Busy Busy

Dearest Mother,

Charles sounds like the cutest kid in the whole world. I am so excited to really get to know him for myself when I get home from my mission. It will be a lot of fun :) I sent home a picture of my wall in my apartment. Pretty much the only pictures I keep out are those of my two little darling nephews :) they make me so happy!

I don't know if I have told you about this or not, but I thought I would share this week about something that my District here is doing that I think is super sweet and awesome, and is called "The Chair." Basically the idea is that every week, at least one member of our district gets to sit in a chair at the head of the table, and we go around the room and each person gets to say why they love that person. Things they think are admirable or unique to that person, and the effect it has had on them. I have begun to make sure that there are Kleenex in my bag for these occasions because everytime I am crying because of all the things people are saying to each other. It is some of the sweetest things I ever saw, and especially when it comes down to those Elders who don't speak very much, and they were told about how awesome they are. I did find certain people to be a little harder than other people, but it worked really well anyway, and the Spirit was there so strong each time. It really has unified our district at least and I thought it was perhaps one of the best things to do to build someone's self-confidence. Super awesome and very touching. I am sorry this weeks email is super short, I don't really have a whole lot of time to email today and I had a lot of emails that I needed to catch up on due to my continual pushing them off. Know that I love each and everyone of you, even if I don't know you, or haven't seen you in a long time. You are all special to me, because you are special to our Heavenly Father.

Here is a condensed version of something that happened this week that I sent to my mission president. Enjoy! :)

This week has been good for Sister Maher and I in relation to the people we have been able to see and help. There are some really amazing people here that are so willing to do what they need to do to help grow their relationship with Heavenly Father. I love to see the progress they make as they accept and complete the invitations that we extend to them, and in so doing see the positive affect it has on their lives. We recently had an investigator very nearly drop us because she had "issues" with the Book of Mormon that were very minor, and honestly questions that had never occurred to me before, and frankly didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. However, because she was willing to do as we asked and pray about it, she told us that despite her reluctance to meet with us again, Heavenly Father pretty much slapped her in the face and told her that she needed to hear from us, because we had something really important for her to hear, and that she needed to read the whole thing before she could say it wasn't His word. It was really interesting that she would say that, and it made me feel very inadequate because I know that I do have those answers that she so desperately needs, but finding out how to teach them to her is a very difficult process and will go very slowly, because in her words, "it will be like going through a steel wall." It will be a test of my ability to have the spirit at all times, and it will definitely be something that will help me learn to really rely on the Spirit and try my hardest to put myself in a position in which (like was mentioned at the missionary broadcast) I can be used as a tool by the Spirit to help her be in the optimal place for the Spirit to teach her of the truthfulness of the things we speak about. 

Love you all!!

Keep up the good work!

-Sister Monica Walker