Week 7

Dear Family,
 
This week our mission was toured by Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy. Our P-day was moved to today because yesterday we had a mission conference with him as well as our Mission President yesterday.
 
It was an all-day thing where we listened to instruction for hours. It was incredible and I feel like the Nephites--I can't even tell you one tenth, or one one hundreth of what was spoken there. So I'll tell you things that stood out to me, or at least some of them.
 
He wrote four names on the board--Jeremiah, Lehi, Ezekiel, and Daniel--and asked us to identify each of them. He told us about each of them--Ezekiel was a refugee in Babylon, Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem where everyone hated him, Lehi left because he was going to be killed and then half his family left his church when they finally got to the promised land, and Daniel got to live in a palace and be 2nd in command in Babylon with two different leaders and had a minor incident with some lions. He had us imagine them opening their mission calls and then asked us to imagine what Ezekiel would feel like if Daniel started gloating about how awesome his mission call was. He asked us which missionary was the best missionary, or which missionary lived their purpose the best. He said they all did! It was so powerful.
 
My companion showed me the pure love of Christ this week. She is seriously the best at ministering to me and to everyone at all times. I am working so hard to become like her in that way. I thought I knew how to love until I met her. I seriously love her so much. Her cousins who live in Cologna (I'm going to pretend I know how to spell that city) came to visit this weekend. Her cousin Cheree was baptized when she was eight but has little recollection of the church beyond that. Her husband, Mike is a vet who graduated high school when he was 15 and is a genius and also an awesome guy, but they both know little about the Church so Sister Allen was so excited to see them and share that with them. They have two little girls who are the cutest girls I have ever seen. Ever. Until I have nieces and daughters.... Anyways. We went to a baptism of a woman from Bolivia who walked into the church building one day and asked the Elders to be baptized. Talk about a miracle. Sister Allen and I went with Cheree and it was such a powerful experience. She also received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the room changed. The woman asked to bear her testimony and talked about how she truly felt different when they conferred her with the gift. She said the baptism was great, but the gift of the Holy Ghost was the most powerful feeling she had ever experienced. Our Ward Mission Leader got up when the meeting should have ended and said he felt impressed to ask one or two people to share their testimonies. First, a woman who served her mission in Guatemala got up and bore her testimony in Spanish for the woman. It was so beautiful. I've heard RM's bear testimony in Spanish, but this was something else. She said things I'd never really thought of before and she glowed with the love of Christ in her eyes. (Yay for still understanding Spanish!! Good thing I can't speak it to save someone's life....) Then my companion got up. She said, Hi, you don't know me, but I'm a missionary... And then she bore a testimony so full of love that the whole room lit up. She talked about the joy she felt and how sometimes we get so busy in the church that we forget about why we are here or moments like that, where we have a better look at why we are really here. She continued, and Cheree started to cry. It was a miracle. I love this church. Every day people tell me simply uneducated things with an educated air. They try to sound smart or tell me that the Bible will prove me wrong. I hear things every day that I could pull out a scripture to contradict, and explain to them how they don't understand it. But I'm notttt here to revile with revilers. I'm here to bring others unto Christ. I love what I am learning. Sometimes we go to Christ with anger or frustration because we don't understand His will or His purposes. But He always lovingly just teaches to our understanding and waits for us to catch up. I'm learning a little bit more about Him by trying to emulate Him when people get angry or don't understand. As missionaries we are to go back to the doctrine of Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I don't want to argue with people. I hope I can show them that I'm not here to be right. I'm here to share the joy I feel with them through His doctrine. I don't know where that tangent came from. But anyways, I love my companion. She just glowed. All I could think when I watched her was, this is the pure love of Christ. She really has this for this woman she has never met. And I hope to reach that point. Where I can look at a stranger with so much love that His light radiates off of my face.
 
Other insight from this week is 3 Nephi 11:3-8ish. Or something. It took them THREE times to recognize the voice of God, even though their hearts burned within them on the first time and it pierced them to their very soul. They just didn't understand that. As a missionary, I can see the Spirit in people's faces when we teach of the Restoration or the Doctrine of Christ, and I know they feel it. They just don't understand it yet.
 
Also Elder Johnson said that we're not getting it yet. Missionaries are no longer supposed to do their work and the members to do theirs. Now is the time for us to work together! So. That is all. I still don't get it, but I'm trying to.
 
I love you all and pray for you every day!!
 
Sister Thomson
 
PS. Elder Johnson told us that we in the Canada Vancouver mission have the Daniel mission call and to not gloat to our friends about how awesome our mission is. So, if I have been gloating about this mission, I am soo sorry! But I truly have the cream of the crop and I'm trying to live up to the priviledge of being here.
 
PPS. Transfer calls came yesterday. Guess who's opening Hidaguay with Sister Allen?!!! Just kidding. We're staying here in Chilliwack. Which is the best. I'm seriously so happy.
 
PPPS. Sisters will probably never go to Hidaguay from what I've heard, so, Mom, don't worrry. I won't be trekking it with the polar bears and drug dealers and six foot drifts.