Mission Savy : "Give Me This Mountain"

Hey all!

Wow. It's been a WEEK. And this next one is coming even faster. I won't be emailing until Wednesday next week due to Mission Tour. Elder Wilford W. Anderson of the 70 is coming to our mission. He gave the talk The Music of the Gospel! We will be driving to Billings on Sunday night and be in meetings all day Monday, then head to Helena for another full day of meetings on Tuesday and then head back to the homeland in time for dinner. SO MUCH DRIVING. But I'm so excited. :) It'll be an amazing week.

I really enjoyed this past week and learned a loooooot. We spent a lot of time doing finding since we lost most of our teaching pool (to jail and 4th Ward. BLAH.) Lots of sad missionary broken hearts. For instance, we got a text from someone who was on date saying that he didn't want anything to do with the Book of Mormon. Previous to this he had a little baby testimony growing, but Satan got to him. Get thee hence you little testimony snatcher! So. Sad. Ah. Anyway. We found a few cool people, but have yet to see a whole lot of progress. Lots of pounding the pavement and meeting a whole bunch of weird people. Everyone has this bumper sticker here that says: "Keep Missoula Weird". I'm pretty sure they're succeeding. Hahaha We had someone serenade us yesterday with their churches version of Jesus wants me for a sunbeam...it was interesting.

The weather this week was all over the place. One day I was out with Sister Parsons and we were biking to dinner and it started POURING RAIN. It's like...90 degrees outside and we are getting completely PELTED. I loved it :) The members we ate with were a bit concerned with our disheveled appearance at dinner though. We also drove to Hamilton this week for exchanges with the sisters in Darby. Montana is the most beautiful place on planet earth. Love it love it love it.

A HUGE highlight this week was getting to spend some time with the Wadsworths!!!! :) I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. President did interviews with everyone in Missoula. I learned so much from the time I got to spend with him. He teaches me so much about being a Christlike person and being a disciple leader. Fun facts. His favorite pudding is Tapioca. He loves donuts. He once had someone pop his air mattress at a scout camp when he was stake president. His favorite color is yellow. And he still jokingly threatens to send me to Malta. Hahaha I can definitely see that I was called to this mission because of him and Sister Wadsworth. They push me to be better. :) Sister Wadsworth came to a few lessons with us that night. She's amazing. Not only does she take care of ALLLLL the missionaries here, but also can teach investigators with so much power. The lessons we had scheduled did not go as planned. So many things out of our control happened during the lesson. And of course because we have the mission presidents wife with us! Haha But she was a great sport and I learned a lot and grew to love her all the more. She was great to have at a lesson with Jonathan. He's doing great and understanding more and more each time we teach him. We just need to teach him more consistently.

This week in my studies I have focused on "why do hard things happen?" Because it seems to be the big question on EVERYONE'S mind lately. I read a talk by Spencer W. Kimball from October 1979 general conference titled "Give Me This Mountain" He tells a story from the bible where Caleb (he's during the time of Moses) is going with the children of Isreal to find the promised land. It's ROUGH and they wander in the desert for many years. He quotes in Joshua 14:12 when Caleb says as he approaches another trial , "Give me this mountain” and then President Kimball goes on to say, "This is my feeling for the work at this moment. There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, “Give me this mountain,” give me these challenges."" At the beginning of my mission I remember going to a district meeting where my district leader talked a lot about trials. At the end of it all, he invited us all to pray for trials. WHAT. Elder, I've got enough trials going on with this thing called missionary work...I am NOT praying for more. But as the week progressed, I decided to try it out. And oh how the trials and the mountains to climb came. But the growth came with it! And the testimony. And the fervent prayers. President always says, "sometimes God delays the granting so the asking can become more fervent." So, trials are there for our growth. If we feel a little stagnant, maybe it's time for a trial and a change or two. The true and real growth comes when we embrace the struggles and turn them into miraculous blessings that bring us closer to God.

I love being a missionary. I love the change and growth that comes with it. I'm so so so so soooooo grateful that I don't have to do this work alone. That I have the support of the Savior and my Heavenly Father. It truly is an amazing work, the work of salvation. I feel like I'm just beginning to understand its importance.

I love you all so much! Be happy and work hard.

Love,
Sister Fletcher