Well what a week this has been! There's been a lot of ups
and a lot of downs but at the end of it all I love everyday.
Monday- Can you guess what Monday was? P-DAY! We did all of
the needful things. We washed our clothes, bought groceries and emailed. What a
good day! At the end of the night we had dinner with the Lemons! What a stellar
day.
Tuesday- On Tuesday we had a pretty good day We didn't have
the car which is always an adventure so we found ways to be productive anyway. We
called people, set up appointments did companionship study! All the time we
were doing this my leg was itching right behind my knee, super weird. All of a
sudden as I'm itching I feel a bump. What on earth could that be? I look to see
what it is and it's a freaking SEED TICK. Fun fact, I've never had a tick
before. So I start panicking and my dear companion was kind enough to pull it
out of my leg. But, of course, the head didn't come out so she had to take
tweezers and dig it out of my leg. All the while I'm crying and she's assuring
me I'm going to be fine. I have a very kind companion. By the time this ordeal
was over it was time for dinner. Our members are so kind to come pick us up for
dinner when we don't have a car. The members we had dinner with are a gluten
free family and they are really good at cooking gluten free things so I always
am excited to eat there. When we got to their house there was a big bag of
gluten free baking flour on the table and Sister Byrd (the member who was
feeding us) said "We have this bag of flour for you so that you can make
cookies or pancakes or muffins or whatever you want." I just about died I
was so happy. I thanked them profusely. After dinner we went and tried to visit
some people but no one is home when the missionaries come to visit.
Wednesday- On Wednesday we had District Meeting, which meant
we got our car back! Oh happy day! After District meeting we headed down to
Neosho because Sister Snyder has been having some back problems and so we went
to the chiropractor. I just read my Jesus the Christ and we had a great old
time. After that we headed home and went to the Lemons for dinner. After the
chiropractor Sister Snyder was hurting pretty bad so the Lemons helped her by
having her use an ice pack. The Lemons are basically our Granby parents and so
they take good care of us. It was a really good day.
Thursday- On Thursday we had to drive to Joplin to get our
Tiwi installed in our car. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to
find out what a Tiwi is, let me tell you about it. Tiwi is a little box that is
stuck to our front windshield of our car and it monitors or driving. It tells
us to "check your speed" when we go to fast or when we are hitting
bumps to quickly or our RPM's get too high it informs us we are using
"aggressive driving." I have never had a problem with Tiwi (however,
I do get a few more "check your speed"s than I probably should)
it's just something to help me drive well but a lot of missionaries HATE
Tiwi. The guy who installed our Tiwi was really nice and we gave him a pass
along card before we left. Hopefully he will watch the video and decide to meet
with missionaries! While in Joplin on our way to get our Tiwi installed we did
get to drive on Historic Route 66 so that was really fun! :) After Tiwi we
headed back to Granby and to dinner at a members house. We got to dinner and we
find out there are two non members there! Score! So we ate dinner (salmon, crab
legs and shrimp with fresh fruit and corn, so yummy!) and it was great. After
that we went to go visit this old man who is a member of our ward and he was
sleeping so we left him a note and then we went home to do our weekly planning.
While we were planning we texted our investigator to ask when we could come see
her and she told us she was having a really hard time and had lost her job so
we hopped in the car to go see her and try to uplift and encourage. We had a
really good talk with her and we got to meet her daughter who is so sweet. We
ended up inviting her daughter to meet with us as well and she said yes! So we
got a new investigator! :)
Friday- On Friday we did service at the Newtonia Library and
that was good as always. After that we headed to see the old man we tried the
day before and we got to see him. We sat down to talk with him and his
caretaker was there. We had scheduled to do service the week before but no one
could take us and it was too far to bike so we had to cancel and his caretaker
just went ham on us. She told us that when we "decided not to show up"
that he did it himself and wore himself out and it could have been really bad
for him. We tried to explain we gave him few days notice and she wouldn't have
it. So we let it go and kept trying to talk to him. We started talking about
the spirit world and his caretaker pipes up again and just starts trying to
Bible bash us, and asks us where we found this in the Bible and when we tried
to show her she wouldn't let us talk. We tried to wrap up the visit because it
was a bad, contentious situation and we were both angry when she starts in
about how the members of our ward are not fulfilling their duty because they
are not coming and taking care of this man's lawn. She basically tore us apart.
