Midwest Missionary: Mail from your favorite missionary! {12/16/13}

So, I don't let myself read any of your emails until I write this one or else, let's be honest, I would never get to it. But, I'm just so excited to go read all of your emails sometimes I rush through this one. Sorry!

What a week!!

I feel like my past few emails have been all spiritual/serious which is fine and great, but let's start this one off on a lighter note. Yesterday at church this guy told me, "Sister, it's so nice to know a blond who isn't ditzy!" Hahah, hmm, I'm not sure wether I should take that as a compliment.

Thursday morning we woke up at 4 a.m. so we could head down to Muncie by 5 for zone conference (Muncie is about 2 hours from K-Ville). We got there and we were the first was there and the building was locked! Soon enough the rest of our zone showed up so we sang Christmas carols until the Muncie zone leaders came and unlocked the building. Brrr!!

ZONE CONFERENCE WAS SO GOOD.

I don't even know what to say. It was just really, really, really, good. Elder Perkins of the first quorom of the 70 was there and we were spiritually fed. Okay, we feasted. I never wanted to leave! Before I tell you about what I learned, get this. Elder Stradling, Elder Chambers, and Sister Ellis were all there! In case you're confused, that's all of the missionaries from my MTC district I came out here with. Reunited and it felt so good! AND, Elder Tanner and Elder Fivas from Eastgate were there!! (they're not in Eastgate anymore) AND Sister Palmberg, my grandma, was there!!!!!!! It was like a big family reunion! Ah, it was so exciting. It's amazing how close you get to the other missionaries. Sister Fox and I decided it's like a really close singles ward without all the awkward relationship drama. I love my missionaries!

Anyway, I learned so much from the conference I don't even know where to start. Basically, I'm ready to take on the world-- or at least, Kendallville. Most of it was focused on how to be a better teacher of the gospel. It was powerful. One of my favorite things, though, was what he shared with us about our weaknesses. If you couldn't tell from my last email. I've been finding a lot of those lately. Elder Perkins said that when satan works on you and tell you your no good it's disparing, but when the Spirit shows you your weaknessed, there is hope that you will be able to overcome them. Don't get confused! Trust me, I have, and it's not a good thing. Heavenly Father will never make you feel overwhelmed with your weaknesses and inabilities. Whew! Good to know.

After our meeting with him, all of the sisters got to stay and have a meeting with his wife. We sat in a big circle and talked about our feelings and our divine role as Sisters/women and as you can imagine there were a lot of water works. Especially coming from me. The spirit just overwhelmed me. As one of our investigators used to say, it was a spiritual punch in the face. I could feel Heavenly Father's love for my sisters and me so strongly and I knew how great our divine potential really is. The world has women stand for all of the wrong things these days and we, the minority, are here to change that. What a sacred and special privilege. As women, we're really hard on ourselves and naturally comapare ourselves to each other (which is really lame and unproductive). Sister Perkins told us to stop doing that. All of sisters are working toward the same cause, we're on the same team and we each have our own individual mission. The same is true in life. I really needed this reminder. We also brought up President Hinckley's wise words-- Try a little harder to be a little better. I love that. All we have to be today is a little better than we were yesterday. Just like Dad has taught me my whole life-- my toughest opponent in life is myself.

Wow that was a huge tangent!

So, that night we drove to Ft. Wayne with the sisters and went to their ward Christmas party. I forgot what it was like to be in a ward. So many people! We had a sleepover and went on exchanges the next day. When we woke up we were literally in a winter wonderland. Holy cow! It took us 30 minutes to get to a house that's usually 5-10 minutes away. Craziness. And I was driving!! Yep, first experience driving in a snow storm-- check! All of the elders and sisters met at a recent converts house (8 missinaries total) and we cleaned it top to bottom! I cleaned cat hair/droppings out of places where they do not belong. Poor woman. It was so neat to all come together and do this for her though! We sang christmas hymns to her after and she cried and told us how special we are. When we tried to leave our cars were stuck in the snow so the elders had to dig us out. Oh and we made snow angels :) The rest of our day was great/crazy/cold. Foxy and I drove home that night and were very careful, Mom. Sunday, we both spoke in church. It was on the Divine Mission of Jesus Christ and we've been studying the atonement the past couple weeks so I had a lot to say and could not narrow it down. I honestly had no idea where I would go with it when we got to church and was praying really hard. Then, surprise!, the stake presidency was there!! Really? Well, my prayers were answered and it went so well! Thank you Dad for blessing me with the love of public speaking. And thanks to the Spirit for guiding my words/thoughts, of course. I talked about the reason behind his divine mission-- love. And how we need to follow His example, in order to become like him, and love all men. I closed with "let us make it our divine mission to exemplify His." I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. The stake pres was there because we got a new Branch President! President Powell who we're actually spending Christmas with! We're so excited! His daughter is the one going to ken's mission. After church we spoke at the Young Women in Excellence program and you know how I feel about talking to women of the church (I love it! Women are great. Sorry men.) So that was good. Their theme was happily ever after (please, girls reading this, go read Uchtdorf's talk about this) and all the girls dressed up like Disney princesses and talked about how their lives relate. It was so cute!

In Ft. Wayne we went to Panda and my fortune said I would bless others lives through music or something along those lines. This week I'm singing a duet at our mission Christmas party and playign the violin in church for the Christmas program. Please pray for me!

I love you all dearly and can't wait to talk to my family members in 9 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

peace and blessings y'all,

Sista Rolfe

"Place your burdens on Jesus Christ. When you feel overwhelmed by expectations and challenges,
do not fight the battle alone. Follow the example of small children, and drop to your knees in prayer.
Jesus Christ has commanded us, “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
Doubt, fear, and worry indicate we have taken all of life’s burdens and anxieties on ourselves.
When plagued by thoughts that you are inadequate, confidently say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Then as you “cheerfully do all things that lie in [your] power,” you can rest assured that the Lord will do the remainder and things will work out all right.
The Savior promised, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
As you “cast [your] burden upon the Lord,” you will feel the peace of the Spirit."
Elder Anthony D. Perkins