This week has been. . . a week. We do this thing called “Exchanges” where the Sister Training Leaders for our area have us over for kind of a sleepover, during one week out of the transfer, for 24 hours. We usually go finding (knocking on doors), to appointments set with investigators, and do service with the Sister Training Leaders. It really gives us the opportunity to get away from our companion for a minute or two and talk about what's going on in our area, what's going on in the companionship, and just to kind of ask our Sister Training Leaders questions about how we can become better missionaries/companions. That's all fine and dandy, but guess what?? My wonderful, beautiful, amazing companions ARE the Sister Training Leaders!! So, we have Sisters come to OUR apartment and stay overnight, and we had BACK TO BACK exchanges this week. It was kind of insane. We had exchanges with the Andrews, Texas Sisters Tuesday to Wednesday, and the Monahans, Texas Sisters Wednesday to Thursday. And to be honest, by the end of it, we were all EXHAUSTED. But it was really, really good. Even though I'm not a Sister Training Leader, I was able to help some of the Sisters work through their problems and help strengthen them. It was altogether a very stressful, but super duper fun experience. Because my companions are Sister Training Leaders for four different sets of missionaries, we get to have Sisters over for exchanges all the time!
Something kind of extraordinary happened this week. On Friday, we randomly got a call from a lady named Sydney [last name withheld to protect the innocent ;) ]. She talked to Sister Missionaries over a YEAR ago, still had the number for our phone, and called us to see if we would be willing to come and help her pack up boxes so she could move out of her house. It was kind of insane, first of all, that she had our number still, and second, because she was willing to have us in her home, helping her out! She told us that the other Sisters said they knew how to pack boxes and put pants on, so she remembered that and decided to give us a call. We were all super excited to go talk to this lady! . . . Then we went to her house and found out she was a hoarder. Which is totally okay! But, we do wish she would have given us a fair warning so we could specifically pray for help getting all that stuff out of her house. What was mind boggling for me, is that she told us she had already filled up TWO 40 foot long storage units full of stuff and her house was still piled with stuff!! Ahh!!
Anyway, we set to work and started with the garage. She seriously had a hard time throwing anything away. She did have a sort of garage sale for some of her stuff so she got rid of some of it and was willing to take a lot of it to Goodwill, but she really had a hard time throwing anything in the garbage - even just straight trash! Sydney was seriously the nicest lady, though. She was willing to feed us lunch AND dinner while we were there helping! She also wanted to pay us, but we weren't about to let that happen ;) For lunch, she bought us all Firehouse Subs - I had a delicious tuna sandwich - and we sat in her front yard and talked while we ate. We asked her about her religious background and said she was going to the Second Baptist church here in Midland, but that she was afraid of finding a new "church home" in where she was moving to (a lot of people here call their churches "church homes", just meaning the church they go to in that area because there are very VERY few that are the exact same thing wherever you go in the world - it's almost like our church is true or something, weird!) So we decided to tell her about some of the things that we believe, and she was very intrigued to hear our [own individual families] are happy families and that our parents aren't divorced, and that the church was so strongly centered on the Family. It really made me very grateful for my family and how close we all are, and I am so SO grateful for you, Mom and Dad, for sticking together when things get rough and that, even though you aren't perfect, you still love each other and you still support each other! You are such a good example to me, and to Danny and Emily!
Anyway, we worked at Sydney's house from 10 AM to about 4:30 PM and we were so done. It was really frustrating trying to sort through things and she wasn't letting us throw anything away (She TOTALLY had a Nintendo 64 game console and. . . Satan was really working hard on me, but I prevailed! ;) ) But the thing that stood out to me the most is how completely VOID her house was of the Holy Ghost. As soon as we stepped inside, the Spirit was GONE. In D&C 97:15, Jesus Christ is telling us this, "And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it" and in verse 16, "Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God." Now, I'm not saying that we need to keep our homes spotless all the time 24/7, because that is literally impossible, especially with young kids, and a busy life, but I am saying that keeping the house clean and cleaning it every once in awhile is a good thing. Not hoarding things and keeping your living quarters de-cluttered can really invite the Spirit of God into your house! We have felt that here in Midland, Texas! After the double exchanges, our apartment was a MESS and we didn't get a chance to clean it until this morning, but we all feel so much better when we step into the clean apartment. We can all focus better and most of all, we can better receive answers to questions we have asked God because the Holy Ghost can dwell there! It's incredible how something that seems so worldly can affect your spirituality so much!
I'm honestly so SO grateful to be on a mission right now. I'm so grateful that I get to see the blessings from taking this time away from my life to completely serve my Father in Heaven and bring others closer to our Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ. I couldn't be in a better place right now and I am so blessed to be helping other people and to be able to actually SEE the help I'm providing! It's amazing to see how people can change when they are living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They begin to be happy again, they begin to laugh again, they smile all the time! The relationships they have with their family grow stronger and they grow closer to each other as they grow closer to God. Life is so much better with the Gospel and I am so grateful for being able to be one who shows people how to gain that for themselves. I love this Gospel so much! And I love you all so much! I say these things in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
PS - it was Gummy Bear day last Friday, so I thought I would include some pictures of the most delectable gummy bears EVER - they're called Albinese (Albanese) gummy bears, I think? And they are not like normal gummy bears at all, they're so much better and you all should eat some ;)
Also, the picture of the three humans with me on the bottom is a "three generation" picture because the top human, Sister Hughes, trained Sister Slater and Sister Slater is training me! So, we thought that was cool ;)
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| Heather's Mom: I had to look this hashtag up - it's supposedly from a movie called Friday - not a sponsor ;) - anyway, it's a quote when an annoying neighbor asks to borrow too much stuff. ??? |
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| 3 generation trainer picture. Awww!!! |
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