Letters from Canada: Happy Remembrance Day!!!

Quote of the Week:

Sister Sandberg: "Sister Lewis, what song were we singing the other day? It was a Christmas song."

Me: (appalled) "We were singing a Christmas song?!"

Elder Hendrickson: "Was it 'I'll Be Home for Christmas'? Oh wait..."

Ouch!!!!!

Yesterday was a really special day for us!! Our investigator George* walked an hour in the snow to get to church. We were so happy. He's getting it. We've been teaching him and his two kids, Darren* (12) and Isaiah* (10). He's Born Again Christian, which is tough because every single one of his beliefs are different from ours.... It was a rocky beginning picking him up as an investigator. But since then, he's gone through a huge change of heart and he's a completely different person. He's excited to come to church again next week, so we'll see how it goes.

Also, almost every less active we're working with came to church yesterday. That was huge for us as well. There's a special spirit in sacrament meeting when you watch people you adore make the right, difficult choice like that.I was proud of them and felt blessed to be able to work so hard with them.

The Sunday school lesson was on missionary work--my favourite! The class got really involved, which was touching to see. I've been pretty aware since my mission began that a lot of members feel stressed and overwhelmed about doing missionary work. They've expressed that they feel guilty whenever we ask them about how it's going. I don't blame them--missionary work, on top of everything else that's busy about life, can be really hard. But I loved watching them get it a little bit yesterday. I mean, I know (first-hand!) how hard missionary work is! I get it! And when it wasn't 100% of my life, I wasn't the greatest member-missionary. I didn't understand my role and didn't have much of a desire to be involved in it. So at the end of this fantastic lesson, the teacher asked for last comments and I raised my hand. And this is sort of what I said.

One thing that was surprising to me when I first became a missionary was that it's rude to talk about when another missionary's going home. If you hate your companion, you remind them of how much longer they have on their missions. Seriously. It's a really touchy subject. No one wants to go home, and no one wants to be reminded of it. It's like a big tragedy. And I've seen so many RMs come home who do not want to be home. They miss their missions and they feel depressed because they wish they could be back. And it's like that for a reason. And it's not because we love getting up at 6:30 every morning. It's not because we enjoy talking to strangers about things they don't want to discuss. It's not because we love being rejected. It's not because we like not having any personal time. That's all really hard. The reason we love serving the Lord in this way is because we are promised "great joy" for doing this work.

It is more than a responsibility to do missionary work, as members of Christ's Church. It is a complete privilege. I remember so well the day that they made the age-change announcement, and I was so incredibly grateful that God would allow me to serve a mission, to serve Him and His children. It is a complete privilege to receive the blessings that come from missionary work. I feel honoured to be Christ's representative. I love being a missionary, but I also just love the work. I love being a missionary. I love the "great joy" that I receive from doing it, even though it's my responsibility. It is a privilege to offer my brothers and sisters something so eternally special.

I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Lewis