Bryndee's Pathetic Letter...

 

At least she's healthy and happy...right?

 

 

I Love Tough Things!!!!!

I’m trying to think of a creative way to start this letter in honor of my brand-spankin-new mission president, who has a degree in English…, I’m comin’ up blank though.  I apologize. 

Whelp, this week was excellent.  We had this weird break in the weather where it was like 80 and hardly any humidity…it was phenomenal!  We biked all over creation, talked to tons of people, and had a great time!

So, update on Shardin.  He was not baptized.  We ended up pushing the date because he had decided to go on a campout whit the young men which went over Saturday and Sunday.  A little mixed up on the priority scale, but all-in-all not a bad thing.  So he’ll be baptized on the 12^th (which he was).  He passed his baptismal interview on Saturday morning, and he’s way excited!

Cool miracle:  On Sunday, the sisters that we live with got a confusing phone call from a man named Lorrin, who is from Pohnpei.  So they hand over the phone, because I’ve gotten really good at interpreting the accent.  We called him back and he just kept saying over and over and over again “I rean pwuken mormon, and I see misineri on bike, and I cry tears of you!  I need baptized!  Can you help me!?  His English was very broken, and he couldn’t remember his address.  He had found the phone number somewhere and was so happy you could hear him crying on the other end.  It was so special.  We were able to ask Sel, one of our Pohnpeian Rc’s…and she knew who he was!  So the missionaries in Lexington (turns out that’s where he lives) are seeing him this week.  It was so cool to see the operations of the Lord in the life of this single man.  We are never, ever forgotten!

Something cool from the scriptures:  This morning as I was studying about the liahona and how it worked…in Alma 37:41 Alma is talking about the family of Lehi, and what happens when they tried to use it.  “They were slothful and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence, and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not travel a direct course and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.”  It seems slothfulness = cessation of miracles in this story and every other I’ve been able to find.  There are no shortcuts…to making money, to losing weight, to learning a skill, to gaining a testimony.  It seems that we, as a general people, are always looking for that quick fix, but…we’re taught here that hard work will bring amazing things.  This is why the book of Mormon is so difficult to get through.  It’s why commandments appear so difficult to live.  The hard things torn out to be the world’s best.  That’s why our mission say’s every morning, “I LOVE TOUGH THINGS!” ‘Cause we do!

This week, I invite y’all to embrace tough things…to do something difficult this week.  I promise that you’ll see progression in your individual journey & you’ll be an example to those around you.

Love y’all

Have a blessed week!

Love,

Sister Derrick

Kitt Is Getting Baptized!!!

So to kick off this letter, I thought I’d introduce y’all to my new companion:  Say hello to Hermana Rachel Clark!  She was born & raised in Utah, can talk more than anyone I’ve ever met, and is way stoked to be a missionary.  I love her dearly!

This week has been…well, I don’t really know a good word to describe it.  Crazy.   Wonderful.  Hard.  Exhausting.  Miraculous.  Hot!  Good Week!

Sharden (the 14 year old Pohnpeian) is way excited for his baptism on Sunday.  He’s probably the most prepared teenager I’ve ever met!  We showed him the “Even If You Stand Alone” Mormon Message by President Monson for one of our lessons this week.  As the video concluded he turns to us and says with firm resolution, “wow, I just KNOW he’s a prophet.”  So cool!

Oh!  I got to see Sister Glauser at transfer meeting on Wednesday…and…KITT IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!! Plus, they finally got an ASL missionary in Summerville!  I don’t think Sister Call (my companion that just got transfered) had ever seen me cry up to that point, but when President announced that they were putting an ASL sister in…man, I was a mess.  I was so happy!

Quick funny story, and then I’ve got to go.  So we were biking to a less active member’s home, and Sister Clark was going WAY slow.  I was hardly pedaling, and she kept shouting at me to slow down.  So we crest a hill, and I stop at the top to let her catch up.  She jumped off to drink some water and I take a good look at her bike…and bust up laughing.  She’d been riding for almost 3 miles in 7^th gear!  Poor dear!  She was so excited when she figured out how to switch the gears…so funny!

Well, I love y’all and I want to invite you to take a good, long look at Mosiah 24.  The promises in that chapter are so true…the Lord remembers the covenants we make with him, and pulls us up to meet our challenges.  I sure love him!

Y’all have a blessed week!

Love,

Sister Derrick

It's A Good Thing I Love You...

Hello family!  I’m gonna to be completely honest with you…I’m not at all in the mood to write…It’s a good thing I love you!

Cool things that happened this week:

*We taught a man named Marvin.  Marvin is way cool.  We were tracting in an apartment complex when a maroon car across the complex rolls down his window and the man driving shouts “are you Jehovah Witnesses???”  Us “uhhh…nope” then all of a sudden I blurt out “we’re the Mormons!”  The man who we later find out is Marvin shouts “What?! I’ve never met female Mormons!”  and he pulls up next to us.  We chat for a sec, and set up an appointment to teach. We brought one of our recent converts with us and it was a powerful lesson.  Turns out Marvin used to be a very wealthy man, who lost everything in the economy crash.  His family left him, and he was living by himself working as a car salesman.  He’s been looking for more purpose in his life, and as we taught him the message of the restoration Sister Copeland (the member) shared her conversion story.  You could literally see the wheels spinning in his head.  The spirit was way way strong, and I’m excited to go back & teach him.

*Sharden (a 14 year old Pohnpeian we’ve been teaching) got permission from his mom to be baptized.  This is a big deal.  Sharden loves the church (he wants to go on a mission!) but until yesterday his Mom wouldn’t let him join.  I don’t know what happened, but whatever it is…I’m grateful!

*Zone conference I said goodbye to President & Sister Holm. Way emotional day!  I’m sure gonna miss them!

*Transfer calls:  I’m gonna be a training sister again…third time!  I’m excited, but also way nervous (I wonder if I’ll ever get over that…probably not)

Welp that’s my week!  Sorry this is super short…I think I’m gonna start emailing my weekly letter again now that my stint as a STL is done…my letters seem to be better that way.

Ya’ll have a blessed week!

Sister Derrick