Sister Spring has been transferred but her mailing address is the same. Her email day, AKA "P-Day" is currently Tuesday's. It may change again with the transfer. She would love a note from her friends. A simple "Hi, I remember you" on a postcard is all that's needed. Missionaries don't have much time for writing. They only write on their "P-Day" which is a personal day to buy groceries, do laundry, write letters and any other personal thing that needs to be done and they only have from about 10:00 am until 6:00 pm on that day. All other days they are busy until bedtime at 10pm or 10:30. Nighttime, after returning home around 9pm, is when they write reports for the current day and make their schedule for the next day. Please know that Sister Spring appreciates letters, but you may only receive one letter (lucky if you get 2) from her during her entire mission. It doesn't mean she isn't grateful. As her mother, I thank you for your prayers and support. This post is long as it is 2 weeks of emails.
See you Later, Kirtland...
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The Newel K. Whitney Store. They are redoing the siding on one of the buildings on sites. Well, when we are on tour we tell people that about 80 percent of the building is original in structure. And I never really believed it...to be honest...BUT here is the original part of the store. Pretty cool. |
Yup, you guessed it. Another great week!!! I still love my life.
Let's start with the young lady. Remember her...the tracting experience from last week? Well, we finally met with her on Wednesday. (Wow, was that really almost a week ago!!) A young lady from the Cleveland Singles Ward, Gina, came with us. It was perfect. Gina was baptized almost two years ago, I think? Anyways, we were there getting to know this young lady a little bit. This girl has my heart. Heavenly Father is aware of her needs. Last year when the missionaries came in to her life, she was going through a difficult phase. And now, she is having a hard time dealing with a friendship that ended abruptly. God is reaching out to her. We talked a lot about God's love. She already had a copy of the Book of Mormon. Through a personal experience, I was able to explain the peace and love that is felt through daily study of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We promised her that she could feel that in her life. Towards the end of our meeting, we invited her to be baptized. It was literally like her face lit up as she accepted and said, "I have been wanting to change." We all have the ability to change. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we all have the opportunity to have that "fresh" start. It's amazing.
Speaking of fresh starts....Brother Koshar was baptized on Friday! Gosh, it was so great. Brother Koshar "gets" the gospel. He has been meeting with missionaries for three-ish years, but that is not why he gets it. We all have experiences that, if we allow, will help us recognize God's mercy and love and reality. That has definitely occurred for Brother Koshar as he has danced with death a few times the last couple of years. At baptisms, the missionaries generally give a "presentation." As Sister Carver and I were talking in the classroom at the Kirtland building, my heart was so full of happiness. |
| District 6 |
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| We went to help Sister Boucher move a few Monday's ago. |
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| BROTHER KOSHARS BAPTISMMMM!!!!! Seriously a miracle. |
These two people and their different experiences of coming closer to God help my life be full. Why? Because I know how much happiness is in store for them. I have experienced the reality of the atonement in my life. I have seen my attitude, my perspective, my direction change (all for the better) as I have accepted Heavenly Fathers way.
I have had a good 5 transfer run here in Kirtland.
That is 30 weeks.
210 days. This has become my home.
I could go on and on about the various different events that have happened while I have been in this ward. Mission farewells, mission homecomings, baptisms, engagements, weddings, mission calls, move-in's, move-out's.....with much more to these stories, as always.
Alas, I am leaving this place. It is exciting and scary and saddening and exuberating....all rolled up in one. As a missionary, I have never experienced a new area. Kirtland is all I know. Yes, my mission has...for lack of more clever wording...had its ups and downs. But it has been perfect. Exactly what I needed. Full.
Some Volleyballing at the Community of Christ picnic last Monday. So funTonight will be a wonderful way to conclude my time in Kirtland. We are meeting with sweet, Bonnie, who is devastated that I am leaving. It will be hard to say bye to her...but good. She needs some new faces. Then we are having dinner with this cute young couple, Carl and Tricia, who invited Courtney to come, too. SOOO GOOOD! And then, of course, the Jones family for a final farewell. (How's that for an alliteration?)
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| JONES DINNER with Mimi and the Suarez's. |
I am up for an adventure. Let go and let God...right
I love you!!!
