Madeline's Missionary Blog: Melting, boiling, and loving it!

It is getting quite toasty down here in St. George!! It's been in the 100's almost every day. In the Visitors' Center, however, it's about -20 degrees. Okay, that was an exaggeration. But I'm always shivering while giving tours! And then we walk out into the fiery depths of... St. George. My long brown hair (I think it's the longest it's ever been) is not exactly helping me cool off any. But that's okay :) We leave our area book (our ginormous binder filled with information about each of the 6 wards we cover and and the teaching records for everyone, and even more stuff) in the car when we go in and teach people. And one day we walked out and it was practically melted!! All the pages were stuck together and the ink was coming off and the little pocket holders were flimsy and soft and flaming hot. And my water bottle was boiling!! Just kidding, but I couldn't drink it because it was too hot. I kid you not. And call me crazy, but I actually really like all this dry heat!! Melting, boiling, and all :)

This week we had our Zone Conference. That is when missionaries from half of St. George and Cedar City gather together and have 6 hours of training from our mission president and his assistants. We have Zone Conference every other 6 weeks. It's a TON of learning. Learning from President and Sister Center (our mission president and his wife) and the other missionaries there. The spirit is so strong there. I remember sitting there and just thinking about how much I loved each one of these missionaries I'm serving with! You feel so united in purpose with one another. A lot of the training we received was an answer to many prayers I have offered, trying to search for how I can improve as a missionary. And boy, do I have a ton to improve on!

I have grown to really love each person we are teaching and serving with. Earlier this week I was sitting in our teaching center in the Visitors' Center (where we make calls and emails to referrals we have received of those who need this message in their lives). At that time I was teaching a woman who recently got out of rehab and a teenage boy who has a very serious stuttering problem. Both are very humble people, and I had the privileged of getting to teach each one on the phone once. I was able to coordinate with their bishops and soon to be fellowshippers as to their situation and their needs. I had the lessons planned for the next calls I was going to make to them, scriptures I was going to share, questions I was going to ask, etc. I was SO excited to call them and follow up with the commitments I had left a few days before. But no one answered. I tried again for the next few days, and still no answer. I just sat in front of the computer with tears pouring down my cheeks, confused as to why God wouldn't let these people just pick up the phone and hear the message of hope and peace that they voiced they were in need of. But I have come to find out that I really needed this experience to know what love is. To know how to love others. To know what God's love is. And most importantly, to know how to love Him. I think God has felt the same way many times when I haven't knelt down and simply talked to him. When I have blindly failed to recognize His hand constantly in my life. I've come to realize that prayer = work. And prayer = miracles. If we except God to do his part, we're going to have to work and make Him weary until He blesses us! I think one of the critical things of a mission is if you believe the words of D&C 4:7, "Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Much Love, Sister Martin