Sad week

Friends and family,

I'll be quite honest, this was a really sad week to put it simply. Ha, we had an incredible, uplifting, and motivating week last week, and beginning last Monday everything seemed to deteriorate for both of us. It was a little strange. We both had things from back home, things in our area, and things in the mission all seem to fall through and go wrong. We were trying to work past it and work hard, but with no results. For most of the week, I felt angry. I really shouldn't have been. I have lots of things to be happy for and grateful for, but for some reason, I felt that it wasn't fair that everything seemed to happen at once. At our ward coordination with the ward mission leader this week, we reported a few sad experiences that had happened with some of our solid investigators. We had a few people that we thought for sure were going to progress in some miraculous ways, and had fallen through. As we explained our situation, our ward mission leader listened intently. After we finished he sorta smiled and said, "We must be doing something right!" I was like, seriously? Didn't you listen to my sad saga? He explained that the ward was really excited about missionary work, we were finding and teaching and working hard, but with all of our hard work and unity, that also meant that the devil would be working just as hard as us. And though it's not the most comforting thing to know that as I work hard, so will the devil, it gives me a bit of motivation to continue working. We can't let him win.

By Sunday, we were still a bit discouraged. Our expectations had dropped, and we weren't sure what to expect with people coming church. As we waited in the foyer, we saw our cute little 14 year old investigator walk in with her mom. Her mom said that she wanted to support her daughter, so she'd decided to come see what the church was all about. We were excited for them both, and just hoped and prayed they'd have a good experience. And oh man, the ward was perfect. They greeted them, included them, everyone was able to feel the spirit, and at the end, the girl's mother came up to us with tears in her eyes and said, "I'm coming again next week. And not for my daughter, but for me." This is a woman who didn't seem keen on us at all in the beginning, who'd told us that she didn't want anything to do with the church. But the miracles that come from just having a desire to learn, or even curiosity, are undeniable. 

This Friday also marks one year for me. ONE YEAR. That means a full 365 days, all four seasons, a birthday, a Christmas, etc. It's felt totally unreal. At times in the past year I've definitely felt the lowest I've ever felt in my entire life and the highest as well. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Sometimes I wonder why decided to come on a mission was ever a hard decision at all. Sometimes I wonder why something so hard and challenging can make me so happy and feel so fulfilled and at peace. Not a day will go by after my mission and into eternity that I won't think about my mission. I have been trying to think of goals to focus on for the last 6 months. I won't go into the details, but overall I want to take each moment at a time. Not even the days or hours, but each moment and try to do my best in each. The first day of my mission, I could only see the next 18 months. I kept thinking that I had to be perfect in everything, or else. However, I need to stop worrying about the people I've past and pretended like I didn't see. I need to forget about the times I got short with my companions or was prideful and insensitive. I've found that it's okay to make mistakes and learn from them. Each moment, I want to do the best I can. If I mess up, or don't like the result of a certain thing that's happened, I'll go back and fix it then. No regrets. Okay, this was all a little cliché and cheesy, but you get the gist?  

Funny: We ate nearly every single last bit of food in the flat by Saturday night. So on Sunday, we had a nice meal of wilting lettuce and only a little bit mouldy rice. I feel like I'm back in college.

Hungarians (a tale from Sister #Wills previous area): Sister W - "So how do you feel the Holy Ghost?" Hungarian investigator - "Because I am one." 

I love being here. I don't want to come home. At least for another six months. I love you! Jesus loves you.

Sister Katie K