
Love on and work hard. Life gets better even when you think it won't.
I know that this church is true. I know that this is Christ's church
and that as we exercise our faith to follow him, we will be blessed,
we will be able to be with our families for eternity. I love to think
about eternal families, it's a concept that our mortal minds can only
begin to grasp. But can we only imagine how wonderful it will be to
see our loved ones again.
God is so good.
Journey on. Godspeed always
Sister mckaylee t
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