Monday, May 11, 2015

Life Doesn't Come with a Manual, it Comes with a Mother

Well, as you all know it was just mother's day yesterday and I think that is the worst holiday ever invented and that we should stop celebrating it because that was absolute torture. Sitting through the little primary children singing "Mother, I love you" during sacrament meeting and having to get up and leave halfway through the talks because you miss your mom so much. And then getting so pumped to just be able to skype her and then it's over before you even feel like you were able to say anything. Plus you can't get a hug over a skype call. Sister Missionaries need hugs. 

But I just want to shoutout to all of the wonderful women in my life who have taught me what it means to be a mother and who have helped me develop all of the positive qualities in my life. I am grateful for these strong women who are examples of righteousness and true beauty in a world that doesn't know what that word means anymore. Thank you first and foremost to my own mother who is my best friend and hero. Thank you to my step mother McKell for being such a wonderful friend and example. Thank you to my Grandma Lamoreaux and my Mamma who have taught and loved me all my life. Thanks to my mission mom Sister Johnson for being a wonderful example of Christlike leadership. Thank you to my surrogate mothers growing up and out here on my mission. To the mothers of my friends and best friends. To all of the wonderful teachers that I have learned from and loved.
Thank you to you. You are excellent. 

This week was quite a trip! We had so many things to do. We had loads of less actives that came to church yesterday! The most I've ever had show up to sacrament meeting my whole mission - Christmas and Easter included! 

The best part of my week (besides skyping home yesterday) was participating in our Zone Training in Chambersburg on Friday. It was wonderful to see President and Sister Johnson there. I love and admire them greatly. The greatest thing was to see the excitement and spark in the eyes of each of the missionaries in our zone as they caught the importance and power of what we were teaching. It was great to see that and to take part in teaching about it. I am so incredibly blessed. It will be such a powerful tool in this mission when we get our ipads in 10 days. 

More good news from zone conference! We just got told that our mission is going to pilot a program called "Just serve" which we are so excited about! It's a lot of opportunities for service in the community with members from other faiths! How legit is that? So we're pretty stoked. 

Things that have been trending in Hanover lately...
*Dinner appointments with less active members. I feel like a good portion of the less actives have either had us over for dinner or have plans to have us over for dinner. 
*Mexican food
*Investigators cancelling/not being willing to set return appointments. #problematic 
*Finding more awesome less actives to teach that are ready to get back into church
*Pollen on cars
*Weird allergies

Yeah... that's about it. 

The story of the week comes from Brother Rummel who is one of my most recent heroes. Brother Rummel is a convert of 9 years who went less active after losing his wife. Somehow he also never received the Aaronic Priesthood after getting baptized! We're still not sure how that happened. 
But we've been working with Brother Rummel for about 2 months now and he's just been reactivated officially as of yesterday, he now has the priesthood and he was able to help bless the sacrament yesterday which was one of the most legit things you will ever see a convert/reactivated member do. What an awesome guy. 
We're planning a temple trip with him hopefully sometime next month or at the end of this month. He's got lots of family names done and we're getting really excited to go with him.
We will also hopefully make a stop at Cafe Rio on the way home and that will be the icing on the cake. Somebody go eat a pork salad in my memory. 


Well, that's about it for this week. There are some good things that are happening here in Hanover, they're just moving along a little bit slower than we would like. There are little disappointments here and there, but overall we are just drenched with the outpour of blessings that the Lord is sending our way. He is so wonderful and we are really enjoying our time here. Sister Talbot and I have so much fun together. She is a great blessing to me. 

This should be a really busy week so hopefully my email next week will be a little bit longer. We have a lot of big things coming up! 
May 11-12 Exchange with Carlisle sisters
May 12 Broadcast with Elder Bednar
May 13 District meeting in Fairview
May 13-14 Exchange with Greencastle Sisters
May 19-20 Exchange with Lewisberry Sisters
May 21 All mission meeting in Cranberry to get IPADS
May 25 Ward memorial day picnic
May 26 PAL LUNCH (my favorite!)
May 27 District Meeting 
June 1 NEW TRANSFER

So we have a couple of seriously crazy weeks coming up! I'm so excited! Like I said, big things are happening! Big things!! 

Thanks again to everyone for all the love and support. I appreciate it more than you will ever know. You are in my prayers, and I know God is sending angels to watch over you.

Love, 
Hermana Bills