Week 26: 2/10/14

February 10, 2014

Longmont, CO

Funny thing about numbers.  They can be divided and divided and divided and yet there is always still a farther way to go and get a smaller piece of the number.  This is much like missionary work.  We account for the time that we spend by reporting various numbers, but that could never account for the excitement we have about those numbers arriving after weeks and months of pieces falling into place.  Bit by little bit :)

Being a missionary seems to wreak havoc on my short term memory as it becomes impossible to remember the past week as soon as I sit down at the computer, probably an effect of being exposed to internet again without having the general tolerance of it built up which most of the world has ;)

I do remember that it snowed and has been very cold, no real thaw yet but hopefully soon!  All of you in Kennewick should be familiar with such things at the moment.  Every time we go out to shovel the snow which has interrupted some of our more regular activities I at least remember to be grateful that I am wearing jeans at that point and not a skirt!  Though, with leggings and wool socks and boots, a skirt is really nothing to complain about :)

Okay, miracle story for the week!  (By the way, I have a goal to identify miracles as such instead of labeling them as just something good, this was a miracle and I don't want to miss any of them by calling them the wrong thing)  We had a lesson set up with S, who is a single dad and we have been trying to meet with for a while (see paragraph about numbers, above) and had invited Sister Madsen to come with us, because, as sister missionaries we can't go in when just a man is home without another woman with us (it is the same for Elders but in reverse).  He ended up being stuck in Denver, so was not home when we went by.

If you remember a while ago we talked about miraculous disappointments.  Being able to keep faith even when miracles don't end as wonderfully as they have begun.  This story is one of a reverse, where a disappointment was a miracle in disguise!

While Sister Madsen was with us, we set out to stop by several other families who we are piecing together.  One, we tried on a whim, was a woman named E who had been investigating, but had disappeared around the holidays and we hadn't been able to connect with since.  She was home, not busy, let us in and we had a wonderful lesson!  The miracle in the miracle?  Sister Madsen was the perfect person to be there with us and she wouldn't have been if we hadn't had the lesson set up with S which fell through!  Ah the great blessings of missionary work!

Hoping for good news about the baby this week!  Super excited and everyone around here knows it ;)

love, Sister Emily DeFord