Being a missionary means having your eyes opened to the small
miracles and the simple jokes. It's pretty interesting what can
bring a smile to your face when you're in Sparta Tennessee... For example, with
the idea that we would die and go to the spirit world, being very excited
to see all our favorite Book of Mormon heroes, only to find out that they were
only talking themselves up about being "large in stature" and were
all actually just shrimpy beanpoles, had me and Sister Pinkston laughing our
heads off. "Moroni you lied!! And in the Book of Mormon!!" HAHA... oh
boy, I don't even know what's going on with that. XD (tired?!)
Another funny thing was meeting Porshe McDonald. "Fast
food, fast car!" she says. She's an employee we met at a store who actually
came up to us and asked to give us HER number! I hope we can come to be good
friends :).
OH and before I forget, a shoutout to GAVIN BROWN for his
way cool mission call! Also, to Gabe Graham for getting a haircut! I'm super
proud of you both ;).
So this week basically all of our favorite investigators
dropped us :( It's been really hard to go through that rejection. Everytime it
happens, Jeffery R Hollands words run through my mind: "I am convinced
that missionary work is not easy because salvation was not a cheap
experience". I think of what the Savior went through, and when I am
turned away by others I know that I am "standing shoulder to shoulder with
the best life this world has ever known. The greatest missionary" and I
can stand tall with Him.
There is a 15 year old girl here that I have mentioned
before. She's recently had some really traumatic things done to her... like,
it's really hard not to ask if I can't just send her home to my family so she
can have a greater opportunity to reach her potential as the beautiful daughter
of God that she is. We knew some horrible things had happened, so we brought
the Ben and Jerry's ice cream and had a "girls night" where she just talked to
us about everything and we were the non-judgmental ears to listen. I wasn't
thinking about baptism. I wasn't thinking about what to say next. I wasn't
calling her to repentance. Yet in that moment I KNEW I was being a true
representative of Jesus Christ by being there for her as her friend.
Do you remember the miracle of the spanish pamphlet from
last week? Well this week we had another funny incident over there. We pull up
to their house and notice there are alot more cars than usual. We knock on the
door and the dad comes, asking us in spanish if we are the espanol
missionaries. Of course we don't really know what it is he's saying because
it's in spanish, but we get the idea of it and respond. He lets us in anyway,
and we see sitting on the couch THREE spanish speaking elders!! There are NO
missionaries in Sparta or anywhere near it for miles around. Sister Pinkston
and I just froze for a second. It was so funny! The elders didn't have a lesson
planned, so us Sisters came to the rescue with our Restoration dvd in spanish
that we had brought. So there we were. 5 missionaries, 2 of which have no clue
what is being said, and a family all sitting in this little home around the tv.
The spirit was so strong as we watched the story of Joseph Smith. It was great
and probably something I'll never experience again haha.
There are some really promising people we are helping right
now, but I don't want to say anything about them until there are some tangible
results I can talk about, haha.
So I guess it's time for my awkard story of the week. We
LOVE tracting in stores. There's one young man we've talked to a lot that works
at a store nearby. We've given him a Book of Mormon and one day decided to go
see him and make things a little more serious. We went over and asked him for
his number so we could set up a time to teach him, in which he said he didn't
have a phone at the moment. So we then asked for his address, only to see him
turn bright red and awkwardly tell us he didn't feel comfortable with that....
pretty sure Sister Pinkston was halfway out the door in
embarrasment before I had a chance to try to make that less uncomfortable
for everyone. So next time, remind me not to be so bold when it comes to
getting the contact information of single young men who I've only ever talked
to during his work hours.... *face palm*
But after a long week of rejection, we had zone conference! THAT was the best pick-me-up ever!
 |
This is my zone! The girl in
blue is my companion, and the other 2 girls next to me are the other sisters in
my district.
|
The first thing President Anderson told us
was a story about when he was called to be our mission president. He said he
was feeling like he just wasn't good enough. God told him "you don't have
to worry about that President, I'm sending you the very best". President
then said that that was another way of God telling him "even you
can't screw this up". Heavenly Father has a great love for the Tennessee
Nashville mission. What a blessing for ME to have been sent among the best so
that even I can't "screw this up". It was so good to go and be
surrounded by other missionaries and even to see some MTC friends! I ALSO got
my first package and it was the best thing of my life! Thanks again for that
:). Getting mail from other missionaries was also really cool for me. Elder
Oakes in the Philippines, Elder Anderson in India, Elder Risk in the Marshall
Islands, Sister VanCammen in Peurto Rico, Elder Peck in California, Sister
Lythgoe in Arizona... it's just way cool to me to think that we are all in such
different places, surrounded by such different people, having so many different
experiences in different languages... yet we are all teaching the SAME message.
That Jesus Christ lives and that His gospel has been restored to the earth.
I know I'm on this earth for a reason. I got to watch part
of the womens broadcast this week and I felt almost a spark of remembrance from
my time before I was born. I recognized that I had an understanding of what was
to be taking place when I came to earth. I was so excited and felt very
prepared to come get a body, find my Savior, help others come unto Him, and
then return to live with my Heavenly Father. It is the same for each of
us, I think. I'm so grateful for the guidance we have been given in this
life to be able to know these things and to know how we can return to live
with Him. I love to take the sacrament every week, and be cleansed by the
healing powers of the atonement just like when we are made clean at baptism. I
could practically FEEL the power of the atonement when I partook of it this
week. I adore studying about my Savior. Personal study time has never been so
exciting to me as it is now.
So even though some of this week's lessons were a flop and nobody really wanted to talk to us, it was still wonderful. The sun is shining,
everything is beautiful, and I know that I am in the
promised land.
I sure am going to miss these long country roads someday....
Sister Hochstrasser
Tennessee Nashville Mission
105 West Park Drive Ste 190
Brentwood, TN 37027
or DearElder.com for 49 cents :)
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