"Just Make it Til Sunday"

Those are the classic words of advice and comfort I'm pretty sure most missionaries receive from other missionaries after walking into the MTC/CCM. "Just make it til' Sunday." Under those words are the unspoken truths that: it is going to be hard... you're going to question yourself, feel very out of your element, you may even want to go home... but just make it until Sunday... Sunday will be better. I remember being in Mexico and thinking to myself that "Sunday better be extremely miraculous because of the way everyone has talked it up!" And yet when Sunday came, not much changed. It was church and it was sacrament meeting just like any other Sunday I've ever experienced. Yes, much of it was in Spanish and it took a whole lot of concentration to focus and understand, but it felt much of the same. Our Sunday school was comprised of a circled up lesson as a district, where if I remember right I think we discussed the Plan of Salvation. Then Relief Society was a cluster of hermanas where we discussed a talk and shared good news, struggles, and testimonies. However... looking back, all of those normalcies did in fact make it miraculous. Church was the exact same. That was a miracle! The gospel is the same no matter where you go! The feeling that is in church is the same no matter where you go! The lessons are the same, the teachings are the same, the testimonies are based on the same truths! It was a spiritual recharge because it felt familiar, I even wrote in my journal that: "It is true. Sunday is a turning point! I have felt more happy, more confident, more content, and more at peace today than any other time on my mission this far. The gospel is true no matter where you are in the world."

This week I realized something... that same advice "Just make it til' Sunday" applies to out here in the field. When things are tough and I'm questioning myself, feeling very out of my element, wondering why I'm out here, thinking about things out of my control... I think about how I just need to make it until Sunday. Sunday is when I can take the sacrament and ponder the life of and sacrifices and understanding my Savior has for me. Sunday is when I hear the testimonies of so many faithful members of Rockwood Tennessee. Sunday is when I am able to spiritually recharge and find more motivation for the upcoming week, with a fresh start, clean slate, and new schedule. (And alright fine if I'm being honest Sunday is also "P-day Eve" and that is something to look forward to as well!)

But guess what else I have learned... I have learned that we need to make all the days up until Sunday count. D&C 121:8 says, "endure it well" it doesn't just say "endure it," but "endure it WELL". To get through a tough week we need to be tough every day. There is a talk by Elder F. Burton Howard called "On Giving and Getting." Y'all... this talk... wow... he seriously might give Elder Holland a run for his money in "getting all up in your face," so to speak. He talks a lot about how we have to work, and really work and not just expect things. We need to do the uncomfortable, hard, unappealing, unattractive things in order to grow. It is so good, SO GOOD! I almost felt like I needed to lay down after I read his quote, "The real test isn't tomorrow, it is today."

So with that let me tell y'all real quick about my past week leading up to Sunday. These daily tests are what helped me make it to Sunday, and let me tell ya' Sunday was SO WORTH IT!!!!!

MONDAY: we got to tour around Knoxville a little bit and helped the other hermanas in our area move into a new appartment because the owners of the apartment they are renting got bought out and the new ones essentially kicked them out.

TUESDAY: very interesting day, there were intense rainstorms unlike anything I've ever seen and we actually received a text from the mission office saying there was a tornado warning. We ended up returning to our house and doing some organizing of ward info and writing our information on more pass-along-cards that we leave on doors while finding less actives and tracting.

WEDNESDAY: tried to find some less actives, and did a LOT of training. For the first 12 weeks/two transfers of any new missionary's mission they go through a training program that assigns: sections and chapters to read from Preach My Gospel, videos to watch, and role plays to practice. It's helpful/exhausting but overall good. Hmm I guess that's kind of the gist of a mission summed up right there.

THURSDAY: highlight of the day was obtaining permission from President Griffin to go to Dick's sporting goods to invest in a punching bag for my comp. She's into boxing and has been needing a release for inner conflicts and personal frustrations and so President suggested she buy a punching bag... so we did. Still need to name him but she is enjoying it. I keep teasing her that it's better for her to hit that than me! Totally kidding though, she has never/will never hit me. We've been comps for 2 months and have pretty much seen each other at our best and our worst but that hasn't done anything to our relationship, we still laugh so hard everyday, no matter how grumpy we may feel.

