EB Mission Blog: push past your fears and become....

Dear Family and Friends,

So my email this week may not be quite as good as normal.....cause...it's been a crazy week, and sister Chen is going home tomorrow so we are way busy. But I shall do my best to give a little rundown of the week!

Monday - so on Monday we had a little lunch with the district for pday, and just spent time together which was fun. We then had to go to Leicester to pick up Sister Vousden, as her companion was having surgery and had to stay in hospital overnight, so we picked her up and then got some groceries for them so they could have food as she recovered, and then came back to Coventry.

Tuesday - we took Sister Vousden back to her comp, and got them kinda settled and then came back to Coventry for some lessons! We got to go see Georgie, who I love so much, and then we saw Arthur, who is doing AMAZING after his baptism and some other people. We then picked up the Nuneaton sisters from the train station so we could start exchanges!

Wednesday - exchanges with the Nuneaton sisters, Sister Gombe and Sister Filoso. Sister Filoso came out with me so it was way fun to be with her for the day :) also fun fact....my great grandma in the mission trained her, so she is my great aunt in the mission. #weirdmissionfamilystuff
We had some cool lessons, and one miracle lesson actually! We felt prompted to stop by some less active members and one lady had just come home, and was going to leave in a couple hours so we caught her at the perfect time and had such a cool lesson with her! It was so good. :) miracles always happen on exchanges.

Thursday - we had a wonderful last district meeting - pictures to come. At the end we took pictures and elder Hellyer put eye drops in so we would all cry but he was the only one who cried...
We then had some lessons, and then had a dinner with a friend named kristina and it was SO cool. We were able to have like...2 lessons kind of. Basically I sat with the kids (5 years old haha) and taught them about the Book of Mormon and sister Chen talked to kristina. It was so cool though cause the boys know about Jesus and know that he loves them, and it was so interesting to hear their thoughts. Kids are so close to God, I love it.

Friday - phew. Crazy day. So we helped Georgie make sandwiches for her dads baptism, then drove to Birmingham for sister Chen's departing interview, then drove back for a quick da (dinner appointment) and then went to the baptism! It was so good :)

Saturday - we had an activity at Claudius house and had giant barbecue with members and friends and stuff and it was way cool! The elders burnt all the food but it was good fun and a good way to get everyone together to grow closer together. AND it was Salonges birthday so that was a plus :)
We then had some lessons, and then went to say goodbye to a member and ended up having dinner with them, and then went to stake conference! Elder Dyches of the area presidency was there and Elder Boon of the seventy, and it was so uplifting and inspiring!

Sunday - this day was full of an amazing stake conference, and lots of goodbyes for sister Chen...and lots of tears.
We found out who my new companion will be - sister Rasmussen - and she goes home this transfer so I am "killing" another one. That will be an exciting adventure, especially as this week is a 5 week transfer...so it's going to be crazy...but it will be good I'm sure! She was serving in Cardiff so I know her already which is nice. It'll be hard to say goodbye to another companion though...but that is life.

Something I have been thinking a lot about this week, is how I can improve as a missionary, and just as a person. I was reading a talk my dad gave me a LONG time ago, I don't know if he even remembers giving it to me but I've kept it because it reminds me always how I can be truly happy and keep improving every day! The talk is called 5 Keys to Happiness, by Joseph B. Wirthlin. In there it gives 5 steps to be truly happy and to succeed in life.

1. don't be afraid
2. have faith
3. work
4. do what is right
5. persevere to the end

I wish I could just talk about all of them... But maybe this week I'll just focus on the first - Don't be afraid. He gave a story about his dog, who was afraid of loud noises because one time he got hurt. From then on, the dog's fear made him run away whenever he heard a loud noise. He said "People can sometimes act like old Ruff. Sometimes, fear makes us run away from things - things like setting and achieving goals, developing relationships that can last a lifetime, or becoming the people we know we should become." I was thinking a lot about this....a lot of times, I think I've run away from things because I was afraid of maybe getting hurt, or being rejected, or something like that. But it really doesn't matter. Fear just limits us. God has given us the power of reason and even though we may still be afraid, we can push forward and work to become better. We don't have to allow our fears to hold us back from becoming who God wants us to become.

My goal this week is to not be afraid....or if I am afraid, I won't succumb to my fear. I want to push forward and become the person I know I can become, and who God wants me to be. I believe each of us has SO much potential to do great things in this world, we just need to move past our fears that are holding us back. One of my favorite scriptures is Mark 5:36 which says "Be not afraid, only believe." My challenge to you all this week is to pick something you are afraid of doing and just DO IT. God will help us to succeed and change the world if we just do our best and move past the fears that are holding us back.

Love you all!

~ Sister Emma Beazer