Letter #35 - God Answers Prayers

March 27, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

I've been going through a lot of hard stuff lately, including feelings of inadequacy as a missionary, homesickness, and lots of other generally negative feelings. And I've prayed for help - oh how I've prayed. But a lot of times, all I heard was silence. I've been studying from the Bible a lot lately, and one of the lessons I came across was what is often called The Parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-10). I also study with the institute manual because I've found it helps me understand what is going on better and helps give some context to Christ's teachings. For this parable, the manual includes a quote from James E. Talmage, from his book Jesus the Christ. It says, 

"The Lord’s lesson was, that if man, with all his selfishness and disinclination to give, will nevertheless grant what his neighbor with proper purpose asks and continues to ask in spite of objection and temporary refusal, with assured certainty will God grant what is persistently asked in faith and with righteous intent. No parallelism lies between man’s selfish refusal and God’s wise and beneficent waiting. There must be a consciousness of real need for prayer, and real trust in God, to make prayer effective; and in mercy the Father sometimes delays the granting that the asking may be more fervent.” 

I was able to better understand that the silence came, not because He didn't care or because I was doing something wrong, but because He wanted to see if I really wanted His help. He allowed me time to humble myself before Him so that I would be prepared to act on the answers he would give me. As the weeks have gone on, I have been blessed with an abundance of divine help. It has not made my situations any different, but it has provided me with comfort, an awareness that my Heavenly Father knows and loves me, and strength to continue on. At times it can even be said of me as it was said of Alma and the people in Helam, that my burdens have been made light, and that "the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord" (Mosiah 24:15). I know that this strength comes through relying on the Atonement of Christ. I always love what Elder Bednar has taught about this strengthening aspect of the atonement. 

"Not only does the Atonement of Jesus Christ overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and make possible the remission of our individual sins and transgressions, but His Atonement also enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal capacities. Most of us know that when we do things wrong and need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has made it possible for us to become clean through His redeeming power. But do we also understand that the Atonement is for faithful men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully? I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe we must carry our load all alone--through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities.

We are not and never need be alone. We can press forward in our daily lives with heavenly help. Through the Savior’s Atonement we can receive capacity and “strength beyond [our] own” (“Lord, I Would Follow Thee,” Hymns, no. 220). As the Lord declared, “Therefore, continue your journey and let your hearts rejoice; for behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end” (D&C  100:12)." (Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease, April 2014)

I know this is true. I know that God answers prayers in his own timing. I know that He loves us and is aware of us.

And I love all of you! 

Sister Prue 

Letter #34 - 8 Months Today

March 20, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we had the incredible opportunity to hear from an apostle of
the Lord, Elder Rasband. We also were able to hear from Elder
Hallstrom and Bishop Causse (I know I butchered the spelling on that
one) of the presiding Bishopric. Beforehand we were asked to read a
talk he gave in general conference in 2010. In it he shared his
experience of observing how missionaries are assigned to their
missions and bore testimony of the divinity of our call. During our
conference, he shared his experience this week of assigning calls to
missionaries, as that is now his privilege to do as an apostle. He
said he even assigned some to this mission :) He told us not to
complain about our areas or companions or missions because doing so is
to mock God. He promised us that if we would keep journals during our
missions, that the spiritual experiences we record will be able to
bolster our testimonies later in life at times when our faith may
become weak. He talked about how missions are times where we find
ourselves and God's elect. Missions are very inward and very outward.
He told us to ask God what He wants us to learn from each companion
and each area. All the speakers were amazing and I took notes full of
counsel. The thing I think that sticks out most from these visits from
leaders of the church is the great love that they have for us. The
Spirit is so strong when they come and it seems like all is right in
the world, or at least that it will be.

Something that I've made a habit of doing recently is reading from my
patriarchal blessing each day. It is uplifting to see the many
blessings the Lord has in store for me and the love that He has for
me. I've also started re-reading the talks from last General
Conference in order to prepare for General Conference coming up.

Some of you may not know that as of a week and a half ago, I got a new
companion, Sister Sellers. She is from Clearfield, UT. She is very
organized and awesome at directing dinner conversation towards
missionary work and other gospel topics. I'm learning a lot from her
already.

Also, I'm sitting here in the cleanest laundromat in the world washing
my SWEATERS. But the last few days it has been in the 90s. I think
they broke the weather here.

As always, I love hearing from each and every one of you. I love you all :)



Love, Sister Prue

Letter #33 - Spring Forward

March 13, 2017

Friends and Family,

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been crazy these past
couple of weeks. This Saturday the mission will get to hear from Elder
Rasband, so stay tuned for that next week! And to answer one person's
question, we did lose an hour of sleep this weekend. No rest for the
righteous! Hope things are well with everyone! Thanks always for the
support!

Love, Sister Prue

Letter #32 - 7 Months Last Week

February 27, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

We got a new ward mission leader. He is an older guy with all of his
children moved out of the house. This is a different experience than
having a 25 year old ward mission leader, haha. He is a man with a
tender heart and I think his own mission had a great impact on his
life. His mission spanned several states and transfers involved
getting on a plane. One of the places he served was in Idaho Falls
though. He is still learning about all the ways missions have changed
since he served. It seems that when he served you could meet someone,
ask them to be baptized and fill the font the next day. It's a little
different now, haha. We are excited to work with him.

I set a few goals for our companionship this past week. One of them
was a better exercise routine. I decided to start the "Be a Superhero"
initiative. Every day I choose a card with a superhero on it and then
I improve myself in areas of missionary work that I think that
superhero would excel at. I've given them all Christlike attributes
and chapters in PMG and other things like that. Anyways, it's still in
the works, but I have given them all workout routines. We use the 7
minute workout app by Johnson and Johnson. It has a lot of pre
programmed workout options, but then there is a customize your own
workout option. So I made one for Hulk, Thor, Captain America,
Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Black Widow. It has been fun and motivating, so
that's how I've been working on that. My other goal has been to do
more tracting and use finding time more productively. We made
improvements in that area this week as well.