So we sat quietly and took it and then when she was done assured her we would
tell our ward of her concerns and that it was time for us to leave. We were so
mad. One of the hardest things about being a missionary for me is that when
stuff like that happens I am still a representative of Jesus Christ so while I
normally would have put on my boxing gloves and gone a couple rounds with her,
I can't. I am learning how to turn the other cheek and forgive and love my
enemies. It's not an easy lesson for me to learn. After that we went and had a
lesson with our investigator, Sean. It was a really good lesson and we ended up
setting a baptismal date for the 22 of September! We are really excited about
that! :)
Saturday- On Saturday we had a good day! We started the day
by having breakfast at the Lemons, they are so kind to feed us so often. As we
were leaving I was trying to start driving on wet grass and we were in a little
bit of a rut so I had to give it some gas to get us out of the rut and freaking
Tiwi decided I was angry and gave me an "aggressive driving" *eye
roll* The car wasn't even going about 5 mph, so annoying. Then we went and did
service picking up some dead baby turkeys and then we headed home and got ready
for the rest of our day. In the afternoon we went to a carnival called
"howdy neighbor days" and we set up a table with some elders and
tried to talk to people! It was really cool because we were back a ways and not
a lot of people were coming and talking to us but this one guy came strolling
back and was just looking at our picture of Jesus we had on our sign and he starts
talking to us about how he's looking for a Christian church and how he
wants a reverent place to worship. I told him "you should really give our
church a try and he said he would! I didn't have the address for the building
in Monette so I got his number instead. It's always cool when prepared people
find the missionaries as they are led by the spirit. That night we had a lesson
with our investigators Jess and Steve and it was one of the best lessons I've
had on my mission. They asked us if instead of teaching them or reading with
them if we could tell them why we choose to believe what we believe and
basically why we are doing what we are doing. As we talked and shared with them
they shared really personal things with us. I can't share a lot of details but
I can say that I am so grateful for strong people who have a desire to come
closer to God. It seriously makes all the difference.
Sunday- On Sunday we woke up and went to ward council which
was good as always and then church started! I love church. I love being able to
sit and feel the spirit and learn from other people's testimony and
experiences. We have been trying to figure out how to work with the ward during
the times we don't have a car and so we tried sending around a different kind
of calendar when people could pick when they give us rides to the things we
need to get to instead of us just sending texts and asking and I think this is
going to work better which is a huge blessing. After church we met with our
ward mission leader and we were able to talk about the work and how we can get
the ward more involved. I'm super grateful for a ward mission leader who is so
willing to help. After church we had lunch with some members and it was good!
After that we went home and studied because we didn't have time to before
church and studies are important. After that we went to dinner with the Lemons
(different Lemons from the same family, the son of the other Lemons). Earlier
this week Brother Lemon, Darrell, and I were talking and he said something that
has been on my mind this week. He said "If you want to quit and go home
when the days are good then that's fine, quit and go home. But don't quit when
the days are bad." That really struck a chord with me. There are always
going to be hard days, on a mission, as a parent, just in life. There are
always going to be bad days. But you can't quit when the days are bad. If
you're going to quit something quit when the days are good. If you're having a
good day and what your doing still doesn't bring you joy then okay, find
something else to do. God intended for his children to feel joy, not muddle
through. But when the days are through quitting can't be an option. Opposition
comes in all good things, but the good outweighs the bad. I thought that was a
really cool thought and have decided that this is my new life mantra (i learned
that word on my mission, I think I just used it correctly but I'm not
positive).
Well, I hope that y'all know how much I love you and I hope
that y'all will push through the bad days so that you can enjoy the good. Don't
give up because the days are hard. If you're going to quit quit when the days
are good and life is going well. Jesus Christ didn't have an easy time, so we
shouldn't expect to. I love y'all and I hope that the days are good. Have a
great week! :)
2 Timothy 2:3
"Thou therefore endure hardness; as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ." Keep on enduring my fellow soldiers, God loves you and I do too.
--
~Sister Madisen Lloyd
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