Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Week 23: Adjusting to Being Senior Companion

September 10, 2013

HI!

So, I don't have a ton of time right now to email you all right now. Merr. Where to start... This weekend has been awful and then great! My first few days were really rocky; I kind of lost it one day by myself haha. Let's just say, I have definitely cried more in this city than the rest of my mission put together. Yikes. I don't like being senior and having that responsibility at all, haha. Interestingly, the day that I became senior I felt a physical difference in the burden on my shoulders. Literally, I felt like a weight was dropping onto my head. My first day I got a migraine by the time we got home that night and then I lost it the next morning. It only went up from there. I realized that Sister Maxfield is a gift sent from heaven. That's kinda weird to say. I mean, I have loved every single one of my companions SO much, I've never fought or argued with any of them or anything, but I haven't necessarily been able to see, especially not this early in a transfer, why I needed that specific companion at that time. I feel kind of selfish saying that, because I feel like she's really just here for me and I don't know how to help her out, usually it's been the opposite. It's an interesting position to be in, but she's the one kind of putting me back together, which I feel bad about, especially as the senior companion. I think that's why the first few days were so rough, because I felt like she was pretty much better and more put together at everything than I am and logically, shouldn't I be teaching her stuff about missionary work instead of her teaching me? Nope. That's where I was wrong. But hey, it's great! She is a superstar at finding and teaching people. The work started picking up in Sister Fower's and my last week together and now it's just running. We don't have any investigators that are considered "progressing" yet, but we have soo much set up for this week and we have been getting so many more promising let ins and phone numbers, not just flaky ones. It makes me sick of stress, literally, to think about everything on my plate and lots of little things coming up, so I've been trying to focus on just one day at a time, one event/program at a time and it's been working pretty well so far. Sister Maxfield is a lifesaver in terms of helping me to find missionary work creative and fun and in helping me put my testimony back together. I just wish it weren't so much pressure to be a senior companion. Oh well, we're doing great together!

Everyone keeps asking for cool stories, so here are a couple: We've been doing a lot of RCLA work, so I've been studying the ward list here and putting it into lists of the areas where inactive members live and trying to get information about them. So, Sister Fowers and I started looking up a lot of them and then we'd just tract the rest of the street or building that they lived in. Most of them were pretty rude to us and not interested in being part of the church anymore, but we decided to keep looking them up. On our last Saturday together, we went to look one lady up and got let into her building, but she wasn't home. We decided to tract the rest of the building and in the apartment right below hers; a 15 year old boy answered the door. He just looked at us and said, "Are you Mormons?! So am I! I've never seen girls (sisters) before!" As we talked in the doorway, his mom rushed home from work and then back out the door, but told us to come back sometime and meet with her kids sometime because her kids were Mormon. So, we set up for the next week and Sister Maxfield and I went over to help him figure out why he doesn't come anymore. It was kind of awkward, because well, he was a 15 year old boy and pretty quiet. Right then, his mom came home again, so we went into the living room and started talking to them. Apparently, she used to meet with the missionaries when her kids were, but she wasn't ready to make certain changes and commitments in her life at that point. But, since then, she has broken up with her partner and feels like she is ready for this in her life now. So, long story short, even though we were there to meet with him, we met his mom and we're super excited to see where this goes! There's another cool story with another member (recent convert) and his mom, but I don’t have a ton of time right now to tell you all about it.

This week has been good! Interestingly, my mission has made me more excited to get married but much less excited (if that was even possible) to have kids and that responsibility. Haha yikes. Maybe I'll grow out of it. Anyway, I need to run! I forwarded you some pictures from Sister Maxfield that we took this morning. Thanks for the shoes, Mom! (: I miss you all!

Love,
Sister Butterfield


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