Hello, friends and family!
So, guess what? The tornadoes didn't hit me and I'm still alive! Sorry to disappoint you! It wasn't really that exciting for us, actually. It looked one tornado was heading right to us but it ended up passing just north of us instead. We had already decided to stay the night at Teresa and Wade's house though, so we felt pretty silly when we got a little rain and lightning and then the rest of the night was still. Oh well, better safe than sorry, right? Not to mention I got to sleep on the softest mattress ever, so that was a plus.
The rest of the week was pretty slow. We haven't really been able to teach any investigators the past couple weeks, so most of our time was spent organizing one of our favorite member's bookshelves! Her name is Amanda and she basically has her own library. I'm kind of jealous!
Our ward was also asked to help with tornado cleanup in Louisville. We tried to go with them, but even though it's in our mission boundaries our zone leaders said it was too far. Lame! Instead we helped paint someone's house in Brookhaven. Yep, we did all the service this week!
One of the best things about being a missionary is I read the scriptures in a completely different light than I did at home. So, here's a little scriptural thought for your brains to munch on. A few days ago I read the story of Ammon, and then the story of the brothers of Ammon. You probably already know both stories, but for a quick summary, all of these brothers went on missions to preach to the Lamanites. Ammon went to the people of King Lamoni and pretty much immediately found success there. Meanwhile, his brothers were thrown into prison and left suffering until Ammon was finally told to go and rescue them. As I was reading these stories this time, I couldn't help but wonder why that was--and why that is. Why is it that it's some missionaries' lot to "fall into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiffnecked" area and the lot of others to fall into thriving areas and find success relatively quickly? I'm sure Ammon's brothers had just as much of a desire to serve as Ammon did.
And to be honest, I don't have an answer to this question. I don't know why Ammon's brothers had to be in prison the first part of their missions when everything was going smoothly for their brother. All I know is that from my experience out in the field, some missionaries are Ammons, and some are the brothers of Ammon. For the Ammons, the fruits of their labors are easily apparent and they are usually remembered for a very long time. For the brothers of Ammon, the fruits of their labors are harder to see at first, and they might be the quieter missionaries who people sometimes forget about--but we see from the scriptures that both kinds of missionaries find success in the end as long as they are diligent in the work, and that's all that really matters. And even if we can't understand why we're having to go through something, the Lord knows why, and someday we'll get to know the reason why too. Just something to think about!
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