Our
week with our mini missionary was STELLAR. She is the best and I
absolutely adore her. She is 16 years old and has long
blonde Rapunzel hair. We told her that she sleeps like Sleeping
Beauty, because every time we went to wake her up in the morning she
would have her hair all majestically around her and her hands would
be resting on top of her. SO CUTE. I remember one morning during
studies, we were all on our knees to try and figure out what it was
that Heavenly Father wanted us to share with this family. So while I
was on my knees, Heavenly Father told me that our mini missionary
would know. And in my head I just kept arguing with Heavenly Father
saying that she wouldn't know because she had never met the family,
and she was brand new and I didn't want to put her on the spot. But
nothing else came to mind. So when we were all done praying, I looked
up and immediately asked her what she thought we should share with
this family. She sat there and pondered for a moment and then told us
about a scripture that came to mind, and her experience with it. It
turns out that that was the exact scripture that they needed to hear.
It was AMAZING. She is a killer missionary.
I
have an AMAZING experience to tell you about! So, this
past Wednesday, we were able to go over to a family's home for
dinner. After dinner, we shared a message with them about trials.
The father is a tall, bald, has a go-t, has tattoo's all up and down
his arms, and he is just really intimidating looking. WELL, he is the
nicest man on the whole planet. He adores children, especially his and his wife's. They are the cutest
family ever. He was baptized and received the priesthood not long
after they were married. Well, he is now completely inactive. He says
that he thinks he can be a better Catholic than a Mormon. He says
that the Mormon church is just too overwhelming for him. His older
son enjoys going to the LDS church, and has expressed interest to
Sister Boldt and I about serving a mission when he turns 18. He is
fifteen I believe, and he wants to serve a mission and receive the
priesthood. He is just a good kid. And then his little son, who is
13, follows what his Dad does. The dad just received full custody
over his boys not too long ago. I don't want to go into detail about their story, but
just know that they come from a very very hard life. ANYWAYS, back to
when we were there teaching the lesson. Like I said, we were sharing
a message on trials with them. Before we got there, Sister Boldt told
me that she felt prompted to tell the family about her story. She
didn't want to though. She didn't fully trust the father, and she
thought that he would us it against her. We think that he views the
two of us as two Molly Mormon's who are out serving a mission. He
especially thinks that about Sister Boldt, since she is from Utah.
So, Sister Boldt told me that she was absolutely not going to tell
them about her story. During the message, I felt a prompting to tell
Sister Boldt she needed to share her story with them. So I tapped her
chair under the table so no one would see, and I knew she ignored me
because she didn't want to say anything about it. But then the father
told us that we should all share some of trials. And so he started
with his boys, then told us his, then his wife told about one of her
trials, and then I told mine, and then he looked at Sister Boldt with
a grin on his face and asked to hear her trial. He was being rather
joking about it, as if to say, "what can a Molly Mormon like you
have anything to say abut trials?" Let me just say that Sister
Boldt has never in her life cried when she has shared her story with
anyone. She just doesn't cry. She has built this wall to block her
emotions while she tells her life story. But it has been slowly
breaking since we have met this family. So, Sister Boldt shared
her story, and she was looking at his boys the whole time because
I know that she finds comfort in talking to children. Children are
her comfort spot. I, however, was looking at the father the
whole time. I thought he would glance over at me because I was
staring at him so much, but he was so completely glued to what Sister
Boldt was saying, that nothing else mattered to him at that moment. I
could physically see his wall come down, as tears poured down his
face for this young girl who has had such a hard life, and was
putting God first. Afterwards, we left them with a commitment to
send up a prayer for help whenever they were to think of a
trial or were going through one. The father has never agreed to
any of our commitments, and he wasn't going to. He kept
giving us excuse after excuse. So after Sister Boldt shared her
story, we extended the commitment again. And he told us that he
would do it. The spirit was so strong in that home. On the car
ride home, we were asking our mini missionary what her impressions
were, and what she thought everyone was thinking and feeling.
Eventually, I turned around to look at her as she answered and saw
her with tears rolling down her face that she couldn't
stop from coming. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I
just love them so much, and I have never even met them before. I
would do anything in the world for them! And I hardly know them."
A smile spread across Sister Boldt's and my own face. We
knew how she was feeling, because that was how we felt the first time
we met them too. I can honestly say, that I would jump in front of a
bullet for this family, because I love them so much. And as
scary as that is, it is truly amazing to be able to feel that way.
Because not only do you feel your own love for
this family, but you can feel just a fraction of the love that
Heavenly Father and Jesus have for this family. I can't even
imagine how much love our Heavenly Father has for them. I
wish I knew, and I wish I could wrap my head around it.
Moving forward to yesterday, Sunday the 10th. We were
putting our things down in our seats, when we turned around and saw
the wife from the family we had this experience there, with a big
grin on her face. She doesn't come to church much, because
the father didn't go. So we were glad to see her there. But
then, the youngest son came up to us and was so excited to
see us! Sister Boldt and I were amazed, because we never thought
in our whole mission that we would see that little boy at church.
So we told him that we would sit with him and the mom and his
brother. When we all sat down together in the chapel, She looked
at us and said, "that is not enough seats, we need one
more." Sister Boldt and I looked at each other with confusion
because both of her own children where either in Sweden with their
grandparents, or at their dad's house for the weekend. And as we both
looked up, there walked in the father with the biggest smile
I have ever seen in my life. I immediately had tears in my eyes,
and so did Sister Boldt. He came over and shook our hands, he was so
happy that he almost gave me a hug, and then he remember that he
couldn't. I wish I could have given him a hug though! But anyways, he
shook our hands and told us that if Sister Boldt could come to church
after all that she has been through, then so could he. And he told us
that he was back. That day was the best day of my whole mission.
Sister Boldt and I literally went home that day and jumped on our
beds and were so happy that we were LITERALLY, bouncing with joy! We
thanked Heavenly Father many times that day. It was truly amazing. I
wish you could experience the love that we have for this family. I
truly wish that you could understand the excitement and joy and love
that I feel for these people. It is my favorite part about being a
missionary. I just adore and love it so much.
Well,
that is all I have time for this week. I love and miss you all
terribly!
Love
Always,
Sister
Bower
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