What a week friends.
Snowstorms, road trips, car calamities, sleepovers, and miracles
It turns out in Minnesota, when you refer to "April showers" that means "snow showers" because we've had out fair share of those this week. It feels like Christmas time again!
On Tuesday, it snowed all day long. We were driving to go stop by someone, when we suddenly realized we were going the wrong way, so I suddenly applied the brakes a but too hard, and all the snow on our roof slid on to the front windshield. We were now goinng 40 mph, the wrong direction, and couldn't see anything. Our windshield wipers did their best, and we were able to safely pull over in a parking lot, only to discover that amidst all the commotion one of our windshield wipers had broken off. We were able to go to the nearest auto shop up the road and replace it, then head on our merry way. We were a half hour late getting to the place we had planned to go, but right as we pulled up, the woman who lived there also pulled up getting home from work. She recognized the missionaries from when we contacted her a few months ago, and invited us right in. We had an amazing lesson about prayer, and the Holy ghost, and she really opened up to is about how she has seen God's hand in her life and in raising her kids, and we are so excited to start teaching her. If we had gotten there any earlier, she wouldnt have beem home uet and we would have moved on to a different house. So we are very grateful for snow storms and God's perfect timing. When we went back for our appointment this week, she told is that she has been reading, read the introductory pages and the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and she loved it and is excited to learn more. We are so excited to teach her!
This week the mission had transfers! Hna Davis and I are staying together, this will be our third transfer together, and her last one before going home 😓 but we are excited to keep working and growing here together in Rochester. The day after transfers we had MLC in Bloomington, and since Rochester is an hour and half away, we stayed up in the cities the night before. We got to have dinner with President and Sister Barney, and we got to sleep over with the other hermanas covering that area, so I got to spend some time with mi hija Hna Hanson! Que bendicion!
There is this really sweet old woman, Mona, whom we visit every week. She enjoys our visits, but she is really lonely and sad and doesn't always open up, and we would just love to help her smile. On the way up this week we noticed a piano down the hall by her room, so when we were talking to her we offered "hey, if you want, Sister Meredith can play the piano for you." She said "Are you good at the piano? Beause the last time someone played if wasn't good." So we told her we could try and she could tell me if it wasn't good. So I played a couple of hymns, and then tried some classical music, and she immediately said "Is that Clair de lune?" "Yes, Mona do you like that song?" And she just nodded and smiled and sat back in her chair, and I played Clair de Lune and she was so happy, haha she wanted me to play it again and she when so sad when we had to leave, and made us promise that I would play the piano again next week. I had never seen her smile that much, and it was so cool to see her heart opened by music.
This week I have been seeking a lot of guidance and answers and was feeling frustrated by the lack of answers I felt I was receiving. I see my time on the mission slowly clicking down, and I feel like there are a lot of blessings I have been promised that I have yet to see come to pass, and it left me feeling pretty hopeless.This past fast Sunday I prayerfully approached it seeking understanding and hope. When the member of the bishopric conducting sacrament meeting bore his testimony, he shared how he had been talking to one of his children about blessings, and how he felt there were blessings he had been promised he had not yet received, then proceeded to share how in his life he has seen that the blessings are always realized, but that are realized on the Lord's timeline, not ours, and we have to faithful, and patiently carry on, knowing that the Lord will bring that thing to pass in his own time. I could hardly believe it, I felt as though he was speaking right to me and it was an incredibly direct and specific answer right to my prayers. It reminded me of a quote I found a while back by President Monson
"You will never know the full influence of your testimony and your [missionary] service, but you will return with gladness for having had the privilege of responding to a sacred call to serve the Master."
I have been permitted to see countless miracles, but there are many people who have not yet accepted the gospel, people whom I love dearly, for whom I pray every day that they will someday be ready to accept the gospel and make those changes in their lives. And I'm beginning to accept that there is a lot I will never know, a lot of goodness I will never see, but I can be glad that I am dedicating my mission to my Savior and be grateful for the opportunity I have, and trust that as I am serving Him with all my heart, everything will work out for good.
I love being a missionary. It is truly the hardest thing I have ever done, the struggles and trials never cease, but neither do the miracles.
Till next week!
Hermana Meredith
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