Sister Meservy’s Letter from March 24, 2014
Subject: “Sunshine, Candles, Smoothies and FRANCE.”
Dear Family and friends,
I could write a whole email about my awkward experiences as a missionary and that might be funny… however, I truly don’t have time to help you feel the reality of each hideous situation. So don’t be mad if this whole email is just a pile of word vomit.
I don’t like to pet dogs a lot because I think they are stinky. But people want me to love their dogs. That get’s awkward. Luckily. My companion worked at a dog grooming salon. She loves dogs. It’s a nice conversation starter. Until I obviously don’t want to join her in the dog loving. Then it gets awkward and I say things like, “Well… we are the missionaries in the area.” Then they walk away. I’m working on better transitions. Like, “Did you know that Dog spelled backwards is God. We know that we are children of God- he is our loving father in heaven.”
Next time, I guess.
Little children call my companion and I “Stinky Butts.” Only once. But still. It happened. And I didn’t even know how to react. Try to turn that one gospel related.
I went to a Lutheran church yesterday. And I’m a missionary. To clarify- I’m not a missionary for the Lutheran church. I’m a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They tried to give me wine. No worries, folks, I didn’t drink wine. But that was definitely awkward.
Luckily, it was totally worth it to go because Darlene, the investigator who wanted us to go with her, came to our church after. AND LET ME TELL YOU IT WAS AMAZING. In gospel principles she was bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and everybody directed all their comments to her. It was so fun.
Want to hear some other cool things about church?! There were 9 nonmembers there and a boatload of less actives. Truly- SO MANY PEOPLE. Sister Busath and I had to get special permission to go on splits during chruch so that we could give our investigators the right attention. AND WE STILL WEREN’T ABLE TO TALK WITH EVERYONE AS MUCH AS WE WOULD HAVE LIKED. This is even cooler when you remember that we aren’t the only missionaries in our ward. The elders were totally busy, too.
While I was caught in the hustle and bustle of it all… I ran into Elder Lloyd. And you know when you run into people, how you grab their arm and apologize? Well Sister Missionaries aren’t supposed to touch Elder Missionaries, so let’s just end with saying I had an awkward encounter with Elder Lloyd and couldn’t even apologize because there were so many people around me. So I just got to the arm touch part and then ran away with Darlene.
Aside from that though, it was an amazing church service. It was crazy to feel the spirit so strong as I partook of the Sacrament.
And guess what?! Sister Starley, who was the relief society pres, got released! She is like my favorite human. Guess what her new calling is?! WARD MISSIONARY! I am happier than ever before. 🙂 I love this ward. I love everyone in it. And I love how missionary minded they are. It’s AMAZING. We didn’t even do anything to get people to church. Well… we did our best- but it was the members who got 8 out of the 9 there. There is so much power in members doing missionary work. It just means a lot to people.
I am so grateful for a missionary minded ward. It has changed my life. I will never be the same. I know this email was probably not inspiring at all- but if you take anything from it, know this:
- I love you.
- God loves you.
- Jesus Christ is our Savior.
- This is HIS gospel.
- Heavenly Father needs your help to bring his children to Christ. You are irreplaceable. Your role is significant and cannot be replaced. Elder Golden of the Seventy told me that this week. None of us are replaceable. We have to step up. 🙂
I love you all.
Love,
Sister Meservy
