Week 42: Homeward Bound!

Sis. Bueno pointing to the Medicine Hat Teepee.

Well, I wrote a few weeks ago about how much easier it is to talk the talk than walk the walk. In the weeks since then I've been doing LOTS of talking the talk, but now it looks like it's time to walk the walk! I got a call from my mission president last night saying that I'm being released because of my asthma, which is...kinda lame? Anyway, I'm flying back to DC on Monday afternoon, so I'll see you all (or most of you, from an appropriate social distance) next week!

In the meantime, I still had a VERY exciting last full week in the mission field! It turns out I actually don't have tonsillitis, but the nurse thought I had mono instead for a hot second and then my sore throat went away entirely! And it turns out I'm okay. A minor miracle? Faith healing? On Thursday my throat was still a little sore and we had a video call lesson with some members and they asked if they could bring us fudgesicles and I was like, um, of course? The lesson I learned is that you can't ask members for ANYTHING because we opened our door and there were THREE bags of groceries on the doorstep. They're so sweet. We are VERY well provided for. 

Because we don't have dinner appointments with members of the ward anymore, we get to watch movies on our phones! So far I have seen Ephraim's Rescue, 17 Miracles, The Singles Ward (for like, the 12th time), and The Other Side of Heaven. They all made me cry. Except for The Singles Ward. But we've still been hanging out with members by having online lessons with them! We shared a message with our stake president and his wife on Elder Stevenson's talk from General Conference about doing a spiritual seismic upgrade. After the lesson, Sister Salmon (the stake president's wife) asked how we chose that talk and we said that it just stood out to both of us. And she told us that it was inspiration because that was the one talk that both she and President Salmon fell asleep during. The Spirit works in mysterious ways.

On Saturday night we had a lesson with one of our returning members who really struggles to keep the Word of Wisdom (for my friends not of our faith: not drinking coffee, tea, or alcohol, or using tobacco or other drugs) and he LOVES his coffee, and we've been trying to help him strengthen his testimony, so we talked a lot about promises associated with reading The Book of Mormon and asked him if he'd stop drinking coffee if he knew that it was true. He admitted that he probably would, and we talked about the power of acting in faith in order to receive a witness and Sister Bueno invited him to throw away all of his coffee so he wouldn't be tempted to drink it! Well, he did NOT like that idea, he kept saying "oh no! oh, no no no!" and making crying noises. He couldn't bring himself to get rid of it, but we did come up with a better solution: after the closing prayer, we drove to his house and he threw coffee to us from 6 feet away inside his house. So now we have a grocery bag with 5 bags of coffee in it in our apartment! It was in our pantry on Saturday night and we opened the pantry on Sunday morning and the whole thing smelled like coffee. He told us it was like $18 a bag, so it turns out that we have $90 worth of coffee. Good times!

On Monday we went to volunteer at the food bank and they're always giving the missionaries a WHOLE bunch of treats, so I was like, watch them give us a whole cake today! And then when we were at the food bank, Donovan (the guy who is in charge) was like, "don't forget to grab a cake on the way out!" That is what we like to call the spirit of prophecy.

Obviously, the highlight of my week was EASTER! #Heisrisen! We did the worldwide fast on Friday and then on Sunday we had an awesome sacrament meeting with our district and our members gave us Easter gift bags with toilet papers and copies of the new proclamation on the restoration. It was awesome. Our members are the best! 

This week I've been reading 2 Nephi 31 (yes, I know that I'm BEHIND on my Come, Follow Me), and verse 12 says "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do." I love that! If there is something I have learned on my mission, it is that Christianity is all about FOLLOWING Christ. As we remember Him during the Easter season (and every season!), He invites us to follow in His footsteps and become like Him! Even though people at Church aren't perfect, we're all trying to be a little bit more like Jesus. So we all have the opportunity to learn and grow and forgive and change together. Just how it was meant to be!

I hope everybody has a great week! I'll write you from Maryland!

ALL my love (or as President Keung would say, arohatinonui),

Sister Willis ❤