Y’all will have to forgive me, I didn’t write an email last week. I was occupied with spending as much time as I could with the other missionaries and getting some good exercise. Exercise has been a huge help for me, especially lately. I have found it to be a great way to handle my stress and anxiety.

I will give you a quick update though from last week so you will actually be getting two emails from me this week, I hope you don’t mind….

So the week of the 3rd through the 9th was actually a pretty good week. We had district council after some service on Tuesday and part of district council included blindfolding me and having me search an entire room for a hidden vase with no help whatsoever. So, we love that. Hahaha it was actually really fun and I wasn’t the only one who had to do it. That was a really great training though, learning about how we need to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion to get through life. Good stuff.

We went on exchanges with our STLs and I was with Sister Brady who I actually briefly met my very first day in the mission field. She is so awesome and we had some really deep conversations and did a fun/weird foot mask thing😂 We also ate “Caniacs” which I’m not sure if I have talked about before, but there is a bomb restaurant out here calls Cane’s and it is basically just chicken fingers but it is so good. And the “Caniac” is the largest single meal you can get there complete with 6 chicken fingers, cole slaw, a piece of Texas toast and of course some fries. It doesn’t sound like it is all that big, but believe me, it is pretty hefty. However, I will have y’all know, I have had the Caniac twice now since being out here and both times I finished it in one sitting…. I’m honestly not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of that hahaha😂 But I’m gonna go with proud. There are some Elders who can’t even finish it, so…. who’s a beast? Me.

That week, we went to ODB (Our Daily Bread) 3 different times. I usually only go once a week, but I went with Sister Brady on exchanges, Thursday like usual and then we were asked to go on Friday as well. It was actually really fun though, especially on Wednesday. We were the people who checked in all the guests as they came in and we were able to talk with them for a little bit. Some people were just so kind and made us feel good about ourselves, complimenting and smiling at us and whatnot. Later in the day, as things got slower, Brady and I started getting bored so we decided to have a little fun. We had a dance party. We were grooving around a bit and people would occasionally glance over and smile and some would join in and boy did it lift the mood. It was so little, yet such a tender mercy for so many people I think, including us.

On Friday, we went to a study at an older gentleman’s house. There were several companionships of missionaries there and we talked about the priesthood and about the covenants we make in the temple and it was a very enjoyable time. We all had dinner there, hung out, chatted and laughed together. 

Something that is really exciting is that we have a new person we are teaching! He was referred to us by a member and he is just golden. He is so willing to learn and has some really good questions. We are super excited.

Alright, so what do I have for y’all on the spiritual side of things? Well I had a really cool experience/realization this week that was somewhat of a love smack to the face. For some background, y’all have to understand how slow missionary work has been lately. Lessons are unfortunately hard to come by for us. Even with members. It is really easy to just not pick up the phone when the missionaries call or never respond to their text messages, and that has been the majority of our experience these last few weeks.

However, we had a lesson this week that reminded me just how happy this Gospel makes me. This lesson we had was with our dear friend we are teaching in Serbia and her member boyfriend. There was nothing super different or special about this lesson, but we were just discussing some of the lessons we learn from the simple stories in the Book of Mormon. We talked about the time when Nephi was bound by his wicked brothers and left to die in the wilderness. In this hour of need, Nephi prayed to Heavenly Father, but what did he pray for? Did he pray to have the cords disappear? Did he pray to have his burden taken away from him completely? No, he didn’t. In his prayer, he said – “yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound” – He prayed for strength! Strength to get through his trial. So often we pray to have burdens removed from us, but we need to understand that that is very rarely how it works! Nephi sets an example to us by not asking for the cords to be removed, but that he might have the strength to break them, knowing full well and accepting that he must put for the effort needed to do his part to break them.
Having this simple discussion during our lesson with this sweet young lady and her boyfriend brought an overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement to me in those few minutes. And at first, I didn’t really know why. Why was I getting so hyped about this story? But It clicked in my head that it wasn’t the story necessarily that was bringing so much happiness to me, it was being a missionary. Having had very few to no lessons the previous few weeks, being able to share my thoughts, emotions and spiritual insights on the Book of Mormon and the Gospel that means absolutely everything to me sparked a flame I felt I had been missing in my life for far too long. 

It is hard to describe the joy that comes from sharing and discussing the word of God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the fullness of the gospel with someone to whom it is all foreign and seeing it make a difference in their lives. Nothing comes close to that huge, beaming smile no one else sees that comes to your face after a successful, spiritually-uplifting lesson. You find that the smile doesn’t come because you are happy for yourself, but it comes because you are realizing how much genuine love you feel for the person you are teaching and how excited you are for them. So excited you can hardly stand it. 

Then you get into your car and you weep with your companion because you both know the joy and blessings that come from the gospel and you can’t wait for the person you’re teaching to experience them. At first you’re confused as to why, but you weep because for the first time maybe ever, you realize you are seeing someone as they really are. How God sees them. And to feel that overwhelming amount of love for a total stranger is an experience that simply cannot be described. You can’t help but weep being so overawed with such an incomprehensible amount of love and sincere joy. It is then that you find yourself on your knees, before your maker, praying for them every day that they might come to know of that divine love for themselves.

I want you all to know that I stand as a witness that Jesus Christ lives today and that His Atonement is real. God lives and He loves you more than you could ever comprehend. I know that even for myself and the experiences I have had feeling the love God has for his children, I have not come to know even a fraction of the amount of love He has for you. You individually. I know that this Gospel is God’s very truth and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

I love y’all so much and I am so grateful for everything y’all do for me. Thank you for supporting me and praying for me. Your prayers are felt❤

Scripture of the week! Mosiah 4:9-12     
Get Busy, Get Lost!-Sister Oldham