Perfectly Perth: Because I'm Happy

Welcome back to my life as a missionary. Can I tell you all what happened this week? Okay, thanks.

I'll just be real with all of you, this week was hard. Actually no, not the whole week just 2 days in particular. The first day everyone canceled their set appointments, nobody answered their phone, nobody answered their door and it was hot. When I say nobody, I'm not exaggerating. Literally no.body.

The other day was a different, but worse hard. It was hard because of me. I woke up thinking about a particular investigator and everything that was going wrong. We woke up late first of all because the alarm didn't go off! So we were rushing around and quiet. I was just angry and as I studied that morning I could physically feel my head just so heavy and painful. I felt a massive physical weight on my shoulders, I physically and literally could not keep my head up. I just wanted to topple over. My body hurt. We got out the door into the heat. Man, without going into more detail, I was just not happy. The day finally ended and the next day, Sunday, when Sister Wiest and I were sharing what we learned in Personal Study and also doing Companion Study, it turned into the most amazing learning experience I've had.

In personal study, I opened the February (maybe Jan...idk) 2016 Ensign, and the first few talks were on positivity and happiness. I definitely wanted to read those. I learned SO. MUCH. My life has been changed. I realized/relearned/remembered that true happiness comes from the love of God. And from the spirit. I did not have the spirit with me that day. I let my guard up just a little bit, just like when you leave your garage door open just a crack, spiders and flies and cockroaches swarm in, when I let my spiritual guard up just a bit, Satan took that opportunity to fly into my life and he will do everything he can to torment you and drain you and make you feel physically and spiritually terrible. I hate him. That day, everything in my mind was just down and heavy and wrong. I felt terrible. I wasn't happy. I NEED the spirit in my life. I NEED GOD in my life. I physically can not function without Him. I can not be a missionary without Him.

Today this morning, in Personal Study, I studied Alma 26. Oh my goodness. That is one of my new favorite chapters. Ammon is the man. I feel so grateful for God. He is so patient with me. He loves me. He doesn't give up on me. He is calm. He understands. He is everything. I am happy! I rejoice in God! I am FILLED with happiness and joy because the spirit is again in my life. I never want to be without it. I want to be happy.

In other news...I'M GOING TO BE A TRAINER!!!

President Fife called last night and I will be training a new missionary and Sister Wiest is going to be a Sister Training Leader in Byford!!! I will miss that chick. I will still see her though, b/c she will by my STL. :) I am so nervous!! I want to help this new missionary be diligent and hard working and also happy and I want her to learn a lot and ahhhh!! I can't do it! Heavenly Father will help me. I know it. So shelberight.

We had a crazy miracle last night:
We met this inactive man named John outside his house the other day. We rode up on our bikes and said, "Hi John!!" He just looked at us and said, "How do you know my name?" We explained that he was in our ward and we were the missionaries. He said that he didn't think he was in the ward. He didn't know what that was. We asked him if he had been baptized and he said he thought so maybe...20 years ago. He couldn't remember. He remembered missionaries playing basketball with him and he was baptized with 2 of his friends...we talked to him briefly about what it meant when he was baptized and what the gospel is and I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon. He didn't. That morning, I happened to have the thought to put one in my bag. I now know why. Long story short, he is a single dad with a 6 and 7 year old. He was engaged 5 years ago and his girl friend died of a heart attack. We had a lesson a few days later with his 2 kids and a member in our ward about the Plan of Salvation. (Mom, I used those cut outs you gave me for Christmas!) John was so interested. He was making sure his kids were listening to what we were teaching. We prayed with them and committed them to pray as a family when we left.

So fast forward to yesterday night. We just got out of a lesson and he calls us. We answer and he tells us: he wants the gospel in his life. He wants God in his life. He wants to repent. He wants to be an example for his kids. He saw how happy we were and he wants to be happy like that. He wants to change his life. He wants his kids to know where their mum is. He wants to go to church. He said he wanted to go to church on Sunday and we didn't invite him. (our bad) He said, can you sisters help me? I really want this in my life. Sister Wiest and I were just standing there shaking. We couldn't believe what we were hearing. God is so involved in our lives. He is involved in John's.

I love being a missionary.