Hey ya'll!!
Another week has just flown by here in Charlottesville! I can't
believe how fast the time is going! It's crazy. This week was awesome...
we didn't exactly have tons of success this week or tons of spiritual
experiences with investigators but i have found that the best days are
when we have all 0's for our goals... it is days like those that i know i
gave it my best effort and did all i possibly could to bring others
unto christ. We have been working super hard, every hour of every day is
flled and we are so busy and although the work is slow right now i know
the lord is preparing those who are ready to hear and accept the gospel
but i will only be led to them if my comps and i keep working as hard
as we are and keep having faith! I know there are good things around
the corner and something i have really come to learn is that there must
be opposition in all things. There is no one in the scriptures that the
lord called that didn't have opposition. The scriptures are full of
people and prophets that had to go through so much opposition and
exercise so much faith in order to be blessed and be able to fully carry
out the lords work. And guess what? All those people in the scriptures
weren't any different than we are... they all made mistakes and had to
learn from those mistakes to get to where they needed to be. The lord
only calls the weak and the simple and i'm so proud to be apart of the
weak and simple club. I know that opposition in our lives only allows us
an opportunity to grow and to go through hard things so we can be made
stronger. We should celebrate the opposition that we have in our lives
cuz when we are strong and things seem to be going perfectly in our
lives... then usually that is when we are weaker spiritually cuz we
aren't relying on the lord as much as we should. The work right now is
going very slow and it just seems like no matter how obedient or right
we are doing things that we are just getting nowhere. haha but don't
worry i'm not discouraged at all cuz i know that becaue we are working
so hard that there are miracles waiting around the corner. The lord
definitely lets us struggle and loves to give us opposition so we will
turn to him, hold onto him and rely on him to bless us in the ways that
we need and in the ways that our best for us and i am sooooooo beyond
grateful for that. i love the lord i know he knows who i am and i know
he knows each of us and the people in virginia. he knows what they need,
he knows better than i do and he has sent me here to teach all that i
can to the people of virginia. I carry the most important message here
in charlottesville and the lord is relying on me to do all i can to tell
everyone i can about this important message that we have. This past
week we were able to go to richmond for a mission conference and
unfortunately had to say goodbye to our mission president. it was really
sad but i'm excited to welcome in the new president and to see how he
will run the mission. i'm excited to get to know him. So president perry
shared some amazing messages at that conference and one thing that was
mentioned a lot is the scripture in 1 samuel 16:7 talking about how the
lord looks on the heart and knows what are true desires are. This life
is not about popularity or what others think, the mission isnt about the
number of baptisms we have... it is about our heart and the desires we
have to faithfully hold onto christ and bring others unto him. I was
reading this week in 2 nephi 31 that talks about righteousness and how
we shouldnt just manifest the appearance of righteousness cuz the lord
knows us, he knows our thoughts and the desires of our hearts. i know
there are a lot of people out there who strive to do all they can to
make it appear that they are righteous so others assume that they are.
They don't actually live the gospel, they don't have that desire to come
closer to christ cuz they are so wrapped up in the world and what the
world thinks. i know that if we seek not to obtain riches or praise in
the world but instead seek to obtain a hope in christ then we will
receive spiritual riches that are more powerful than any sort of worldly
thing. i know that if we hang onto christ, turn to him, let him lift us
up that we can overcome the many temptations in this world. One thing
our mission pres. ALWAYS tells us is that "you are good enough!" he
knows how discouraged we can get out in the mission field and he knows
that we are good enough cuz we are doing all we can to be obedient and
to share our testimonies with the people here in virginia. So i just
want you all to know that YOU ARE ALL GOOD ENOUGH. we can always strive
to be better but i know that we are always good enough in the lords eye
as we are doing all we can to obey him and to serve his children here on
the earth. So yesterday
we had quite thee interesting experience.... hopefully it isnt one of
those "ya had to be there" moments cuz i got a pretty good kick out of
it. So we went to go teach one of our investigators named derek and it
was only like our 2nd time meeting with him and he invited us into his
house and took us down into this tiny little room probably about as wide
as a car that i'm pretty sure is supposed to be a closet but he had a
couch and a tv in there that were about a cm. apart from each other and
all three of us sat on the couch or squoze into sitting on the couch and
we were just like an inch away from the tv and couldnt even see him cuz
it was just a bizarre angle... anyway, his dog started to freak out so
he let it out of the cage and just threw it onto our laps and its just
crawling all over us and it ended up on sis walkers lap and all the
sudden derek goes "uh i'm pretty sure he just peed on you" haha bless
poor sis walkers heart... this brand new missionary getting peed on
during only like her 3rd lesson here and all he did was threw her a
towel at her and didn't do anything about the dog so i politely threw
the dog off the couch and we taught an interesting long and
uncomfortable lesson to him while sis walker had pee all over her. ha!
It made me laugh... sis walker didn't think it was too funny in the
moment but i think she does now. haha lets just say i'm really learning
how to be comfortable while being uncomfortable. we get put into some
pretty interesting situations here and all ya can do is laugh its the
best thing ever and i'm loving every minute. i love you all sooo much
and am so grateful for your prayers and support. i hope that baseball is
going good and i just wish i was there to cheer everyone on that is
playing! i miss going to everyones activities and being involved but i
really just love to hear about everything that is going on at home and
what ya'll are up to. you don't have to respond to any of my stories or
anything i'm up to i just want to hear how ya'll are doing and what you
are up to! LOVE YOU ALL. have a good week!! XOXO
Sister Roosendaal
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