Praying For Cats W25

Here's my weekly email and I hope you enjoy it because I talk about the reality of missions! Sometimes missionaries are scared to talk about the hard parts of missions because they don't want to sound weak. Shared experiences are so powerful, and you never know what talking about your struggles can do to help someone else! 

This week they've really got us on lock down, no member meals, no activities and we were quarantined because of some snowstorms. We went and visited a few people and every single one of them were exposed to covid! Even with all of this I have had some great experiences I would like to share. 

My sister got married btw!! 

Okay, so the Hermanas that are close to us found this family that spoke English that they wanted us to teach. So, on Saturday we all went to their apartment to meet them. They let us come in and they had the most adorable 1 year old baby named Trigger. We sat and talked about religion, their pasts, and hopes for the future. They said they were looking for a new church and would be willing to come to ours tomorrow! We gave them the address and set up a time to come back! At around 9:03am on Sunday I was afraid they weren't coming so I said a quiet prayer of faith and put it in the Lord's hands. Within 30 seconds they all walked in! We waved them over and all the talks were about families! It was perfect. After 30 min the mom walks out with the baby and 10 min later, she comes back in and tells her husband she wants to leave. I WAS DEVASTATED! Nobody I had ever brought to church didn't like it. My heart dropped and I had a thought come into my head, "you missed your sister's wedding for this?" That was an awful thought Satan put into my head. Granted we don't know why they left and maybe she got nervous, or the baby had an accident, but it still hurt, especially when all the members were asking where they went. Although this may not seem big to you, my whole mission I've really struggled with feeling successful in my mission if I haven't had 1000 baptisms or bring everyone to church. I feel like a failure if we don't bring at least 2 people to church. Reality is, people have agency and your success should be determined by extending invitations not based on them accepting it or not. 

The reason that I tell you this is not, so you feel sorry for us. I could've stopped the story after saying they came to church! All my group emails I tell all of you the best parts of my week, but this is the reality of missionary work. Missionary work is hard, and it sucks sometimes but those moments of joy you get when somebody keeps their commitments or finally starts understanding something are ALL worth it. Kind of like life I guess haha.

Here's some funny non serious stuff, I prayed for a cat.... hahaha. I've officially made it as a Kentucky missionary. We were having a lesson with Julia a returning member and her cats kept coming into the frame. I had to go out of the camera 4 times because I was laughing so hard at all the quirky stuff she was saying. Anyways, I said the closing prayer and it was going well then, I said, "please bless her cats...." I immediately regretted what I had just said but had to finish. So, In the middle of laughing I said, "that they will be able to enjoy themselves". I had to close it quick because I was laughing and once we ended the call my comp looked at me and said, "Really? That was outrageous, we've lost our minds and now we are praying for cats!" Hahahaha. 

Elwanda! Wowza this was a lesson I had to bite my tongue in for not laughing as well. She has a brother named Kenny who talks like Lyle from Napoleon Dynamite. He left mid lesson to go to Circle K and get a bag of chips. Then he sat down and started feeding the cats chips. The cats were puking it back out and I'm trying so hard not to laugh then my companion has the brilliant Idea to pull out her phone and video, so I started laughing even more. So, enjoy the pictures.

Kevin reached out to me and sent me a picture of him with his new backpack that I gave him at his baptism that he now carries everywhere. So please also enjoy this picture of him and his new haircut. 

Overall! Yes, it sucks that I missed my sister's wedding, or somebody left church early. You know what, those are little things compared to the lesson we taught this week, the opportunity I had to laugh 1000x this week, and the gospel that I have seen change people. As a missionary you can't get caught looking at the temporal things you have to have an eternal perspective, or it'll be the longest years of your life. Don't look around, look up! So, I've come to realize this week, as hard as it is there is nowhere else in the whole entire world that I would rather be than praying for cats in Kentucky. 

Pictures 

1. Kenny with cats 

2. Kevin with Backpack 

3. My hilarious incredible companion 

4. Me talking to Kam! 

5. New family photo! 

6. Cardboard cutout 

7. Las Hermanas 

8. Jimmy Johns of course