As
totally fun as today was, it was really strange not getting to write you
yesterday! {Pday was changed to Tuesday in order to attend the temple – MOM]
EEEKKKK
I'm so so so excited about this Christmas letter thing! I'm certain that you
are like the most thoughtful person in the world. I just LOVE you! I can't
believe you put that all together just for me. Thank you for doing all of that
just so that I can have a Happy Christmas! I still think the best thing I could
receive is a skype call from you!! I always tell people that my Mom and I love
talking, and we basically start the next sentence before the last one is over
because we just kind of know where the conversation is going. And we are both
the type that think out loud. I'm so excited to talk to you in just a little
over a month! But about the package, if you sent it last week, I would think
that it would get here this week or the next, which is totally fine. We have a
4 week transfer from November 15thish to December 15thish, so we will
definitely have interview and/or zone conference the before the first week of December,
where I can get those letters. I’ll make sure to look for it extra hard and try
my best to get it before December! I am so excited about that, and excited to
see who wrote a letter! Do I need to open them in a certain order or do I just
get a Christmas card every day! Oh oh oh I’m excited! Totally do not worry at
ALL about the Christmas sweets, I don’t mind at all! That totally made my day
knowing you tried, thank you so much! As for the pants, those will be an
awesome surprise for when I get home! :)
Woah,
that concert [Vocal Point] looked like fun! I still can’t believe you went, we
never even went to a concert together! Maybe that'll have to change. Except by
then MoTab will be the only acceptable thing to me, so a good old night of
hymns sounds good, right? ;-) Man, about the future son in law.... No. Boys
still have cooties sorry!
I'll
answer your questions right now!
LOL MY
HAIR. No, its not even but its fineeeeee. Its healthy and I know Grandma will
help me out afterwards. Yes and no, towards my feelings with it. I love how
easy it is to wash and dry, but duhhhh longer hair is prettier. I totally want
to curl it but I don’t really know how to at this length and the one time I
did, it felt out in an hour! Grr!
Yes and
no with the glasses. I wore them that day for my Grisham costume because she
wears them, but I’ve been wearing them for church classes and zone conference
when I need to look at the board! The world is so much clearer with them on its
weird!
My skin
is doing just fine!! I mean yeah here and there I'll get a blemish, but nothing
very big or dramatic. I’ve been really blessed! I don’t touch up any of my
pictures haha I wish I had that capability!
Okay
this is a German thing- they always serve you drinks in a glass. Whenever you
go over to someone’s house, I always have to have a drink or its rude. I
usually ask for water (I love the bubbly water now! Normal is still the best
though) but this lady just gave us this. It tastes like Pepsi so I thought
nothing of it (silly me growing up Mormon thinking Pepsi and Coke are normally
caffeine free haha). I don’t drink soda though, it’s still gross to me, but I
was being polite.
Oh
speaking of money, I have none to send your Christmas package haha! It’s been
sitting in my living room for a week now, and I really need to send it. Its
stuffed full so it might cost a pretty penny but it’s so worth it for my
family! I’m so excited for you to get these gifts, I’m giving you no hints in
advance!!!! :) could you transfer some of my emergency money into my account
so I can send it please? Thank you!
This
week was so awesome, I don’t even know how I could write it all down. I changed
up the game, and tried to push myself to post auf Facebook more! Our mission
president lovingly suggested (like all good ones do!) that we need to be using
the tools we are given or else we need to give them back. Aye aye captain! I've
posted little quotes every day! What do you think? I've really liked doing them
and have gotten great responses! I’m so glad that I can use Facebook for the
wonderful purpose of missionary work and spreading the gospel, its truly a
blessing.
Our day
was a little crazy because of going to the temple (starting at 4:30 this
morning! Yeah, we were dedicated!) so I, unfortunately, don’t have tons of time
to write all of my thoughts, but here are the majority of them!