Sister Spring
PS. Just a reminder, I will always receive mail that comes to this address: 7800 Kirtland-Chardon Rd. Kirtland, OH 44094 (:
PPS. I, again, apologize for the delay in letter response. I still have to pack...and clean...and be at Bonnies in 2 hours...Yikes, bikes! |
| Some Volleyballing at the Community of Christ Church picnic last Monday. So fun. |
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Note from Mom: The post below is from last week, Monday JUNE 13, 2011. No pictures were sent.
Title: Let me tell you about a miracle...
Hihihihi!!!!!!! I love you!
So I do not have a lot of time today. (C-R-A-Z-Y P-Day)
There is a story I would like to share. It starts on Friday night. June 10th.
You see, each evening around 9 o'clock Sister Carver and I sit at our kitchen table to plan out the following day. We were struggling to fill our time Saturday. Turns out, there are not very many people that want to meet with us right now. We are in "finding mode." Yes, that means there is some door knocking going on. After filling our time with stop-by's to people we are teaching and two set up appointments, we started with some back-ups....just in case. There is a giant map on our wall which shows the area we are serving in. I showed Sister Carver the area we would be in the next day and asked her to pick a street near there to tract. Her choice: Eaglewood. About one o'clock we began to tract this street. Before going any further in the story, I must make a confession. I was in an awful mood. We had stopped by the home of a man in our ward who is, for lack of better words, going of the deep end a little bit. He was not home. It has been a couple of weeks since he has returned our phone calls. My heart was aching for him. (He was at church yesterday!!! YAYYYYY!!!!) Then we had stopped by another woman who a woman in our ward had asked us to stop by. We explained our purpose. She politely declined. I felt like I had failed the Sister in our ward. Then Satan tried to weasel in to my mind. "Sister Spring, come on. You don't really like being this intrusive on people's lives. lalalallalaSatan." Good thing our back up was tracting....another way to "intrude". I took a couple deep breaths. We said a prayer together. Combined with the silent conversation I was having with Heavenly Father, I mustered up the will to rock Eaglewood.
And good thing, too!!! We knocked plenty of doors, talked to some really nice uninterested people. I love the people in Ohio. A lot of them will at least give us a minute or two and send us away with a smile. One man we talked with was really great. He does not believe in God. Like...at all. And that's his choice to make. I found him really admirable though. He says his kid learns about God from other children at school, comes home to tell his Dad what he has heard, and his Dad just smiles and nods. He does not want to skew his thinking. Mom and Dad, I know you are like that too with me and Stephen. Shoot, I think we are all like that, if I do say so myself. We have a good family. So we are coming to the last two houses on the street before we were to head to the Koshars. It has been pretty uneventful. Then...BAM...Courtney comes out of nowhere. We were walking down the road and I see this young girl (18 maybe?) on the phone getting ready to hop in her car. I kept thinking, "I just want to talk to that girl. I want to talk to her so bad." I even vocalized this desire to Sister Carver. We awkwardly stood a decent distance away debating what we should do. Then she confronted us with a simple, "Hello! " We responded with a similar greeting. Then awkwardly stood some more because she was on the phone and I still felt like I wanted to talk to her!! She finally did the work for us. With someone still on the other line, she lowered her phone and said, "You are from the Mormon Church...right?" Yes, yes we are. We talked for a few minutes, obtained her phone number, and said we would be calling her soon. Turns out she had been meeting with missionaries a year or so ago but for some reason they stopped coming/calling. I don't know all the details but hey, MIRACLE. Heavenly Father is so involved in our lives. We picked that street the night before. We started tracting on the certain part of the street where her house is located. She was outside at just the right time.
Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. He gives us little signs to show us He is aware of our situations. The rest of that day was amazing, too. Right after our tracting experience, we had a lesson with Brother Koshar(Yes, he is still getting baptized this Friday!). We talked about the term conversion, specifically in regards to a conversion to God. Together we recognized that it is a change and that it is a process. I love this word. I find myself asking myself, "What can I do to be more converted each day?" It's an interesting question to keep in mind. The Koshar's grilled burgers for us and sent us on our way. We concluded the day at sites. Two tours, one really late dinner....it was amazing. I love my life.
I hope you love yours too.
I love you!
XOXOXOXOX
Sister Spring
