Tom could not hold it back. He had to tell someone. He had to have a friend to share his deep fear even if it were just a stranger. "Mister" he said, "I just got out of prison. I won't make excuses, but one thing really haunts me about the mess I've made of my life and that's the way I broke my parents' hearts. They're old now and have lived in shame for all these years I have been in jail. I do still love them and want to go home now that I'm out. I know you must thing that it takes a lot of guts for me to come home after all I have done to them. Well, I feel the same way about it."
Tom paused a few seconds in his story. He looked out at the bleak, bare trees and thought of his tree, the one in his back yard. It was winter now and there was not a thing to be seen on the brittle branches, not even snow.
"I wrote Mom and Dad and asked if I could come home. I wouldn't let them visit me in that crummy jail and so I haven't seen them for a long time. I was just too ashamed to let them come see me in there." Tom appreciated the way the man just sat there and listened. He couldn't tell whether he was shocked of sympathetic, but he was listening, and Tom felt he had to talk to someone to take up these last few minutes of agony.
"I told them they did not have to let me come home if they were too ashamed of me. You see, Mister, we live right by the railroad tracks and all the trains pass by our back yard as they come in. There's a big mapple tree that hangs over our fence and into the railroad lot. Well, I asked them to tie a ribbion in that ol' tree if they were willing to let me get off." Tom let the alternative go unstated, but his pause spoke it all the louder.
"We're about there now, and I'm scared to look. O can't blame them if they leave the tree bare. I don't deserve to have a home and the swell Mom and Dad I hurt so deeply."
He started to choke up and looked down to hide his shame. Neither spoke at all for sometime and then the train began to slow down for the next station; it was Tom's hometown. A few tense momnets passed and then the man next to Tom nudged him gently and said, "I think you can look now, Son."
Tom struggled to look up. There was the tree, his tree, marvelously ablazed with hundreds of ribbons; red ones, blue ones, yellow, orange, and green. "I'll see you, Mister." Tom whispered, "I'm going home."
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Well this week was great! Started with an amazing transfer meeting that was very spiritual and just amazing. I love transfer meetings and I'm already guaranteed to be at the next one seeing as my new companion only has 5 weeks left of her mission! One of my favorite take aways was about sacrifice. An elder in his final testimony shared how sacrifice came from two latin roots (that I can't spell). One root meant 'sacred', while the other meant 'to make'. This really hit me. While out on my mission I've had a good number of people ask me what I sacrificed to come out on the Lord's errand. I didn't ever feel like I had sacrificed anything. I knew I'd given things up but it never really seemed like something difficult (though that's not speaking of in the moment of giving them up...) As I sat in the meeting I realized, a mission becomes a sacrifice when it becomes something sacred to you. That's where I'm at. My mission is a sacred time the Lord has allowed me to be able to experience. I love this gospel.
This past week the weather was killer. I've never felt so hot and sweaty before and it was really gross but I loved it! Everyone was complaining about the humidity but I didn't think it was humid. People thought I was crazy until I told them I grew up in Missouri. We did a lot of knocking and walking. I've got a real good tan on my arms and the best missionary tan lines. (Sister Brewster died laughing when she saw the distinct difference in colour from literally right above my knees and my lower leg.) There were moments the heat felt unbearable but those were very few especially once I thought of why I was here, then the heat didn't seem so bad. I love being a missionary!
Sister Brewster is great! She loves to laugh and really loves the gospel. She is from Pheonix, AZ and she's just great!
You know what else is great? Elma is great! The members are so supportive. They heard we'd set a goal to find a family with 4 who were 8 and old to teach and baptize and they got so excited that they announced it in relief society! Now the whole ward is praying for it. They are so great! The people are so nice. We just randomly walked into their food bank and asked what we could do to help and now we'll be going back on a weekly bases to help! All the volunteers (minus us) are over 60, they're so cute and loving! it really is a picture-esque small town, like the kind you'd see in the movies.
Elma is full of miracles! Every day. So a little geographical comment. Elma is even further south than Olympia and is very small town and boonie. Its very tiny. We actually don't even have much of the town Elma that we cover. We mostly have a town called Montesano and another called Satsop. There's so tiny but they are proof that no matter where you are miracles happen.
Saturday during knocking we met this guy that was just all over the place with his thoughts and ended by asking us where God was in his divorce. Poor guy. As we left his door we walked by his garage where he was grilling and he invited us to have some grilled chicken. (We had literally just had dinner an hour before) We tried to politely decline but it didn't work (the poor guy was so lonely) so after we knocked the last few doors we returned and ate some chicken in his front yard with his tailgate as a table. Weirdest moment of my mission yet... (maybe, probably not actually). It was all fine and dandy until he asked told us we were beautiful (seriously missions are great for yourself esteem, ... sometimes...) He proceeded to tell us we were beautiful boarding on spectacular. That was our cue to leave but he was a really nice guy. Seriously missions are all about doing everything we're raised being told not to do. Like walking up and talking to strangers, going into random people's houses, walking on streets with no sidewalk in the dark, and eating chicken with a random stranger. I love missionary life. Its such a joy!
Saturday we got to witness an Elma miracle when a potential investigator called and asked if he could get a ride to church! He showed up to church in full suit attire (jacket and all). In sunday school Brother White asked what brought him to church and he told us all he'd found mormon.org online and started looking at the site, requested a Book of Mormon and knew this was the right place! He's amazing! We tried to catch him before he left church but we got held up with other people stopping us to talk. Brother Jones (the member that gave Tyler a ride to church) called us after he'd dropped Tyler off. He told us Tyler had talked to him the whole way and wanted to know how he could be baptized! WHAT?! So cool! Of course we texted Tyler right away and set up a lesson for that night. During knocking he called and told us his grandparents didn't want us to come to their house and asked if we could meet elsewhere. We of course made that happen. Before he hung up he told us that he didn't understand his grandparents problem (he's a teenager haha) because he had been reading the Book of Mormon and knew it was true. He told us he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and knew the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was truly God's church back on the Earth. (And this is before he'd been taught the full message about the restoration!!!) At 7:15 we were all in the Jones family home teaching the restoration. It was a great lesson and Tyler told us he'd read the whole Bible before and loved the Book of Mormon too. It was mind blowing! He is so amazing and prepared! He's getting ready to go off to boot camp for the army and he wants to be baptized before he leaves! He's working towards the date of July 10th! Seriously I feel like he's teaching us! We used the restoration pamphlet to teach and when we asked him what he saw (we showed him the cover which is a picture of Jesus holding a lamb) he told us he saw proof that God is our loving Heavenly Father. What?! I LOVE THE MISSIONARY LIFE!!! Its such a blessing to witness God at work!
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Alrighty, now to address that story that I included at the beginning. This was a story shared during sacrament meeting and I just love this story! We can all place ourselves in the position of Tom. Instead of prison just think about the foolish things we all do in our lives here on Earth. Our purpose on Earth is to prepare to be comfortable when we come home. There's an important thing we must involve in our lives to be able to be comfortable when we inevitably go home. Grace! That's been the theme of my week. There's a great talk that I want you all to check out that addresses Grace in far better words than I could. (https://speeches.byu.edu/
***Shout out to some great people! Happy Birthday to my old(literally)er brother, Christian, you're a great brother! Happy Birthday to my wonderful Grandma who is as young as ever! Love you Backa (July 1st)! Happy Birthday to one of my favoritest companions ever, Sister Baldwin (July 2nd)! ***
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