Sister Radmall's Mission Adventure: Email from January 26th

So we go to the senior center every week, and it's so fun! We help in the thrift store, serve food, talk to people, and I've recently been playing a game of pool with one of the old guys. He loves it. Serving people is one of my favorite things to do!

We taught a lot of lessons this week to people. The Vincents are doing so great. Jerry is getting closer and closer every time. I can feel it! They came to church yesterday, finally. He just needs to feel like he can set a date and a goal. We also taught the treats. I have never seen someone so into one thing... Hank loves round dancing. It's pretty much all he talks about! If you bring it up at all he will talk about it for an hour and you can't talk about anything. Even if you don't bring it up he will talk about it for an hour. haha!! It's cool. He knows a lot about it.

Sister Lewellen is the one that called mom on Wednesday. I was right there by the phone. haha. It was fun =) She is so great! Has such a great, funny personality. She is the relief society president and is always serving anywhere she can. She helps us out all the time. Love her!

On Thursday we went to the blue and gold banquet. It was great! There were a lot of non-members there. They had a dessert auction. Some of those desserts went for like 50 bucks. Those auctions are so fun, and such a good idea for a fundraiser.

Friday was MLC. We have a lot more Sister Training Leaders now. There was 3 pairs, now there are 5 pairs. So we won't be quite as busy. Sister Breen and Dunkle are STL companions right now. I hope they have a good time! The STLs are making plans for Sister's conference. I am so excited! It's going to be a personality theme with the personality colors. And you know that quote on my wall above my window, "The road to success is always under construction." We are going to decorate with that theme. It's going to be a blast.

Saturday morning didn't start out very well. But we were able to help a family in need. We got a text letting us know that one of the less actives we are working with, Liz, her son died in a car accident Friday night. He was 20. The family is devastated. We had planned to help sister Lewllen with a relief society project that morning so we headed over there and told her the news so she dragged us inside and had us make cookies. We make cookies then went over and gave them to Liz and her family. Poor Bella, she is 9, she is mad at her brother Austin and mad at God for taking him. She is having the hardest time I think because she doesn't understand. We did our best to comfort her and tell her that her brother is right by her side now all the time. That he is happy and in no pain. It helped a little, but she still doesn't understand why he had to die now. Liz is having a hard time too. She is a single mom with 3 girls. Not active, though the 2 girls go to mutual. When we went over we just cleaned out the fridge and did the dishes and organized some kitchen cabinets to try and help her out. She knows there is a reason for what happened, but she is having a really hard time knowing what that reason is and accepting the fact that it happened. If you could pray for Liz Astle and her family, they could use all the prayers we can give. They are a sweet family and this whole thing put a damper on our weekend because we love them and wish it didn't have to happen.

On a better note... Sister Clegg and I have been working on making the church look better so when investigators come and new people it will look good. So we re-did the missionary boards. Still in the process, but they look better. And the relief society boards. They look awesome! It's a lot of fun. And I think people will notice. Hopefully something good comes out of the little changes we are making!

I have been reading the Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox. Awesome book!! Love it! =) If you haven't read it, I highly suggest it. It makes the atonement so much easier to understand and comprehend. Helps me realized that even though I am not perfect, and can't be perfect, God and Jesus Christ still love me. They still want me to return to them, and I still can because of the atonement. Because Jesus Christ payed for my sins so that I could be perfect... SOME DAY. God is only as perfect as he knows how to be... same as us. We are only as perfect as we know how to be... that is why we learn. So we can BECOME like God. Not so we can be like God now, but so we can eventually, over time, be like Him. I've learned so much about the atonement... more than I ever have before in the last month. And there is still so much more to learn.

Alma 7:11-12

Thanks for reading my long email. Hopefully you aren't falling asleep ;) Have a fantastic week!

Love you!

~Sister Radmall