Happy 4th of July! you know what that means? It's almost your
BIRTHDAY! woohoo! Happy birthday to you, Mom!
I am doing really really well! Sister Hadley and I are doing
good work and having some really good experiences together. I really love
Sister Hadley, she's like my sister! We make up new words to EFY songs together
and speak in different accents sometimes - like we're from Africa, or sometimes
China.
I probably have never done either of those things with Emily and Sydney,
but missions do weird things to ya. ;)
We pranked the Elders by pretending that
a nonmember we all did service for let us teach her the first lesson and agreed
to be baptized, but wanted us to teach her not the elders (she lives in their
area and they really don't like it when we teach people in their area) - they totally
believed us and it was so funny!
But we tried to tell some girls our age who
are here from BYU for the summer about it, and they didn't think it was funny
at all. I'm sure you probably don't think it's very funny, but as a missionary
it's hilarious!
I read the most amazing article in the Liahona this week. It was
about becoming perfected in Christ, and what it means to be perfect. I think on
any given day, I carry around at least a little bit of burden of not feeling
good enough - I make a mistake and feel stupid the rest of the day; I see other
missionaries doing great things and beat myself up for not being as devoted as
they are; etc. But at the same time I get so worried about being seen as
imperfect that I want to justify everything I do so that I feel like I'm doing
everything 100% right.
Anyways, in the article Elder Gong talks about the
different "symptoms" of perfectionism (hehehe, if you think about it,
it kind of is a sickness!) and how being a perfectionist can actually take you
further away from Christ.
Basically reading the article lifted a very heavy
burden from my shoulders. I don't have to be perfect. I'm not always going to
be the best of the best. But admitting that I am imperfect and being okay with
it (as well as remembering that other people are imperfect and being okay with
it) makes the whole business of being a missionary a lot less stressful!
Of
course I am always trying to be a better person. But knowing that I don't have
to be 100% perfect 100% of the time right now makes repenting and trying to do
better easier, because I know that Jesus Christ wants me to be perfected in Him
- and the only way I can do that is by admitting I am not perfect, and then
repenting and coming closer to Him. Does that make sense? I really hope so!
I'm sorry because this one is really short - I ran completely
out of time! I am sorry!!
But it's been a great week, and the work is going forward.
D, from Peru, started going to a Catholic church and is meeting with the
priest, so she's not exactly interested in hearing about the church right now
): But that's okay!
It's all in the Lord's timing! Yesterday we found a way
positive new investigator who has met with sister missionaries before - we
asked her what she believes in and she basically told us her whole life, haha!
And tomorrow we get to go to dinner with President Sederholm's family and a
less-active lady we work with and her family - it's going to be so great!
I love you lots! I am praying for you with the big moving coming on! Keep up the faith! And here is an inspirational quote for you -
"remember who you wanted to be."
Love love love you!
Love,
Hannah
PS pictures are lame this week, sorry! But Elder Wright in our district gave us a delicious recipe for homemade pretzels and we made them. Yum!
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