We get to teach YW next week. About repentance. Should be fun.
We will also be getting a chance to do stuff with the activity Day girls in a
few weeks. Sister Day said that as soon as I got here, everyone wanted
us to do stuff. I've also been teaching her how to write thank you cards.
I told her the members would love it, and I think she now has a testimony
of that now. Some members tell us that they remind them to keep the
commitments they made with us. Good stuff.

Love,

Sister Prue

Letter #31 - Talks, Breakdowns and Cookies

February 20, 2017

Dear Friends and Family

On weeks that I don't send a letter to everyone my mom will take some items out of her letter to put on the blog. I spoke on Sunday. We were given the topic of Following Christ. We were given 15 minutes each to speak and there was to be a youth speaker as well, but when we heard the program announced, there was no youth speaker, haha. Sister Day had never given a talk that long in her life and she was pretty nervous. She got to speak first (which we also found out on the stand, because there were not any printed programs) which was a blessing because she didn't think she could fill 15 minutes. But she spoke for 15 minutes exactly and did great. I spoke for 20 or more minutes, but the point is that I ended exactly at 2:05. Blessings all around. I spoke about how living the doctrine of Christ helps us follow Christ. We also got a ward mission leader, Brother Allred. We are both really happy to have him. I don't know him super well, but I have positive associations with his face and was pleased when he was called. I just need gentle loving leaders who give me gentle nudges in the right direction. Heavenly Father has tended to bless me with those kinds of leaders and employers.

Our car broke down, luckily in a parking lot and we were there for 3 hours trying to get the battery jumped. Luckily it was in the evening and we had no appointments. There were so many blessings that we recognized that it was kind of fun. We had lots of safe help though. People from the ward and mission office came to our rescue.

The almond thumbprint jam cookies turned out well and the member we gave them to enjoyed them. This week we will make Girl Scout Brand thin mint cupcakes. So that should be good. I love you all.

Love, Sister Prue

Letter #30 - My Trip to Tonga

February 13, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week has been full. It started with going on Exchanges with
our STLs (Sister Training Leaders). I went to Euless and Sister Day
stayed in Arlington. The STLs serve in the Polynesian (maybe it's
called the Tongan ward?) wards. For the first time, I got to
participate in language studies and I started to learn to pray in
Tongan. It was fun and later that day I sang a hymn to a less active
family in Tongan with Sister Josephson. The Spirit was for sure there
because we sounded great and nothing like our practice earlier that
morning where I mispronounced half of it. It was a pretty cool
experience. We ate dinner at a place owned by one of the members. I
ordered a Big Island Burger (I'm a sucker for any burger with
pineapple on it) and it was indeed huge. It had two beef patties and
included pineapple and an egg along with all the usual burger stuff. I
was disgusting after I finished it, haha. I also had a drink called
Otai(?) The whole day was an awesome experience. I didn't feel like I
was in Texas at all.

We had a good lesson this week with an investigator named Virginia.
She will becoming to church next week and took notes throughout our
lesson so she could do some research (we recommended lds.org and
Mormon.org). She said she is anxious to read from the Book of Mormon
and pray about it. We have a few others that we hope to meet with this
week. One has gone to church twice now, but keeps having to cancel our
teaching appointments.

We also had zone conference. President talked to us about a lot of
things in the missionary handbook (the book of rules for
missionaries). He emphasized the part where we are to limit our
correspondence with others. As a result of the comments he gave while
talking about this, I'll probably limit this e-mail to a monthly
occurrence. I also probably won't reply to a lot of the e-mails or
letters I get as well in order to keep in line with the
recommendations he made during that meeting. I so love hearing from
all of you and you are free to e-mail or write as much as you want.
Just know that my ability to reply is limited and you probably won't
hear back (although if you ask questions, look for your reply in my
monthly e-mail ;)) Also, this is all in flux as I figure out what we
are supposed to be doing or not doing and how I want to work within
the guidelines.

Love you all!!

Sister Prue

Letter #29 -Service Galore

February 6, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

One of the cool things about this area is all the service
opportunities here. I've gotten to spread mulch on park trails at this
place called River Legacy. I'm not entirely sure what kind of place it
is, so you'll have to look it up. It's kind of a museum and also a
place that could be used to get a lot of merit badges probably. I've
also gotten to work at a food pantry stacking boxes and unloading
trucks. We worked at a food drive and passed out food to people. I
passed out the frozen blueberries and got to work alongside a really
sweet old lady who was passing out frozen orange juice concentrate. We
had a great time. I also got to serve at a resale shop. We get to help
people bring in their donations and then we sort through it and see
what is sellable and what we pass on to other charities. It's really
fun to see all the stuff that comes through. Volunteers also get a 30%
discount on everything in the store. Apparently it's almost impossible
for a missionary to leave the area with the same amount of clothes
they came with, haha. A lot of the service involves a lot of manual
labor though, so it gives us a chance to use the little muscles we
build during our workouts. And we sleep well :)

The tracting situation is a little different here than in my last
area, so my companion and I have focused on encouraging and teaching
the members how to do missionary work. There were several good talks
during the last General conference that we use. The best ones were by
Elder Oaks and Elder Andersen. We did manage to pick up some new
investigators this week though and a few people showed up to church
that we didn't expect. Well, that's all for this week. I'll probably
be sending shorter e-mails in Arlington because I have to type my
e-mails on the iPad in this incredibly clean laundromat.

Love, Sister Prue