Oh, hi there!
I know I made a very big deal about the end of the Franklin South District as we knew it. And if I’m being real … I still find it a big deal. All of the four missionaries who left had become some of my favorite people, especially Hermana Petersen. I’m super thankful for all that they’ve taught me about missionary work, and for just being some of the best friends a greenie could ever ask for. Now on to the crazy week!
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| One of the craziest texts I’ve ever seen. |
So transfers were supposed to happen on Thursday, but due to weather reports of freezing rain, transfers were *postponed!* That entire day was so emotionally exhausting, because Hermanas Petersen and Harris knew their new areas, and Hermana Petersen especially just wanted to get started being a Clarksville missionary. I have to be real, though, it was kind of hilarious how the Franklin South District had all of these emotional goodbyes on P-Day, and then the next day we went on a district call like everything was totally normal (it wasn’t).
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| I need to be better at taking pictures now, because Hermana Petersen was really good at taking most of them. |
Anyway, transfers for-real happened on Friday morning. The mood in the Columbia car as we drove to Brentwood: wack. We listened to all of these emotional goodbye songs, as well as the first song Hermana Petersen and I listened to together as she drove me to Columbia (Al Green’s “How Great Thou Art”). We cried and reminisced, and we also ended up driving next to the Linden Elders, so that was some levity as I dreaded the impending change.
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| I love Franklin South so much, and all people pictured are some of the best missionaries in the universe. |
I gave one of my top five saddest goodbye hugs to Hermana Petersen before helping my new companion, Hermana Stevenson, get her luggage into our car. I then proceeded to start bawling if I spent too much time talking about Hermana Petersen, too much time being 0.5 seconds.
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| Hermana Likes is still in Columbia with me. |
Here’s some good news: Hermana Stevenson is awesome! She’s a super talented illustrator and is amazing about finding on Facebook. She has an awesome attitude about everything, and I feel like even mean people we run into during cold calling can’t help but be a little less mean when they talk to her.
I’ve really been able to get to know Hermana Stevenson this week because, some of you may have noticed, but … what is up with the weather?
It snowed and we got freezing rain on Saturday night, and subsequently, we were instructed not to drive until Wednesday night. Yesterday, we got told we should stay off the roads until Friday night at the earliest. The problem with that is that Hermanas Likes and Dabb (the other newbie here—who only has one transfer left in her mission) were going to go shopping for food on P-Day, and Hermana Stevenson and I stopped by the store during our dinner hour one night so that we had enough for her in the apartment, but I wouldn’t categorize that as stocking up. This is my way of saying we’re running low on food.† Hermanas Likes and Dabb were desperate enough to walk to Kroger in the bitter cold, but it was CLOSED! As is everywhere else in Columbia. So we’re basically snowed in without there being all that much snow on the ground.
I finished 2 Nephi in Spanish this week! So I guess I should be saying I finished 2 Nefi. I’m very proud of myself, even though it’s frustrating how long it takes me to read anything in Spanish, especially the scriptures. But as I read those final chapters these last few days, I realized how much I actually love 2 Nephi. Especially when I get past reading the Isaiah chapters in Spanish (those strained my brain). Chapter 26 is awesome, and the day I studied it, we ended up reading and discussing verses 23-33 in our missionwide Sunday night devotional. I love it when timing works out like that! Anyway, here’s one of my favorite parts:
28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.
This is the reason I invite people unto Christ. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to accept or reject the message of the gospel. The awesome and hard thing about that is their choice to say no, which they often utilize.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a missionary devotional we’ve had this past week with Elder and Sister Gong*. In it, Sister Gong discussed how we’re invited to “cry repentance” to people because “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” A lot of the time, that phrase has an apocalyptic connotation—that people need to repent before it’s too late. But Sister Gong’s interpretation is that the process of repenting draws us closer to the kingdom. When we’re inviting people to repent, we’re inviting them to heaven. Repentance isn’t a fearful cry. It’s a joyous shout.
I love all of you, and I hope that you’re staying safe and healthy, and that you’ll pray for me, too. Because Tennesseans do not know how to drive in the snow.
¡Ten cuidado!
Hermana Newton
* Gerrit W. Gong is one of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sunday’s messages from him and his wife, Susan Lindsay Gong, are available only to missionaries, but you can see another devotional at which they spoke here.
† Local church members delivered groceries to the apartment a couple of hours after Hermana Newton sent her email.
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