Coming
to the end...and the beginning :)
December 1, 2014
Well, here I am,
finishing my mission. It has been an incredible journey, and truly, it hurts to
leave. I’m grateful for the special week we had this week. It started with
President inviting me and a few other people that used to be mission leaders to
come back to mission leadership council! It was so fun to go one last time, to discuss
the problems of the mission and work on how to figure things out to help the
work of the Lord advance here in my beloved Santa Cruz. That meant a lot to me
and it was special also to see my old companions, all but one of which are
hermana capacitadoras. :) That was Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, we had a
special conferencia of hermanas with Presidente and Hermana Willard. I loved
what we learned about gratitude and I’m excited to keep applying it in my life.
This was also a
special week because after a lot of weeks with very little success, I was
grateful to see more progress in the area than ever before. We discovered a new
less active hermana who is really excited to come back to church. She came with
us and brought her son who wants to learn more and will probably be on-track
for baptism soon. We also taught an hermana and her two children; the hermana
asked US if she could be baptized! That’s something that doesn’t happen every
day. :) And she came to church with her children as well, one of whom is the
age of baptism, so they will also be a baptized family soon. Apart from that,
we are still working with an hermana who is excited about baptism, but lost her
date for this Saturday because she got sick and couldn’t go to church. Also we
are one lesson away from rescuing another family, and close with another
hermana. Although I won’t be here to see the fruits, I’m grateful to be able to
leave the area well-prepared for Hermana Paz and her new companion.
Yesterday we had a special experience with one of the good hermanas of our ward, Alejandra. Alejandra had been thinking about going on a mission for a long time but wasn’t sure about her decision. As she started accompanying us and we talked about it with her, she made the decision to go, and yesterday her mission call came! She asked us to come when she was going to open it since we had been an integral part of her decision to go, and it was really a special, spiritual experience to see her open her call (to Argentina!) and remember when I started this journey almost two years ago when I received my call. I was touched as she expressed her gratitude to us and thanked her Heavenly Father for getting her call to her while Hermana Paz and I were both still in the ward.
Yesterday we had a special experience with one of the good hermanas of our ward, Alejandra. Alejandra had been thinking about going on a mission for a long time but wasn’t sure about her decision. As she started accompanying us and we talked about it with her, she made the decision to go, and yesterday her mission call came! She asked us to come when she was going to open it since we had been an integral part of her decision to go, and it was really a special, spiritual experience to see her open her call (to Argentina!) and remember when I started this journey almost two years ago when I received my call. I was touched as she expressed her gratitude to us and thanked her Heavenly Father for getting her call to her while Hermana Paz and I were both still in the ward.
And then, we
talked to Presidente Silva and his wife for a few minutes while there. He asked
how I’m feeling and I told him that while I’m really sad to leave, I feel
ready. I feel like I’ve learned what I needed to from the mission and now it’s
time for "another cambio" to a new area - home. And while it’s really
hard to leave, I have faith that life after the mission can be even better than
life in the mission, because I figure that I can’t have possibly reached the peak
of happiness in life at only 21 years old! So, I’m sad to leave, but excited to continue
the journey at home.
I love you all
and thank you all so much for your support and love this year and a half! See
you soon!
Love,
Hermana Chelsie
Faulk
