September 30, 2013

My dearest Family,

This morning I was reading the September Ensign and I read an article about being grateful. Here are some of the things I am grateful for: MY FAMILY, the power of temple covenants, the scriptures, the restored gospel!, Jesus Christ and the Atonement, answered prayers, emailing, hand-written letters!, ICE CREAM, my companion, my wonderful roommates, all of my friends, heaters, comfy sweatpants, recycling, the people I meet every day who make life interesting, my mission president, General Conference, and many more things! You should try keeping a list up of things you are grateful for in the house that you can keep adding to. See how many you can come up with in a week! I will do the same :)

It rained a lot this week. And it's starting to get dark earlier. It makes the evenings kind of dreary. It's hard to knock on someone's door when it's dark and not many lights are on in their house. Often we struggle to find things to do in the later hours. That just means we need to get more creative! One blessing is that President Eaton told us about a woman who works at the Laundromat, Lachelle. She closes at 8. We met her once and now we are going to help her close some nights. We want to start teaching her soon. She says one day she will worry about religion and things, but she doesn't really right now. That day will come sooner than she thinks! She really is so kind and has a fun personality. We like her a lot.

We had a great district meeting this past week. We talked about the grace of Jesus Christ. I think the article we read is in the Ensign. Read it, please! Or look it up on lds.org. It's by Brad Wilcox. There is nothing that brings more hope to someone than the grace of Jesus Christ. No matter how imperfect we think we are, no matter how bad we have become, and no matter where we are at on our journey to salvation, the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for us all. Because He performed the Atonement, we do not have to be perfect right now. We just don't. And we can be happy as long as we "keep moving forward." ( Meet the Robinson's reference) Brother Wilcox uses the analogy of a mother who pays for her child's piano lessons (which I quite liked). A mother who pays for piano lessons does not expect perfection of her child as he practices. She is not angered by the mistakes he makes. She does not ask that the child pay her back for the lessons. She only asks that he practices and uses the opportunity to learn and to become something. If there is something I have needed to learn on my mission, this is definitely it (amongst many other things). I still have to re-learn every day that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for my flaws as a missionary. I can be happy, even as I make mistakes, as long as I take the opportunity to believe in my Savior, to trust Him, and to use His Atonement. I know that everyone can experience a feeling of peace, love, and forgiveness if they will just come unto Jesus Christ!

We had to help move Sister B out of her apartment this week. It was a pretty sad time. There has been so much drama with Section 8 housing and a whole bunch of nonsense with her family. Anyways, we were grateful to have had the opportunity to serve her. It took 4 sets of missionaries (one of them being the office elders who have a trailer), and her friend Vicki, to move her out. I am always inspired when I work alongside other missionaries and see how awesome they truly are. And Sister B is a strong woman. She has been through so much, and she is so giving unto others.

We have had two investigators drop us-Karen and Nancy. They are both so wonderful, so it was a bit disheartening. But we haven't given up hope! As our ward mission leader (Brother Hinton) said, the Lord must be preparing us for something! I cannot say enough how much I love and appreciate the ward here. There are some fine Saints in Maple Valley, Washington! We ate dinner at the Bishop's house last night. I am always so grateful for the Spirit we feel in members' homes.

We had a fire alarm go off in Sacrament meeting! So then everyone had to stand outside in the cold while the firefighters came to turn off the alarm. It was all quite exciting. I heard a rumor that it was the 12 year old deacons who set it off. Not a surprise!

I feel like this is kind of a short email, but I am almost out of time and I'm not sure what else to write about. I love you! Sometimes when the days are hard, you guys keep me going! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Mecate