Sister Melly is working hard!

Dear Family,

I love you. I love you a lot. It amazes me every day how I start noticing different ways that missionary work in not only for the people that are brought to the gospel, but also has a lot to do with the refining of the missionaries. While only being able to communicate with you once a week via email is difficult, it makes me so much more appreciative of my family. I miss you. I love you.

Wow, this week has gone by very quickly. It probably has something to do with the fact that we had p-day last Tuesday and now p-day is on Monday again. I hope that that does not mean that this next week is going to go by very slowly since p-day will not be until Tuesday next week. Wow, I am having a hard time knowing what to day right now. My mind is just completely empty.

Um, something that I have been learning this week is the need for balance. I just never feel like we have time for everything. I feel like I could spend all day in our apartment studying and be perfectly happy with that. I would probably learn a lot. But then, we go out into our area and I feel like we never have enough time to get everything done that we need to do. Even if we spent from 6 am to 9 pm out in our area everyday, I still might not feel like we are getting enough done. But, despite wanting to do a whole lot of each thing, there is just not enough time. That is where the need for balance comes in. We can't do everything we want, but we have to decide how to effectively use the time that we do have.

Last Tuesday, we went to go visit Megan Wigton. She told us via text that she was worried about what her parents would think when they found out that she had been talking to us, so we went to introduce ourselves. They were eating dinner, so Megan’s dad told us they would talk to Megan about it, but that they were Catholic and had their own beliefs. We went back yesterday night and talked to her Mr. Wigton again. He was nice to us, but told us that Megan was confused about who we were and thought that we were Catholic nuns coming to visit her. We know that that is not true. She knows who we are. It just makes me really sad to see people that need the gospel in their lives so badly, and want it, and know that it is true, but others get in their way and prevent them from having the healing and comfort that the gospel can bring.

 
On Thursday, we got to have some pretty special visitors in the Trail Center. We had Sister Dalton, YW president, Sister Wixom, Primary President, Sister Thompson, RS 2nd Counselor, and our Area Seventy. Sister Bown and Sister Wilson got to take them on tour, but we all shook hands with them and talked to them after the tour. It was funny how excited people got about it. They are very sweet ladies and really have a special spirit about them. After they left, we were going to the temple and realized that we were following them over. We were really excited because we thought we would get to do a session with them, but they were just taking a tour, but the temple was still nice.

Other than that, we have just been trying to get to know all of the members of our ward and meet lots of people. We did a service project for a non-member in our area on Saturday, working in his backyard moving around dirt and moving boxes from the garage to his basement. We had about 10 people there. He originally didn’t want to hear anything about our church, but was very appreciative and seemed to warm up quite a bit by the end. I just really enjoyed doing some good hard work that I could see the results of. I know that we are making differences in people’s lives and that most of that change is happening where we cannot see it, but it’s nice to the fruits of our labors sometimes.

It is starting to get cold here. We have had some rain, but not any snow yet. I had better hurry up and find myself a winter coat before it gets too cold! I keep thinking about the pioneers and just can't imagine how they withstood all of the cold and snow. I just can't even imagine.

Love you!
Sister Melly