Midwest Missionary: 2 days late and 2 sisters short {9/4/13}

Hello Hello!

Happy Missionary Mail... Wednesday!! :) The verdict is in and......

Sister Parker and I are both staying in Eastgate!!! HALLELUJAH! I could not be happier. You don't know how hard I've been praying.

But wait, there's more.

Sister Parker has been called as the Sister Training Leader for our zone!! Wow! I don't know what exactly is in store for us but I know it will be good! We will be going on a lot of exchanges so sister P can do trainings so I will get to work with a lot of Sisters! I'm excited! Once again, I cannot tell you how amazing Sister P is. This only confirms what I already knew-- I won the companion jackpot!

Where to start this week??

I hope your Labor Day was splendid even though it wasn't missionary mail day. I was on an exchange with Sister Penrod (Sis P was at a training at the mission home). We were invited to a member's house for a Labor Day Luncheon. They live back in the woods a little and have a pond for swimming and a beautiful house/lot! Bro. Bradford was actually a mission president in Brazil! He really intimidates me. There were about five other families from our ward there including the bishopric and stake president! I got to get to know them all better, tell them about some of our miracles, and share a message with them-- it was great! The only way it could have been better would have been if I hadn't accidentally called Bro. Bradford Sister Bradford. Yikes!!! I was so embarrassed because, like I said, he is very intimidating and isn't the type of man to just laugh it off... more like a death glare actually.

Anyway, Miracle time. Woot Woot!

I believe I've told you about Alex from Lebanon. Well, he was going to go to a baptism with us on Saturday but when Brother Blackham went to pick him up he said he was sick. Well, the Cherry Grove Sisters had a bunch of food they had just got from a member and suggested we take it to him because he is poor. So we did just that. When we got there we found the usually very cheery Alex in the depths of despair. He wept as he told us that his life had no purpose, that no one cared about him, and that he was pleading all morning with God to take his life. He was obviously inconsolable. We called down the powers of Heaven the best we could and did the best thing we knew how-- sang him a hymn. A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief actually. The mood and Spirit in the room was instantly lifted. It was amazing. Alex told us he decided he wanted to go to the baptism. We went and he spirits lifted even more. Afterwards he was able to receive a blessing from a couple men from the ward and the Elders. He wept again as he thanked us over and over for saving his life. He showed us the dozens of prescription pills he was about to take that morning. If only we had come a couple hours later it would have been too late. Luckily, Alex is a man of God and he felt God telling him to be patient. So he waited and we came knocking.

How wonderful it is to be a tool in the Lord's hand. I have been so humbled. I was blessed with the Gospel. the best family in the world, and everything I could have wished or hoped for growing up. And here is a man who had to escape from his home country to be free and safe, who has not seen his family in 13 years, who has been betrayed by the only friends he had in this country, who feels as though he has nothing to live for.

This experience has given me the extra boost/reminder I needed this week to give this (my mission) ALL of my heart, might, mind, and strength. Jesus Christ gave his life for me, I can give 18 months of service for him. If I can help good people like Alex, even if Alex was the only person I helped my entire mission--it would be worth it. I think I have a bit more understanding of the scripture that says how great will be your joy if you bring only one soul unto Christ. Alex's life was saved this week because four young girls decided to serve missions. I know that it was not any of us who saved him, but I am so grateful for my choice to be here, to let the Lord work through me.

After sharing this life changing experience together, we found out the Cherry Grove Sisters are leaving us. They are moving into their own apartment in Cherry Grove :( My heart is broken! I love these sisters so much. I really feel like they are my Sisters! The Blackhams took us all out for family dinner Monday night at Outback and Roanna (is an angel) bought us all matching Labor Day shirts (really cute striped shirts from the Gap). We had the best night!! I love my little mission family and I don't know what I'll do without my sisters! An older couple took a picture for us after and they really thought we were all family--haha. :) This morning Sister P and I rearranged our room. We moved out the other beds and moved all the other furniture around. It feels HUGE now!! We have the whole basement to ourselves and it's almost finished! It will feel so lonely though! We're also painting a mural on one of the walls I'll send you a picture of at a later time and date when it's finished.

All is well in Ohio! The weather got really hot but it seems to be cooling off again so that's wonderful. I can't wait for fall here! I'm praying I'll get to stay with Ma and Pa B for the holidays.

One more fun story for you. Sis P and I ran out of miles on Saturday, the last day of the month (our car is a 2013 Chevy Cruz if you were wondering) so we walked from the church to our house-- a few miles, through tall grass, down windy roads, in the 95 degree plus major humidity weather. We made a good time of it and sang/made up stories :)

I LOVE YOU!

xoxo
Sister Rolfe