Trials of the Week

No one is home. People don't show up to scheduled appointments. No one is available to give you a ride when you seem to need it most. Your socks don't stay on your feet. It gets dark earlier and earlier every day. People tell you they are not interested. No one will come to church. People won't pray to know if what you taught them is true. Day after day you ask to find someone to teach. For the entire week you teach one lesson to a nonmember. You ride your bike up and down hill after hill, fixing chains and waiting for cars at lights only to have to turn around and go right back. You get dropped (people permanently cancel visits) by two people. You wonder why certain younger brothers won't write you a letter!!! As you're trying to eliminate a bad habit, you feel like you're failing every day. 

The one person you teach that week understands your purpose as a missionary more clearly. They want to learn more. Members of the congregation sign up to feed you dinner!!! One sweet sister offers to give you a ride to your next appointment without a moment's hesitation or notice. Your companion makes waffles enough for two that day. You volunteer at a Christian thrift store and people tell you how much your work is appreciated. You realize that you are blessed to be healthy and able to walk and bike wherever you need to go. YOU GET MAIL!!! A letter from the grandparents, and a package full of many of your favorite things like new outfits, healthy snacks, church magazines, and a letter from home. Miraculously your package makes it to the right apartment number after you forget to give the complete address to your mom... And you find something happy to post on your blog.

These things, my friends, are pieces of my life since Monday. I wouldn't trade it for all the phone calls, television shows, glass bowls, matching silverware, every day folded laundry, sleep-in Saturdays for the world. This is the world I chose. 

I sincerely pray that YOU have an action-packed day!

-Sister Franson