To those that I love,
Hmm. This week was pretty great. Because I got a GOONIES t-shirt. Hand delivered to my Branch Presidents home, by my very own parents. Happiness.
You might have wondered at some point in my bizzaro e-mails home, why I haven't mentioned the people we are teaching. Well, I feel..not right about doing that. These are people's lives, and who I am to be publishing it? Pictures maybe, if I ask them. But details..no. One day, when it's just you and me, and the setting and tone of the conversation is appropriate, I will probably share some of these sacred experiences I am only privileged to be a part of.
This week, Heavenly Father taught me something really special. I was on exchanges with another Hermana, and we were keeping each other awake talking about "the one" Let me go back in time a little bit. A returned sister missionary came back to the branch to visit, and I asked her who in the branch she played a part in teaching. She pointed to one of my favorite families, and said that, that was all. She was here in this area for 14 months. She said everyone else she taught went in-active. In the end, it was all for this one family. Almost the entirety of her mission, seeing as some of those 18 months were spent in the MTC. So her mission, in full, was for this one beautiful family. So I got to thinking, that maybe this really is all for just one. And how, that needs to be enough. I am one, therefore it would only be fair if I spent my mission in the serivce of the one. One for one. But, Heavenly Father does not often have this be the scenario. There are many that need us, but it was important for me to put my time here in perspective, and let it be enough if it was for only one. So anyways, Hermana Petersen and I were discussing this through the night, and declaring that they are so worth it, and that though difficult, we would always keep this perspective. Because, you say these things, knowing they are true, but what is left on the opposite side? If the whole mission were for one, that would mean that every other person would disappoint you, break your heart, slam the door, or say..no. So. The next morning, we get up, and I feel very strongly that we just need to go to every in-active, and anyone on the branch directory who we have never seen, and go out to them. Go find them, and bring them to church. So we did just that. It took the whole of our day. And more than half had moved. The other half were not home. And so, after mapping out our route, eating 80 miles of the mission vehicle, and not contacting a single person on the list, we found ourselves with a few minutes left, and one more family. You can guess what happens next. A girl answers the door. She is only 17, and the most prepared for the gospel than anyone I have met thus far. She has been studying the book of Esther in her spare time, and..she's just incredible. Her family is inactive, and she is not baptized. I can't do the story justice over e-mail, or anything for that matter. Heavenly Father taught us, and tried the very testimony of the words we had said the night before. Our whole day was a doosy, but it was spent in the service of the one, and she was more than worth every failed attempt that day.
I love you all dearly,
Hermana Patton
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