Zone
conference!!!!! Agh I loved it so much, and it was the spiritual burst that I
really needed! I learned so much! Here are some of my favorite points:
-"To
succeed in this work, we need to have a testimony of God, but also of the evil tricks
of the adversary. Just don't pray for the second one!" That was a good
reality check for me. As much as we build our testimony, what will help it is
realizing how Satan tries to lead us away. It’s different for everyone, all of
our investigators have different problems: feeling inadequate to ask God
questions, addictions, refusing to let go of grudges, etc etc. Getting out of
an oblivious bubble and knowing how Satan tries to tempt you and lead you away
will create a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father and the joy in His
way!
-The
adversary can't kill a missionary, but the 2nd best thing that he can do is to
bind his tongue. For example, Joseph Smith right before the first vision!
Lucifer did all that he could, but it wasn’t enough. I will work will all I
have to be the same! When I have the feeling to talk to someone, I show Satan
what’s up and go talk to them!
mazing
thoughts on working with the immigrant community. We had an Arabian woman skype
in who is a convert and works as an Arabic translator for refugees. She hears
all of their stories and it is heart breaking. These people have been through
so much and need the gospel to know that Christ can give them so so so much
comfort. She said that it’s wrong to think that they come here for a better
life, they come here for a safe life. They want to be home too, but
this is how it is for now. She also said that this is the safe place that they
can receive the gospel, and she is sure that it is God's will! My last favorite
thing was talking about women that wear headscarves. She said that they aren't
necessarily a religious symbol, but rather like us they want to be modest and
they cover what they feel is immodest. She said that these women are so much
better to talk to, because they are not indifferent. They have standards too.
She asked an amazing rhetorical question: "They believe in being obedient,
so what kind of members do you think that they'd make?" Awesome right?
They are such sweet women too.
Last
thing... This is pretty personal but I will share it. I had a really hard day
last week, and it was AMAZING! Yeah that sounds confusing, but I'll explain. I
actually don’t know why exactly, but for some reason, lots of things just got
to me on Friday. My own inadequacies and weaknesses paired with unfortunately
getting frustrated in the faults of others. Hah I’m so not perfect and I’m
3849892% willing to admit that. Well, yeah. The day went on. It got to the
point where I just wanted to go home and curl in a ball and not doing anything.
I sat on the bus ride home from a bit of contacting and just looked at that
picture of you and dad on my tablet. I started to cry... I put absolutely no
fault on Grisham, but she isn’t you... You somehow just always know exactly
what I need when I’m not happy, and I love you for that! I was just thinking
about what you would do in that time I was sad, you wouldn't leave me alone,
you would always be there right next to me, ready to talk even if I maybe didn’t
want to. Yeah, it was really, really, really hard. Like, I’d consider that 1 of
the 2 hardest days yet (I’d say that’s pretty good too!). We ended up getting
home and I just went in the bathroom and locked the door and cried. I just
prayed and cried and prayed and cried and then did it all over again. I threw
out all of my feelings to Heavenly Father, the anger the sadness, the whole
pile of it. I probably prayed for close to an hour... I told you that it was
amazing because compared to the feeling I had, the wonderful feelings that
followed were all the better. I decided to shut my mouth for a second just
listen. After a few minutes of just praying that Heavenly Father would talk to
me, He did. I felt a rush of peace over my entire body- head to toe. I felt no
anger, sadness or any feelings of self-doubt, I felt that He simply loved me. He doesn't want me to stay the same person. He doesn't want me to be a basic missionary who just does what's asked, no he wants me to do even more. He knows what I'm capable of and He wants to prepare me for eternity, right
here and now! I really can’t even describe that immense feeling of peace. I’m
so grateful for Heavenly Father, who knows me and loves me. I am His child.
Have you ever thought about how profound the simple words "I am a child
of God" are? I love Him with all my heart, and I'm also so, so
grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost, that I can learn from Him. Man, we
have a really good guy to lean on up there when you can’t just rant everything
to your mom.
I love you
a million zone conferences Mommy! I will write a longer email next week when I’m
not running on 5 hours of sleep! Know that I’m so happy, and I am giving my
ALL! I’m so glad you aught me how to work hard.
Love, Sister Macey Ingalls
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