We're Not There....YET. Can You Hang On a Little Longer?

This week was amazing! So last week I wrote about being tired and how
I wanted this week to be full of energy. It was still hard, but not as
much. I feel like after Elder Falabella came, I just wanted to work
work work again. We had found our two families, both of those
experiences were outright miracles.

Wednesday night we followed a prompting to a potential family.
Richard, the father of the home, served an LDS mission and has served
in the armed forces and just completed that and is home for good now.
His wife is the daughter of a deceased pastor here in Rio Vista and
she is looking for a new church. Their daughter is 11-12 years old,
loves Jesus, and is a natural leader. We had a lesson and picked them
up. Miracle.

Thursday night we were anxious about finding and picking up another
family. We were down to our last half hour of finding before we had to
go to a lesson. We went to a home of a potential named Jon. His wife
answered. She knew who we were although we had never met her, and she
kindly told us that although her husband was interested and was
probably going to come to church Sunday, that she wasn't feeling good
and that we should come by at her time. My heart sunk. I didn't want
to lose hope, and I turned to go. But Hermana Bryant struck up a light
conversation about nonsense, or so I thought. She wove her way through
the conversation and offered a house blessing. Cool.  The television
spouted noises and chaos, and two boys sat in front of it, eating
dinner. We had them turn off  the t.v. and all gather around.

We spent a while talking with them, taught them that the gospel
blesses families, and about prayer, and then prayed for them. The two
little boys, Kaden (9) and Savion (11) sat there afterwords for the
longest time after the prayer, reverent. It was  amazing the feeling
of gentle peace that filled the room. The mom looked so calm. A change
had definitely come over her. She wasn't stressed anymore. We talked
to her about the feeling, what it meant, and how she could have that
in her family more. Amazingly, the boys also listened, obviously
something was catching their attention. We invited them to be baptized
I with a soft invite, and we are going to go over and have a Family
Home Evening with them tonight. The father hadn't been there, but he
was the one that was initially interested. Then we came to find out
that These weren't even his sons, although we had oftentimes seen him
outside playing at the park with them, teaching them Kung Fu moves and
stuff.

I had another miracles. I had prayed that morning to find someone that
needed my help that day. I feel like the past week I've really had my
mind on improving and letting the mission change me into not only a
better me for my benefit, but firstly for the person that God wants me
to be. I want to be an instrument in His hand, because I'm sick and
tired of getting in the way of that with all my worries, doubts, and
apathy. I want to be ready at His every command. Anyway, that night we
were walking Main Street, right past the bar. We were talking to these
ladies  and another lady slipped past us into an ally. I didn't know
why she had caught my eye, because usually I try to keep all my
attention on the contact at hand and what they are saying, but I had
this nudging that I needed to go talk to her. We kept walking to catch
another person, and  we contacted them. They were't interested. I
voiced the prompting, a little hesitant, but then I told them I was
sure it was a prompting, and I marched after the lady because she was
just getting in her car. I talked to her, and it came out gat she had
grown up in the church and that she felt
Like she wasn't worth wasting our time. I hate it, but we get that
excuse a lot... Sometimes people mean it, sometimes they don't, but I
could tell that she meant it. I looked into her eyes, and simply
stated "You are a daughter of God, and nothing you could do could ever
change that." Tears came to her eyes, and she gave me a hug. We left
her our card, and offered service (she had broken her arm and was a
bar-tender...and that the bar was having a fund-raiser for her because
she couldn't work. Well. Hopefully she'll call us or come to church.
As we walked away, my heart broke. It's a familiar feeling these days.
You just want so much for people to trust God's promise at things will
get better as they partake of the gospel. But at that moment, I
remembered my prayer earlier that day to find someone who really
needed my help.

It's small moments like that that I won't ever forget. If there is one
thing that I have learned form my mission thus far, it is that every
individual is worth so much to God, and that He never gives up on
them, even if they give up on themselves. He never gives up even when
they give up on Him. I've learned that it is the same with me. Looking
backover my life, there were so many times when Heavenly Father was
reaching out to me. My life is like night and day, when I compare the
times where I reached out for Him as well, versus the times where I
was blind. It's not that I was intentionally keeping myself away from
Him and His love. I just wasn't looking.

I'm almost a third of the way through my mission. I panicked inside
when I realized that. It's almost been six months. That scares me.
Let's kick things into gear! That's how I feel. There is no time to
waste, especially since it goes faster and faster through my
fingertips every day, week, and month.

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father. I know that even now my eyes
are blind to some of the things that I will yet begin to see. I'm
going to start praying for my eyes to be opened to His will, His love,
His mercy. I want to know God so well that I even know His
personality.

I can't be upset with people I run into everyday for not wanting the
gospel in their lives. Their eyes are just not opened. Yet.

That's another thing my eyes have been opened to.... I can't be upset
with the members for not getting it. Their eyes are just not opened.
Yet.

I can't be upset with myself. I've got to stop. I have to keep trying,
and I need to put harder, but I don't need to be down on myself.
Heavenly Father and my Brother and not done with me. They are not
upset or disappointed. My eyes are not opened.

Yet.

Yup. Dearest family and friends. I'm excited to share one other fun
thing that happened yesterday. You see, Sundays on the mission don't
really feel like Sundays because we still go out and do missionary
stuff. Pretty fun stuff. :) no really. I love it. Not even being
sarcastic. Well...

There's these kids that run around Rio Vista all the time. We see them
everywhere. They are basically our friends. Well, we talked to them as
they took this free couch and decided to walk it to the nearest park,
which just happens to be nearby our house and the new family we picked
up. So hours later, we are tired, and Hermana Bryant isn't feeling top
good. So we plop down on the couch. We decide we'll probably call one
our not-recently-picked-up families that we are teaching because they
need a couch and they need to see us even more.

All the kids start coming, over, excited about giving away the couch,
and we ended up filming a little funny video that I won't send because
I know I'd never live it down with some of you :) well, after, I ended
up teaching them about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, and then
I showed them this:


Yup. :) pretty cool for Father's day. During that time, they cuddled
up against me without realizing it, and one little girl even laid her
head against my arm. It make my heart ache and warm at the same time.
Wow. :) I miss my Brookey and my Jane so much, and being around those
boys made me think of my brothers. But it was cool to be able to share
the gospel with them.

I love you all! :)

Thank you for all that you do for me! And also... They announced that
we can check our emails throughout the week and read them just as we
would letters, but we can still only email and write on P-Day.... But
that means feel free to email me. :) I might just be able to read it
the night that you send it. :) Sorry I have been late with all my
letter responses. I'm the worst, but I do love you all and appreciate
all that you have done for me. :)

If you are going to pray for me, pray that I will receive more energy
of Spirit, and that my mind and heart will be opened to what I need to
do. :)

Love you all!

I know the Book of Mormon is true. Gotta read it and pray about it to
know that it is true. Phone Holy Ghost is the ultimate test for any
question, any doubt, and any concern you ever have. I know that Joseph
Smith saw God our Heavenly Father AND His Son Jesus Christ. I KNOW
that you have to be living according to the light you have received,
or you start to slip back. That means for all of us members, the
ultimate test is this:

Will we do the small yet hard things that God has commanded us.
Is it a surprise that the first commandments that we teach people is
to read scriptures everyday, to pray to Heavenly Father every morning
and every night, and to go to Church every Sunday?

That is the test.

The story of Naaman is a good example. "Master, if he had not asked of
you a great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?"
God will not give us great things if we will not do what He has
already asked of us.

See...
:) I'm learning!
:)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Darby Eleyce Miller