Okay so...
I'm hardly in an inspirational mood. I'm hungry, and I ate my body weight in rasberries this morning so I'm not feelin' so hot! We went rasberry picking with Pres. Alder today; it was so much fun! Elder Collins is from South Carolina, so he sang us _____ pickin' songs while we picked rasberries. It was great.
Okay so just so everyone is up to date: I received Hermana Kidd last week, our next transfer is in 2 weeks, and I am permanently in the Vancouver Mission. Which will swallow up half of Portland as well. Yes, I would love to go to Portland. I wanted to live in WA befforree I moved here. Let's just say...the citizens of WA take full advantage of the mary-jane being legal. High people looovee the story of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. "Woooowww", with big eyes, is what they look like when we tell them about it. It's a real self esteem boost after so many non-intoxicated people say no thanks and shut the door. Anyways. WA is a trip for sure.
Okay so Hermana Kidd. She's pretty awesome. She is 25, a school-teacher, adorable, and an answer to my prayers. She is an incredible missionary. I will get to go on exchanges with other companionships often, because she will be moving around with other sisters. I could not ask for a better trainer. I can't see us being life long friends or anything...we're pretty opposite in everything other than how we are both fully aware that our way is best. EXCEPT I will have you know family, that I think I have been cured, since I am alwayyys the compromiser now, or I just give in because I don't care to have things my way all the time anymore. So that's good. It took someone just like me, to see, and think..."Ugghhh, is that how I am?" So now I try really hard to not be that person who is always right. But she is a near perfect trainer, and that is what mattered most to me; a trainer that could give me an example to hold onto for the next 15 months. I don't need to be best friends forever with every companion. I just want to learn what God would have me learn from them. Hermana Kidd is extremely busy, fast paced, knowledgable about the field, and focused 1,000% of the time. She is exactly what I asked for, and I got it. It's just as hard as I thought it would be, but I'm finally doing the missionary work that I desired, and was sent here to do. The real reason why I was so miserable, is because I felt like I wasn't fulfilling my purpose. I got into the field, and my trainer killed my fire. I was so pumped and excited, and ready to work, and then I came here and there wasn't any. And I wasn't being taught to be a missionary...on any level. So I just felt hopeless, and basically like, "I'm not doing ANY good for the people of Vancouver. Why am I away from all that I love and hold dear to just walk around aimlessly with a badge on? Nobody is teaching me how to be a missionary!!!!" So Hermana Kidd was my gift from Heaven, and I am so, so very grateful for her. I am learning how to be a missionary, and how to do missionary work. She is the best of the best, and anyone that has been trained by her is so blessed if they are willing to learn from her. Your trainer is who sets the pace for your entire mission. They teach you how to be a missionary in deed, while the Spirit trains you in your heart.
The most important thing I have learned this week is this: (It just keeps running through my head)
Everyone needs a Savior. Everyone needs the Savior. Everyone needs our Savior.
Once you can let the sterotypes of missionary work and all the stigma that comes with the words, "Mormon missionaries" fall away, really once you let EVERYTHING fall away, that is all that is left. That is the only thing you will find there. Because it is the only thing that matters. I am just learning this. I imagine it will be a life long endeavor.
Love you all so much, thank you for the love and letters,
Hermana Patton
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