Letter #52 03/31/14

Hello everyone! Today is Sister Roberson's 21st birthday and so we decided to make a few surprises for her (birthdays are always different on a mission). Last night, I decorated the bathroom with streamers and wrote on the mirror. And this morning, we had two other sisters come over at 6:28 so we could all wake her up singing happy birthday. She was so happily surprised. And then it was great to see her reaction as she came into the bathroom. I love Sister Roberson because she is so animated and reacts so well to things. While she opened some gifts, we all made Belgium waffles. De-lish! Later we're going to take her out to lunch with some other sisters and then will meet up with our zone to go play dart wars (not really sure what that is). Our district leader is making her a cake too. She's been loving it! This last week has been another great week. I continued my responsibility of going on exchanges with the sisters I have stewardship over. One of them was Sister Tauiliili (yeah, keep practicing that one!) who is from Samoa. She is awesome. She reminded my so much of my second companion, Sister Hamilton. It kind of freaked me out a couple times how similar they were haha. I love her so much and she and I had a great time serving with each other. We had a really cool miracle happen while together. She had received a referral from a member for us to go contact their next door neighbor. We went and a guy answered the door. I explained that we were just coming by to introduce ourselves and asked if he would be interested in hearing our message. To my surprise (seriously), he said yes!!! This like never happens haha. So we came in and talked to him and just got to know him. It was awesome, he just kept asking us questions (not bashing at all). We talked about the Book of Mormon and asked if he wanted a copy which he said he would. We explained what it was about and shared our testimonies. The Spirit was so strong. He asked about where it talks about when Christ came to visit and teach the people in the ancient Americas and we showed him, so I think he's actually going to read it. It was just so awesome because I'm so used to people saying no and not taking us seriously, and to have someone who genuinely seemed to care was just so refreshing and testimony-building that Heavenly Father is preparing people to here our message. On Thursday, we had a Sisters Spring Training with all the sister missionaries in our mission. It was so awesome to see everyone (there are so many now that I don't even know who they all are anymore - 62 sisters). We had training from our mission president's wife, all of us Sister Training Leaders gave a little training (I spoke on not comparing ourselves to others and enjoying the mission). We walked around the Boise temple since it's right next to the mission office and took a group picture. Ironically although it was spring themed, and we all wore bright springy colors, it was over cast and sprinkling. But we were all still in good spirits :) We also had a counselor from the LDS Family Services talk to us about stress and how to handle it and we ended with hearing from President Winder. I love that man. It was so sweet to see him tear up and not even be able to sing with us as we sang "As Sister In Zion". I think he truly feels like we are all his daughters. It was fun as we did a clothes-swap after and just got to mingle with each other. Saturday, we were able to attend the Women's Broadcast for all sisters throughout the world. What a special meeting. It was truly historic having sisters in a wider age range (8+). I was choking back the tears as I heard them sing Teach Me to Walk in the Light. We are all God's daughters, no matter our age. I know I say this a lot, but seriously every day I am continuing to love this work. I have grown such an appreciation for this gospel and the importance it has for ALL of us. I have also gained a great appreciation and understanding of the scriptures. Lately, in my Book of Mormon study, I have been reading the end of Alma which has a lot of war chapters. I've also just breezed through those not really understanding their importance. I've come to understand though that it is teaching us to always be prepared for the "wars" that come along our way in life. Some are brought on by ourselves and some by others, but if we are prepared we shall not fear. There was a great scripture in Alma 58:40 that shows that throughout life we face trials and tribulations and therefore receive wounds, bruises and scrapes along the way. We are not immune to that. But we must keep pushing forward and always remembering our God who is ALWAYS there for us, if we let Him. These experiences are truly for our good. They don't always seem that way, but it's up to us to choose how we're going to handle them and who we're willing to ask for help. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all the help you've given me throughout my life as I've encountered my own trials and wars. Love, Sister Wightman