Things are Happening

July 27, 2015

Going out to lunch with the immigration sisters--Falco, Quaye, Me, Owuse-Afriyie, Bingham, and Hirwa.

Darling Family,

I feel like my emails have gotten short and shorter since being in Lusaka but there aren't as many things that happen that I can really write about. Most of the things that "happen" are not lessons or baptisms--I can usually count on one hand how many lessons we have--but the happenings are within me. I am learning and growing and these are things that can't be easily measured or quantified. Like President Uchtdorf said, "Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count."

I also remember a talk that President Uchtdorf gave about a visiting teacher who came to visit a woman in her ward. When she arrived the house was a mess and the children and the mother were sick. Instead of teaching just to get a 100% for that month she saw the real need and cleaned the kitchen and called in groceries. We had a similar experience this week. We went to teach a newer investigator and as we began to teach the woman was clearly not feeling it because of sickness and fatigue. We quickly closed and got to work cleaning the kitchen and sweeping and mopping the house. Ministration vs. Administration.

Sister Quaye is really great. This is one companionship that has really not come easy to either of us. Though we lived together for 4 months before becoming companions we have had a hard time connecting and opening up. I tell you these things because she acknowledges it, too. We have been working really hard to improve our companionship unity and this week we made great breakthroughs. I am so grateful for the challenges because they teach me so much about relationships and communication. Though you might not agree Mariah, I don't think I was a very good communicator before my mission. But I am learning to treat her and those around me as sisters and brothers instead of strangers or acquaintances. It makes a world of difference.

We had two full days of immigration which put a hold on all of our proselyting plans but it's always good to serve other sisters and learn from each of them. I especially love Sister Hirwa (she's the one in the far right of the picture) from Rwanda/South Africa. She goes home in about a week!

We finally had our stake "Meet the Mormons" activity and it went pretty well. Not as many people showed up as we hoped but it was still really great. Mostly, I love seeing the faith of the members grow when they get the courage to invite a friend. We didn't even receive a referral from the activity and only one person out of the hundreds we invited came but it was worth it! That movie makes me happy every time.

In other news, the Elders had a baptism in our ward! First baptism in our ward since March! Woohoo! Also, I walked into a large mall this week and my jaw hit the floor. I thought I had mostly gotten used to the development of Zambia but I'm still a village girl. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and you find reasons to rejoice about life. The number 1 thing I have been working on lately is recapturing the joy I felt at the beginning of my mission. I love the talk from conference, "Is It Still Wonderful To You?" I want to continue to marvel at the gospel and the joy it brings to me and others. Recapture your joy.

Love,

Sister Proctor