The Cornfield Cools but West Maple is on Fire

Hello Family!

Love you! Thank you for the package!

So, it’s been. . . a week! This week, we have been focusing a lot on Lindsay, who was set to be baptized on the 13th (this Saturday). She still had a lot of things that we needed to teach her, so we told her that we would be coming over just about every night, which we did. She is absolutely on fire. She is so excited to be baptized and loves everything that we teach her. Sister Brown took Sister Atkin to see her on Thursday (exchanges) and Sister Atkin was pretty amazed by her. I am as well. She has such a love for the gospel and is so pure. When taught the Word of Wisdom and the law of chastity, she just said "yeah, I was always the weird girl growing up because I have always thought that we shouldn't do those things." She came to General Conference on Sunday morning. After it was over, she said that she had had a whole list of questions, the kind of questions that she had been wondering her whole life, and that every one of them had been answered. She was going to watch the rest of the sessions online and was so excited to see them. She is going to be baptized on the 27th because that is the weekend when her parents will be able to come and be there, which is a perfectly good excuse in my mind.

Let’s see, we also have Holly. We were only able to see her on Sunday and during a session of conference. We are still working at getting to the heart of the problem with her, but we are slowly making progress. She is still scheduled to be baptized next Wednesday, but we will probably end up moving that date back a few weeks.

West Maple is doing well. We have just been really, really busy the last couple of weeks and have not had much time in our area. To be honest, I am not sure with what. We have been doing a lot of service projects, which is good and helping our ward mission leader, which is good, and doing things at the Trail Center, which is also good. It’s all good. Sister Lamb is good. Sister Brown is also good. Sister Proctor says hello.

We were able to watch 3 of the 4 sessions of conference this time. The last one, we were working at the Trail Center, so I missed most of it. I was watching in the basement of the Trail Center when President Monson made his big announcement. I guess I am not sure how I feel about it. It is exciting that a lot more people, especially sisters, will be able to serve missions, but it also makes me feel really old. It’s interesting because I am pretty sure that if I could have served a mission when I turned 19, I probably wouldn't have and I don't know if I would have decided to serve at the time that I did, being 3 years older than most missionaries. Maybe that makes me a little proud or at least proud then, but in the end, it doesn't really matter because I don't have to make that decision. It is probably a good thing that I will be home before we start getting any of the new, younger missionaries, but who knows? Even before this was announced, there have already been changes happening in the mission to prepare for the younger missionaries. New rules have basically cut all communication between elders and sisters, even when they are serving in the same areas. We are not allowed to have district meetings in the same buildings or eat district lunches in the same places.

So, yeah! Things are good. The Trail Center has slowed down considerably so I am working on finding lots of good things to do with the time. It’s good.

The tour that probably had the most impact on me this week was a tour that I took on Sunday evening. It was a middle aged woman from Utah. She had left Utah over a month ago with her aunt to do a bunch of travelling and sightseeing through the States, up to Canada, and all over the east coast. Her aunt had gotten sick and flew home from Baltimore, leaving just her to travel alone for the rest of the trip. The first thing that we did was take a walk over to the cemetery where we talked about the sacrifices of the pioneers and I helped her locate three graves of her ancestors. Tears streamed down her face as we talked about what they were sacrificing for and as she told me a little about her family. As we talked, I started to see this woman as my mother. I began to think "If this was my mom, travelling cross-country by herself, at this point in her life, what would I want someone to say to her?" I felt that it was then that I was truly able to minister to her. We continued into the Trail Center where I showed her Zion in the Wilderness and the gallery. As we continued to talk, I felt a deeper sense of love for this woman. But, as she was leaving, I asked where she was going to spend the night, to which she asked if she could spend the night in the parking lot in her car. The senior couple overheard and joined in the conversation, convincing her that she needed to find a place to stay the night because it was going to reach below freezing that night. She replied that her trip had taken longer than expected and that she was running out of money. For another 15 minutes or so, we in a way ran around, not sure what to do or how to help. Eventually, the senior couple gave her some money and she headed to find a decent hotel. During this time, the senior elder had commented to me, with concern in his voice, that something was not right with her, that maybe she wasn't all mentally there. As I looked back on the tour, I began to realize that he was probably right. It was heartbreaking to me. It was like telling me that there was something was mentally wrong with my mom. I couldn't help but cry a little for this woman who I had felt so close to in that short amount of time.

So, I don't know what to say that I learned from this experience. I am still trying to figure that out. But it was not like any experience I have had before in the Trail Center

Love you!

Sister Melly