Today marks one year until my release date. I'm starting to freak out. I don't want this to end!!!!!
This week was a crazy one. It was kind of rough. But really great. I guess I haven't done the quote of the week for a while!
1. A man we stopped downtown one night: "Would you two ladies maybe want to get a drink with me?"
Sister Sandberg: (laughing) "We don't drink!"
Man: (looking sad) "I know. I just prowl the streets trying to corrupt religious preachers like you."
Then we stopped the next guy on the street...
2. Me: (blah blah blah, laughing, small talk) "So have you seen missionaries like us before?"
Guy: "Yes, but none as pretty!"
Sister Sandberg and I were kinda done with that street that night haha.
So Halloween was crazy this year! Missionaries can throw some pretty serious parties when they're locked up in their apartments on Halloween night.... not. Haha we had a glow stick dance party while blasting MoTab, worked in the area book, got prank called twice, pigged out on carameled popcorn that we made, and took ugly pictures. And the highlight of the night was cutting open glow sticks, pouring the contents into the back of the toilet, then flushing the toilet with the lights out and watching the water glow haha...... #bored.
We had the New Brunswick Zone Conference on Tuesday in Moncton. It was really great to be back in Moncton for a morning! I loved actually being oriented again. It was a spiritual conference and I left enriched. It was great to see all the missionaries again.
Also, just so everyone knows, I love my companion. Today is her 20th birthday. Happy birthday, Shishter Shandberg:)))
So I'm going to tell you that plantar fasciitis is the worst. I hate it. It's really been bothering me lately since I'm now in a walking area, which is fine. It's just hard to realize you have limits that you didn't have before. But I was reading an old journal entry last night that will be part of my spiritual thought for this e-mail. I had just written about how exhausted I was in every way--spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally. We had just had a really rough, tiring week (this was in September) and I was just done. But then I wrote about my the determination I felt despite all that, and I wrote "I've been running hard this week to serve God." I wrote about how when I wasn't able to run anymore, I would honestly crawl to do the work. And when I couldn't, I'd beg for God to give me the strength to continue to be His servant, because I love the work and I don't want to stop doing it.
So as I was reading this yesterday, I realized the horrible irony in it that I said I'd crawl if I couldn't run anymore.... Hahaha little did I know that I'd resort to crawling soon after that;) Dumb feet.
But I really do feel that way about the work. When I came out on my mission, I was by no means a "workaholic". I did the work I was asked to do, and I usually wasn't excited about it. I did it, and that was about it. And now I'm looking back at my entire mission so far. In a year, I will be home again. Less than two transfers and I'll be half-way done. And already I can see how much I have changed. I feel blessed that God has changed me from a girl with an okay-work ethic to a missionary with a deep determination to do His work the way He wants it done. I'm not an amazing missionary. I'm not this super-person who's good at everything. But He has changed me, and I have this deep, strong desire to do His will no matter what. I'm not going to lie, it's hard to ride my bike in the pitch dark while freezing rain and wind drench me, while my feet feel like they're going to fall off, and while no one wants to talk to me or hear me out. It's tough. And yet I'd rather be doing that than sitting in my apartment giving my feet a break.
And maybe I should give them a break someday soon haha, but I love that I don't want to. I love that I want to be out in the freezing cold, having doors slammed in my face, being made fun of, being rejected. I want to be walking around after the city's shut down and no one will answer the doors because it's "too late". I want to be going way out of my comfort zone talking to complete strangers about things they don't want to talk about. Because it's what God wants me to be doing, and I actually love it. I now see "Forget yourself and go to work" in a completely different way. I'm lost in it, and I want it to stay exactly this way for exactly another year. How great is my calling.
Love you all! Sorry if this sounded like I was complaining or something.... I swear I'm not, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I am completely happy.
Love,
Sister Lewis
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