Queridos Familiares,
So I am getting transferred....after spending one transfer in the promised land. I did not see that one coming. So I may or may not have spent the rest of Saturday night on and off crying with my companion.....that's a big deal I don't cry. But I really love these people so much. I am so sad to leave them. This is such a good area, I have grown so much, especially being companions with Hermana Santos. That basically the highlight of the week. Hermana Santos will be training which is why they are kicking me out. I will be going to Rockford. Look up the crime statistics of Rockford, and then start praying for my safety. I am straight up going to the ghetto. Hermana Lewis, one of the missionaries I am serving with in Bloomingdale right now was robbed at gun point there in January. So it should be pretty cool. Haha who am I kidding, I'm not really afraid. It will be awesome. My new companion is Hermana Miller. This is her 3rd transfer, so she just finished being trained. I am her 2nd companion. So this will be fun :) but I am very sad to leave, I gave my heart to this area and these people. I really tried so hard to have that Christ like love for them. So the best way to explain how I feel is like I was just dumped and am heartbroken. Haha but really. This is the hardest place I have left so far, most of the others I mean it was hard, and I love them, but I was also ready to go. I AM NOT READY TO LEAVE this area. 😠anyway, such is life.
So I am getting transferred....after spending one transfer in the promised land. I did not see that one coming. So I may or may not have spent the rest of Saturday night on and off crying with my companion.....that's a big deal I don't cry. But I really love these people so much. I am so sad to leave them. This is such a good area, I have grown so much, especially being companions with Hermana Santos. That basically the highlight of the week. Hermana Santos will be training which is why they are kicking me out. I will be going to Rockford. Look up the crime statistics of Rockford, and then start praying for my safety. I am straight up going to the ghetto. Hermana Lewis, one of the missionaries I am serving with in Bloomingdale right now was robbed at gun point there in January. So it should be pretty cool. Haha who am I kidding, I'm not really afraid. It will be awesome. My new companion is Hermana Miller. This is her 3rd transfer, so she just finished being trained. I am her 2nd companion. So this will be fun :) but I am very sad to leave, I gave my heart to this area and these people. I really tried so hard to have that Christ like love for them. So the best way to explain how I feel is like I was just dumped and am heartbroken. Haha but really. This is the hardest place I have left so far, most of the others I mean it was hard, and I love them, but I was also ready to go. I AM NOT READY TO LEAVE this area. 😠anyway, such is life.
We had a branch talent show Saturday. Pictures to follow! :)
Besides that the highlight of this week was really just the studies and some conversations Hermana Santos and I had. This week we have been studying a lot about sacrifice. This mission focuses a lot on sacrifice, but we were just talking about it, and realized, what is sacrifice? What does it really mean, and how do you sacrifice more? So we studied a lot about it, and realized sacrifice is giving up the weaknesses and sins that do easily beset us. Giving up worldliness. Being more obedient. Giving your will up for God's will. But we have some really awesome investigators right now, and we want desperately to see them baptized, because we love them so much and know the blessings that come from baptism, so we talked a lot about what can we sacrifice for them specifically, so we understand a little bit more about how they feel, what they're going through, and so we invited the blessings and miracles of Heaven. We want to do more. Not just the average, and hope they will be baptized, and come unto Christ, but give our all because then and only then will The Lord will give us His all, and these people WILL come unto him, and obtain a hope of eternal life, and a eternal joy. This is the goal. But now we are getting transferred. So bummer.
But this is a weakness I have really been recognizing in myself lately. Just being so worldly. Just of my wanting the things of the world more than the things of God. Not necessarily going after the things in the world, but having the desire. Not necessarily very bad things either, just average normal stuff. So I have been trying to recognize this, and change it because my overriding...um fear I guess is that I will come home, and realize the change I made on the mission will have been because of my environment changing and not because it is deeply rooted and has become who I am. I guess I am just afraid, that I will come home and fall to the weaknesses I have always had, and I will fail. So my wonderful companion shared Helamen 5:12 with me which says, "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." She said, these mighty winds, and shafts, and whirlwinds are the temptations in your life, and here is the promise from God, that if you build your testimony upon him, you will not fall. That just really hit me, and we talked a lot about how we overcome worldliness, how we make sure we are built upon Christ, and I realized the opposite of worldliness is godliness. We develop godliness as we cling to the Book of Mormon as we feast upon the words in it, and fight hard against the evil one who wants to destroy our souls. Hermana Santos is the best, she said to me, "Hermana fear comes from satan. And satan wants your soul. You started a war with him when you defied him and came back on your mission". We just talked about the importance of settling it in your heart. Deciding you will do what Heavenly Father wants and keep your covenants all the days of your life even and especially when it's hard. Abhorring sin and worldliness doesn't come overnight, but settling it in your heart that you will get there one day, and then working for it all the days of your life is what it is all about. That's what I want to do. Ya know, the world calls to me, but as long as I do my best to put the things of God first, then someday I will get to where I want to be, and more importantly who God wants me to be. I love the Book of Mormon so much. One of my favorite things president Fenn says is something like when I start paying more attention to the world than to God I turn to the Book of Mormon to re-center myself.
I love the Book of Mormon and I know it really is safety for our souls.
I am not sure if most of that made sense, but basically I am just trying to soak up every minute of my mission and make the most out it so that I can someday become all that God wants me to become. I love being a missionary. I am so sad to leave this area, but excited for the future. This is the work of The Lord and this is His church, in which we find meaning in life, and happiness, and strength to face to ever worsening world.
Fight the good fight.
Love you mucho,
Hermana Simmons
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