(This is last week's email, but I forgot to post it last week...sorry :( )
This is what I was listening to someone sing this morning from the Catholic church by our apartment. English and all. I thought it was actually pretty beautiful, especially from the drawn out voice of the person singing it. I actually did thank the Lord for my soul after hearing it.
I have less than a year left on my mission. It is weird how fast time has gone by. It feels like days just fly and fly. One of my friends who recently returned home from a mission told me - "don't ever come home sister. please cherish every minute moment, especially the hard ones. it is hard coming home..." I think that will probably be the case for me, despite the large amount of stress from serving here. Sister T often talks about how the mission is the one time in her life where she didn't have to worry about work, school, dating, relationships, etc. and that it's difficult to start caring about those things again.
I keep thinking about how nice it would be to rest for a while, and then I realized that the rest of my life will consist of work (a different kind, of course.) Work is part of overcoming the 'natural man.' --Moroni 9:6
I've still been thinking about the trials, problems that people so openly tell us. Last week I was feeling overwhelmed by how much people tell us. During a conversation that Sister T and I were having, we both talked about how we felt the need to stop talking about people's problems, to try to focus on something else, something more positive. For her, she felt this way towards the beginning of her mission. For me, I'm feeling it now. The interesting thing that we realized is that difficulties/problems seem to be so essential for us to feel, recognize, thank, and grow our faith in our Creator. We hear all of these really sad, terrible stories and experiences, but for these people, often they'll tell us these stories accompanied with how God helped them out of a terrible situation. For so many people, the dark times help them to recognize, feel and see light in a hopeless, dark situation. (gaining of spiritual knowledge---please read Alma 36: 3-5)
The other thing I realized about hearing all of these things, is that for many of these people, they don't have other people to talk to about these things. I also realized that if I don't listen to them, who will listen to them? Who will hear these things, if we don't? (Mosiah 18:8-10)
We visited a long time member, Bro. Danan, who was baptized in a swimming pool- a very long time ago. We asked him how he came to know and understand that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I loved loved his description of that spiritual knowledge. He talked about how he felt it in his 'head,' his 'heart' and his 'body.' I empathize with that description he gave in regards to spiritual knowledge.
I love the scriptures. If I served my mission for 18 months and the only thing I took out of it was a love for the scriptures, that alone would be worth it. Inexpressible deliciousness.
lovin you all from the other side of this small world,
Sister Vickers
E.B.- I put a small PS in a past email 3 or 4 weeks ago-I got your package and 3? of your letters.all great and fantastic. thank you.