Social Boundaries: GONE

Hello Family! How has your week been? I hope good! I've had a good week here! Hard, but good! I love being a missionary. It is the greatest thing I have ever done!! 

So we have been visiting a lady in a private neighborhood recently. There are members that live there as well, so sometimes we go see our investigator and then walk to a member's home. We came out of our investigators home and found a sticky note on our car that said, " To whom it may concern, this car is seen in this neighborhood often. You are not visiting friends or family. No soliciting is allowed- see sign at gate. If this continues, I will have your car towed away." When we read that, we were shocked. Was someone really that angry that we were there? Did he have nothing better to do with his life than put angry sticky notes on our car? How rude! We were sitting there in shock and not knowing what to do. We were so upset. We prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us to forgive the person that did it. We prayed that his heart would be softened and not be upset by our being there. I immediately felt comfort. I hadn't forgiven him completely yet, but I felt comforted. The next time we were there, nothing was done to our car. I am still working on forgiving, but I know that no matter what, we are all children of Heavenly Father and that He loves us unconditionally. 

I got a letter this week from Sister Carlin. All it said is that Angie, Laine, and Isabel are getting baptized on the 26th!!!! I am so excited to attend that baptism!! I will be there, no matter what it takes!!! I am so happy that they have chosen to be baptized! I cannot wait to see them again!! 

We go to an adult group home every week and there is the cutest little 82 year old man there. He had gotten a haircut this week and Sister Hopkins said to him, "Jim! You're looking spiffy with that new haircut!" To which he replied, "Oh you like that huh? It's alright...I just feel like an airhead now!" We were dying laughing!! It made it even funnier that he was laughing so hard at his own joke! It was great! There is also a 35ish year old man there. He has epilepsy and some complications because of that. We were talking to Jim about something and he got frustrated and wanted to say something. He started yelling Sister Hopkins name and getting frustrated that she wasn't answering. It was hilarious! He was able to come to church this week and he loved it! He keeps asking us to baptize him! He doesn't quite understand that Sister Hopkins and I can't do that. haha

So this week Sister Hopkins and I were trying to do different things to try and find more people to teach. We walked so much! But it seems like everyone runs when they see us! ha. So we saw this woman and said hello to her but she just kept walking and didn't stop to talk to us. After she was already down the street, I got the impression that we needed to give her a picture of Christ. AFTER she had already walked away. We literally ran down the street to catch up with her. When we finally caught up with her, we said, "We saw you down the street and felt like we needed to give you this picture." She said, "I have my own Bible. I'm Pentacostal. I don't need that." We tried to explain that it was a picture and we weren't trying to change her religion. She wasn't having it and just walked away from us. I was so bummed. We have been struggling to find more people to teach and we tried so hard to follow the Spirit and we were turned down. But then Sister Carlin's voice came into my head saying, "Sometimes we are asked to follow a prompting so that Heavenly Father can show us that we do have faith. It isn't always to show Him our faith, sometimes, it is for us." Even though it was disappointing, I learned something about my faith. And I am grateful for that! And now you know that as missionaries we have no social boundaries. We run after people on the street. haha. 

To end this letter, I wanted to share something with you all that I learned this week. I was studying about hope. In Preach my Gospel there is a quote from President James E. Faust. He says, "Hope is the anchor of our souls." I loved that! As I was studying about hope, I learned that an anchor is a source of confidence. and that hope is expecting that something will happen. So if we say, "I hope that Heavenly Father will answer my prayers," we are really saying, "I expect that Heavenly Father will answer my prayers." That doesn't mean that we are demanding things, it just means that we understand the concept of, "ask and ye shall receive." The real question is, is our anchor in the right place? Is our source of confidence something of the world, or is it Jesus Christ? I know that if our anchor is Jesus Christ, we can never fail! We will triumph over all! We will still need to work and work hard, but we will not drift away! I invite you all to evaluate where your anchor is this week and make changes in your lives, if necessary. I can promise you that you will be blessed if you do so! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Keele