To relieve stress I color. It brings me much joy.
Sister Hodge and I finally scared the crap out of the
other sisters in our zone. We hid in uncomfortable positions on their bunk beds
for like 30 minutes until they came home BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT, THEIR
REACTIONS WERE HYSTERICAL
This week our two new investigators we found last week
were not home every time we tried to contact them, which was a bummer. We will
keep trying though, we stop by at all hours of the day and so far it has been
unsuccessful. We did make contact with a less active who we have been trying
forever to see. Her name is Candice and she is so sweet.
She specifically said "You guys are welcome in my
home" which is fabulous to hear from someone, it makes us feel like we
matter ha.
We went to the temple Friday with a sister in our ward,
Sister McQuagg. She is such a sweetheart, she's been a member for only 2 years.
She took us and the Citrus Heights sisters, who are the other sisters in our
zone, and we had a wonderful time. In the Sacramento temple, they used mahogany
wood on the inside and it looks gorgeous.
It's bigger then the Raleigh temple but still kind of
small. The celestial room was beautiful. I am so grateful to be worthy to enter
the temple at all. If at any point I am not worthy to attend the temple, I need
to reevaluate my life.
Saturday was kind of a discouraging day. We were doing
fine until we went to go see this woman who is inactive. We've been trying to
go see her forever and she finally let us in, only to tell us she is not coming
back to church because every time she does bad things happen.
She is now going to Jehovah's Witness. They are huge out
here. We weren't expecting that, and I felt really sad surprisingly. I realized that I loved this woman as a
daughter of God and that she had just chosen to ignore and make up excuses for
why she couldn't come to church. She just gave away the opportunity to go to
the temple and be sealed to her family. When you work with these people and
love them and see them do something like this, you feel sad for them because
you love them. Yes they have their agency. But you still feel sad, you want
them to be happy and you know the gospel of Jesus Christ will help them to be
happy. It's a tiny bit of how Heavenly Father feels when His children choose
things that are not the best for them. I was able to play the piano at two 8
year old baptisms after that which considerably lifted my spirits. Playing the
piano for people always lifts my spirits.
Okay so on the third of September was my best friend
Jefferson Brimhall's year mark. He's been serving in the Philippines for a
year.
That is a huge accomplishment so please go email him and
congratulate him on all he has been doing. He's my hero.
I have learned much already about the doctrines of the
gospel, but the biggest thing I have learned is that I am different. I am
unique.
Missionary work to me is different than it is to someone
else, and that is how it is supposed to be. As long as we are obedient to the
rules, we all work together with our own perspectives. Missionary work is
simply not tracting. It's so much more than that. Every time you share the
gospel you are doing missionary work. Every time you share the light of Christ
that is inside every human being, you are doing missionary work. When you raise
your children to come closer to Christ, you are doing missionary work. That is
the biggest thing I am coming to understand. I have been called as a disciple
of Christ, and I will be doing that 24/7 for the next 16 months. Yep, I have 16
months left. So I might as well make the best of my time here.
I love you all and I want you to know that I appreciate
you. I appreciate everything you do. I appreciate you being alive. Yes you
reading this. You are a child of our Eternal Heavenly Father. You belong and
you matter. You matter to me. I can't wait to see you all again.
Love,
Sister Caroline Elizabeth Ginn
