Letter April 18, 2022 Continued from last week, Mission Conference

Continued from last week:

Later that day we went by to see a friend of ours whom we are teaching to say hello and invite her to church. Once she answered the door and we talked, I thought it would be fun to play my harmonica for her. As we walked away from her apartment, her downstairs neighbor popped his head out and said, "Was that you playing the harmonica?"

He introduced himself as Samuel. He's from Mesa, AZ so we talked quite a bit about that. We shared family history with him too. Unfortunately, he said that his son does it for the family, and didn't seem too interested. But we plan to just keep saying hi as we teach his neighbor.

This week:

Today (April 18th) we had the highly anticipated, first of it's kind, "Norwegian Barbecue" in celebration of 36 baptisms in March! (John was one of those baptisms!) I got on a bus this morning at 7:15 and drove with all the other Denver Metro missionaries back to the G Road building in Grand Junction. Our entire mission gathered together for food, a wonderful message from Elder Wong of the seventy and his darling wife, and (of course  don't ask me why they always have it) Spike Ball.😅 Sister Friberg wanted to play but was feeling shy. So in a burst of fake confidence and desire to let her have fun, I went with her, and it wasn't half bad. I was as terrible as ever, but the Elders we were playing with were equally uncoordinated so it was fun. 

Before we ate, Sister Rees explained again that there are no barbecues in Norway.  BUT they do take something called (I really have no idea what she said but it sounded a little like matzah and potzah) out and have picnics. You of course can't get the ingredients for those dishes in Colorado , but "Essentially, if you boil it way down," she said, "it's a brat in a flour tortilla." So we had bratwursts in tortillas.  Now, I have never liked hotdogs buns, but tortillas I like!  And I have now found a viable substitute! It was pretty dang good! The sweet couple who made the food had a huge smoker where they smoked all the sausages and they also made this INCREDIBLE homemade mac and cheese that had bacon bits and I don't even know what! Top it all off with grapes and strawberries, and needless to say, I was a happy camper! 

It was really nice to see all my previous companions too; Sister Bealer, Sister Campa, and Sister Anderson all go home in May. So I got really lucky getting to say goodbye to them. And my current companion, Sister Friberg, goes to the Spain Barcelona Mission on May 17th. So I will be left with just one former companion still in the mission, Sis. Seymore (my MTC comp). I saw Sis. Seymore too, of course! All her companions are heading home too, so we kind of related in that. Our mission also has a lot fewer sisters than before because so many of them were reassigned, and are now in their OG missions. We aren't getting very many new sisters with the transfers either. The last transfer we got two OG Colorado Spanish sisters. So they will never be my companions.  And just one OG CO english speaking Sister. From here on out, I probably will know all of my companions unless I train. I don't see that happening though. 

For Elder Wong's message, he had Elders and Sisters play basketball with various rules. It was all a big analogy for members and missionaries working together. Really clever, REALLY fun! But my favorite part was when a brand new Elder (out for two weeks) sang with "My Way" with full Frank Sinatra voice. He ended up being one of the Elders we played Spike Ball with, and he's never had ANY voice lessons! He just grew up listening to Frank Sinatra and copying him! Anyway, Elder Wong has a bit of an accent and a tendency not to speak directly into the microphone, so when I heard and understood him, it always seemed to be only the things that would strike me the most. It felt like a tender mercy. My take-aways:

1) Show them (the members) there is a God in Israel!

2) If the members don't know what to do, it's OUR FAULT as missionaries. Our job is to teach them how to do missionary work. 

3) With 36 baptisms in March, the ground breaking of the Grand Junction temple, and President and Sister Rees finishing their mission (when he said that everyone went Aww! And one elder said, "now we are all sad!" ), we have MORE than enough spiritual momentum. We just need to understand what we need to do for the members. THAT is how we will accomplish our purpose of bringing souls to Christ. 

It was interesting to watch him talk to us, because there were clear moments when he went from adorable, tiny Asian grandpa to Powerful Representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. One of those was when he turned around looking at all of us and said, "Show them there is a God in Israel!" It wasn't a main point or anything. Just a passionate but almost offhand comment, and he turned all the way around and looked at me when he said it. At the moment, I thought, "Oh this guy is my kind of guy. That's my kind of language." But he hadn't said anything with that kind of diction before and he didn't do it again. And the way that I felt it in my bones, not even depression could numb it. I think it might have been just for me. I doubt if anyone else even remembers he said it. But I will never forget. 

I have a lot of work to do in my areas. But also in myself. I've not been my best self in a lot of ways lately. But the whole point of that "Norwegian Barbecue" was to help keep the momentum going. And surprisingly, despite significant crowd anxiety and a lack of initial excitement on my part, it did just that. I've got a little bit of momentum. And I've got a lot of plans. So here's praying that God helps me keep it going. You know I'll be rereading Pres. Nelson's talk and doing everything I can to build this momentum further. I only have 10 months left. It's all downhill from here. 

So here's your nudge to go build some spiritual momentum. It doesn't really matter who you are or where you are. Just start now. I'm a missionary for crying out loud, and I don't think I can say I've been doing my best. We all struggle sometimes. Just pick yourself back up. Start by following the prophet. It's going to be okay.

On Easter, a Sister in one of my wards gave a talk in which she mentioned the phrase, "If you're not progressing, your regressing." She talked about how much she hated that phrase, and said she thoroughly believes you can tread water. From there she talked about sometimes when her testimony struggled, but she wasn't regressing, just needing to get back to the basics a little. It was a really good talk. But my immediate thought was, "No, you can't tread water. You can look like your treading water, but you're in a river and you're still moving. I think that the phrase can be reversed: if your not regressing, your progressing." Cause let me tell you those first 3 months of my mission I was just desperately trying to keep my head above water and I've NEVER grown so much. I got to the shallows at about four or five months in, stood up, looked back, and realized I'd floated several miles down river. It's what river you put yourself in that matters. What direction is your momentum going in. If you can't keep bookin' it and have to kind of bob for a second, don't worry about it. The river you picked will keep carrying you down stream. 

This Sister talked about how when her testimony was struggling, she had a friend call her and tell her they were leaving the church. It made her question, "Am I at that point? Am I ready to walk away?" At which point she realized, no. She was not ready to walk away. As an outsider looking in, its easy for me to see how all this was a forward progression, even as she felt she was treading water. Because, now she is a strong and active member. More so than she even was before. 

So pick your river. Be careful picking your momentum, but then trust it to carry you when you need a little rest.

Love, 

Sister Shill