FRIDAY: had district meeting, planned our upcoming week, and had dinner along with a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and the elders we share the area and ward with. One of the elders looked at me and said "Sister Hall you look sad, what's the matter?" For some reason I decided to just be honest and admitted I've entered the frustration phase of missionary work and am really feeling it. He offered to give me a blessing and I said that would be great and we decided after church on Sunday he would give me a blessing of comfort.

SATURDAY: we "balled hard" with a potential investigator that is known by many past missionaries as "the basketball guy." Before yesterday I could honestly say I've never played a game of pick-up basketball in my life, but now I can. Did I enjoy it? Sort of. It was pretty fun, had some good laughs, but I was also kind of bugged when this guy said he would read the intro to the Book of Mormon "if we would come play ball again..." you're missing the mark pal... totally missing the mark! On the bright side while there we FOUND A HISPANIC MAN!!!! Who we kind of tricked into hearing a lesson when we explained who we were and asked if we could practice our Spanish with him and practice teaching. We set up a time to meet with him on Sunday at 6:00, then left and went on our way super excited.

SUNDAY: Awesome day of church.  We had the opportunity to fast and our ward even had a prayer meeting after the block in behalf of a ward member who has been in the hospital and is going through dialysis. It was amazing to kneel together as a ward and listen to the Bishop say a prayer for this sweet man. We have plans to go help his wife on their farm this Tuesday which should be great. I'm sure it will be entertaining for y'all to note that I taught Gospel Principles class on prayer and it went pretty decently well! There were only like two tangents ranging in subjects from police officers to polar bears, but I was able to slowly reign them back in to the subject at hand... I swear the day we have an investigator in that class I might hyperventilate, but that's beside the point. I also received an awesome Priesthood blessing that I so needed which added to my testimony of the quote by Spencer W. Kimball that "God does notice us, and he watches over us, but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs."

Ok, ok, ok, now to the climax of this entire email. AFTER 2 MONTHS OF ONLY SPEAKING SPANISH TO EACH OTHER IN ROLE PLAYS, PRAYERS, AND LANGUAGE STUDY, WE FINALLY TAUGHT A LESSON IN SPANISH!!!!! WE MET THE GUY FROM THE BASKETBALL COURTS AT THE COURTS AGAIN AND SAT IN THE GRASS AND TAUGHT HIM ABOUT THE RESTORATION! HE OFFERED US SOME GRAMMER TIPS WHICH WERE VERY HELPFUL AND THEN... OH MY GOSH... AND THEN HE ASKED IF HE COULD HAVE A BOOK OF MORMON!!! HE ASKED US!!!! WE WERE FLOORED WHEN HE TALKED ABOUT HOW HE BELIEVES THAT WE ALL WORSHIP THE SAME GOD AND THAT AS LONG AS WE ARE DOING THE RIGHT THINGS THAN THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. BUT HE IS INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT OTHER BELIEFS ACTUALLY HE IS INTERESTED IN LEARNING "AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE" !!!!!!!!!!
After setting up a return appointment and getting his number for confirmation, we got in the car and as soon as the doors shut we started screaming and bouncing up and down! The coolest part is that two weeks ago we came up with a plan to better improve our study, effort, and faith in finding someone who spoke Spanish. The plan was to improve ourselves and then prepare a special fast in order to find someone. The past few weeks have been kind of really rough but we have been diligently seeking to improve our Spanish, little by little, every day. But here is the cool thing, Sunday was fast Sunday and we began our fasts Saturday night both not giving much thought to the fact that we wanted to fast for a Spanish speaker. Yet I firmly believe that because we improved daily, we endured well, we toughed out a tough week... because we did these things we were blessed without even knowing it was coming. I think that is Heavenly Father's favorite way of blessing us, when we least expect it. SUNDAY CAME! BLESSINGS CAME! LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA!
I want to wrap this up with a quote and a thank you.
Quote from Joseph B. Wirthlin: "No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."
Thank you: to y'all for your support and love and prayers. Your faith in me, in our Heavenly Father, and in this His great work is so impressive and SO very needed in the lives of us missionaries. Thank you for so freely giving it, I know our successes are in part because of your prayers, I recognize and feel their power and am so grateful for them.
I love y'all, keep enduring well every day, and I promise you that you WILL make it to Sunday!
So much love,
Hermana Hall

Celebration of 2 months in Rockwood