Perspective is Great!

Hello all,

We are back in the apartment! The car was fixed and we were able to move back to our mountain city of Mistretta! It takes more time to drive to and fro, but we are sleeping much better.

Here's the skinny on this missionary thing called "transfers." Every six weeks there's a possibility we may get transfered to another city with another companion. It doesn't always happen -- sometimes a set of companions will stay together in a city for several months -- but it can also happen quite frequently, depending on what the president of the mission directs. Upside: fresh faces, fresh places... downside: suitcases (aka moving). But change is good! Even if it's just 50 cents!

Anyway, my companion has been in Mistretta for three "transfers" (3 six week periods), which is pretty long for a sister to stay in Mistretta, so she's most likely going to ship out this transfer. We find out Saturday night and transfers are on Thursday, so you'll find out next Pday. Since my companion is probably leaving, I'll probably be staying, so I can show a new sister all about Mistretta and the people we are teaching there. So I'm expecting to stay, but we never really know.

We are teaching some wonderful people! One of my favorites is Stefano... he's a quiet, hard working man who we met outside of his work one day. We teach him in on an abandoned porch right across from his work (we call it his "office") and he always wipes down the ancient plastic chairs for us. Yesterday we asked him, "What do you think God's goal is?" and he said, "To have as many people as he can to Him." Then he gave us some herbs to rub on our mosquito bites. Everything he does is great.

The tricky thing now is that most of the people we are teaching who are interested live at least an hour away... while most of the members in the church live in our city. We are stretched thin, trying to work in the small country town of Mistretta and the bigger coastal cities. There are completely different mentalities of the people in each of them.

Okay, today's spiritual thought will be brought to you by the letter H. H is for Hard! Life is hard! I see that not only in the missionary life, but also interacting with lots of people here. People have hard lives. Loneliness, young children dying, sickness, and just downright exhaustion. There's very little work in Mistretta (and they always remind us: "There's an economic crisis!" is a constant phrase) and people are poor and struggling.

I read this week: "Learning to become like Christ is a lifelong pursuit." Which means if I manage to survive all these hard times, I have not to fear because more hard times are coming! Why? Because I'm still a pretty imperfect person and if I didn't have all these problems, I'd never get a chance to really know who I am. To know what I have the capacity to become.

I don't wish these troubles on any of the people I meet. But I do know that it strengthens them. It helps them understand empathy. I learn a lot from their examples, both those who react positively and negatively. I want to be more like the people who are humbled... not hardened. Nothing is sadder than talking to someone who has just given up.

But anyway. Don't give up! It makes me sad! "Never give up, never surrender!" as the movie Galaxy Quest teaches us! Here's another good one: "Keep running! And when you can't run, you walk, and when you can't walk, you crawl. And when you can't crawl, find someone to carry you." That's from the TV show Firefly. So go forth and keep trying.

Letter shoutout to the Pallets and Jesse Sheets! Pallets, thanks for your thoughts on being in a small branch in England. Perspective is great! Jesse, you're not on my e-mail list! Emily, if you are reading this, can you show him my blog?

Okay, time's up! All my love.
Sister Annie