Monday, November 7, 2016

77 - The blizzard of '77 (is all they talk about in upstate NY)

Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net 

Mission address:
 Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
 California Long Beach Mission
 6500 E Atherton St.
 Long Beach, CA 90815


Lots of last minute things I have had to do that is keeping me swamped on P-days... Like car inspection, apartment inspection... three this transfer alone... Good for the apartment at least.
No time whatsoever to do anything so I wonder if they do this on purpose for departing missionaries. Keep them busy with mandatory trainings with my plan and testimonies and departing thoughts. Busy work....

Besides that, we didn't get to teach the baker family due to illness in the family, but we saw half at church which was good. They are pushing their baptism date latter so I most likely won't be here for that sadly, but life moves on without me. I'm happy for them since they will all get baptized together as one big happy family! So cool!

We had to go get our tires checked at the mission office so we have been all over the place this week. Lost of meetings, lots of canceled appointments as well. We have been having fun despite that and had lots of time walking to contact people. I have discovered however whenever we drive I see TONS of opportunists to contact people, the moment we walk... They all disappear. Irony!

Miracle of the week: since I forgot last week.... I have three this week
1. We finally got to see sister Dunn, her parents died recently unfortunately and she told us that she felt impressed that we would come so she got up early and nicely dressed and was waiting for us to come sometime that day. I also felt impressed and since we were unable to call her first I decided to push on and see her anyways. her phone number changed so we wouldn't be able to get a hold of her anyways, so she was so happy to talk with us and be uplifted with our message!

2. A member from Pickering called us who is moving into our ward, and he wanted to have the missionary lessons to help him receive the higher priesthood, receive his patriarchal blessing, and go through the temple for himself for the first time as well. he must have been told to contact us since we usually help with this with some lessons to prepare them and he had been less active before as well. We were fasting yesterday to find a solid person to teach and god blessed us with him. It is a rare day that someone seeks us out so diligently so I was so grateful to be able to now work with him towards those blessings in his life.

3. We finally met another less active going into activity. He hit rock bottom awhile back and is slowly recovering. He recognized that he needed to go back to church and figure out who he really is. I guess you would call that a mid life crisis at 50.... He was once a CEO of some companies, then lost it all after tragic identity theft. He said though that it made him think about his life and he is now experiencing a lot of new things, like shopping, cooking, and cleaning and other daily chores.
he also asked us, if your parents could be anything they could be at around 50, what would they be? I know that there are many things I want to do with my life... I know that I can only do so many of them, so this is an opportunity for change for him. I guess you would call that a blessing to restart and experience another vocation and life all together.

It is interesting how God takes our busy lives and while we can lose everything, it opened up a better path that will give us blessings even better then we could ever imagine, it's just hard when you start on that path. May not look like much now other than a field of ashes from smoldering and burnt dreams once there. If their is one thing I have learned, God makes his finest creations from the purest thing on earth, Ashes. The refiner's fire is hard to endure, but it makes us stronger then ever! This member just had to go through it all at once. Sometimes it makes me happy I go through it slowly instead of all at once. But as usual, God NEVER gives us more than we can handle, so he must be a very strong person!

And life moves on and on. Hopefully this week with pick up a bit!

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