rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
So many trials and blessings, not to mention miracles that it makes it almost impossible for me to ever doubt that this is the true church of Jesus Christ in these latter days. I know many will always hate us or say other wise, but just like some prophet said, those who are learned will not be able to understand the mighty works and wonders that God brings to pass. Though the blessings may be small in our eyes, they are huge and powerful in gods eyes. Never doubt, and he will never fail you!
We got a solid investigator!!! Finally, we met James while we were looking through the potentials. Again, the person we were looking for no longer lived there, but James was. His kids met us at the door, and when he popped out, he was drenched in sweat and had kick boxing gloves on. He was in the middle of his workout, but he let us briefly talk about the plan of salvation. He said that we were an answer from God to him. He had been feeling like there was a dark presence or mood in his home that was making him and his wife a bit upset and uneasy, and they wanted that to go away. They felt like they needed to come to God finally, and they prayed for help. That's when we came sometime after that. He asked right away where our church was located, and although he was unable to come to church this last Sunday, he wanted us to come over today and even talk to his whole family, even making sure that his wife would be able to hear! His children, if I remember correctly, weren't ever baptized, and he just wants the best for them and his wife. Such a wonderful father! I look forward to teaching them.
Amelia is going along slowly but surely, she will come in her own time. its just a bit frustrating for us since we want those blessing for her right now and not to delay them coming to her, but with all things in life, she has to make the decision.
Luis is having troubles with going to church and keeping commitments, so we will have a drop talk tomorrow. He brought it up sort of by text, but we kind of saw this coming lately. I hope he stays since he is so good, but oh well.
We met with Gabby, and unlike everyone's warnings, she gladly and excitedly accepted The Book of Mormon, and we briefly talked about the temple (we accidentally had a temple pass along card in their). She is excited to keep meeting with us. It is an honor that she is letting us in her home; we are the second people she has ever let into her home. Such a wonderful role model for a mother for her kids, I hope that she will continue with the lessons. Last we heard, she is keeping up on family home evening.
I am doing alright. Some days are better than others. Sister George is somewhat coming to terms with her mission, and the seemingly daily companion inventories have gone away. It has been so stressful during all that, since it was a lot of pent up feelings from her entire mission since she has only a week left, and it was really hard on her, and I was trying to compromise on things. It makes me so glad that unlike mission companionships, you can choose who you live with and date, and more importantly, marry one day. We were discussing how dating and being a missionary with a companion has a bunch of similarities, and when you get back you almost know exactly how to work with another person. It also makes you excited when you can choose who you can potentially be with and hopefully marry/be sealed for all eternity in the temple.
Sister George went to the temple and took a batch of names for work to be done. I am so excited, now my very first batch of names that along time ago I worked so hard to find, fix up, attach to one another in a family tree, and had Joseph (my boyfriend) and I did baptisms for almost 6 months ago. Now I will have my parents back home seal them together, as many as are ready and complete. Sister George also participated in sealing for children, she said that having gone all the way through and finally seen that big picture of what God intends for us and the joys we receive makes it so much more complete and makes so much more sense why we make such a big deal out of temples and life in general! It makes me excited when I will get married and have that opportunity for my self to go through that.
I got food poisoning on Friday through Sunday. Sadly, I am doing just fine, but Saturday I wasn't feeling up to anything but sleeping. Even that wasn't fun. I just couldn't understand why I couldn't just stay home for a while and rest up for even an hour when feeling s crappy, not to mention feeling nauseous the whole time, there was no way I could drive. Finally Sister George relented and let me stay for an hour. I maxed out for medicine to help, but after a while it sort of settled down.
We went to see Terri finally and talked about temples and that got her excited to get her Patriarchal blessing, or as she called it, her personal road map of life! (I agree, it has been like a road map. As long as I am doing my best to follow it, I can't get too terribly off track from the blessings stated. Life would be so confusing without it, I wish everyone could understand they need that). Afterwards, we came back home and I got real sick again. Heavenly father gave me enough of a break to get through the couple hours and see Terri, then back to sick again. Finally I drove to see the mission nurse one area away, and she told me then that I wasn't just sorta sick. I was sick with food poisoning, that made Sister George feel awful, though, since she thought this whole time I was just sorta sick. I was wondering why no one would believe me when I said I was really sick. Thankfully I was able to empty most of my stomach before driving there. As a last resort, I drank a tiny bit of plain milk (I DO NOT like the taste of milk, but I was so desperate for a less upset stomach I drank it. I was right and my body hates it too plain. With cereal it is OK though.... I just was hoping that rumor about milk setting a stomach was true. It did just that, but in an unexpected way immediately). The mission nurse gave me a recipe for water and I believe it is baking soda, but it could be powder. You drink it and it settles it down for sure, though how it does that depends on how your body reacts to it. (She said it was foul. I know milk is worse any day, it honestly wasn't that bad in my opinion)
Oh, crumbs, I forgot to mention that in this mission, several companionship went home while ago due to unnecessary time in the home and got depression from it. That's why they are over the top strict on the no time at home rule unless majorly sick. Sister George gets antsy and feels like an unsuccessful missionary staying so much at home. That's why she was urging we go out, and by going out. Heavenly Father, most of the time, helps us when we work, but my case was not one of those by a long ways. Depression in this mission is not uncommon, since this is one of the mission where missionaries that are predisposed to depression almost always go.
When we went out, I felt good enough to make the trip back. We also saw a bat that decided to roost in her rafters outside her home. Scred me real bad since I first thought it was a mega sized moth flying around the light (bugs here are a lot bigger than back home I have learned, scares me when I hear them flying past me).
Thankfully the zone leaders and Spanish missionaries are both in our complex so they came right over and gave me a blessing. Just as they said, I felt almost completely well the next day for the most part, and fully able to serve the lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment