Hey everyone!
Alright we are gonna get down to the good, the bad, the ugly here.
This week was a lot of meetings - since sister white and I are Sister Training Leaders we sometimes have meetings upon meetings. It feels like every transfer there's a week where we have an eternal amount of meetings (we also have to drive 3 hours over to Newberg for MLC and stay the night before we drive back on of those days). BUT they were all really good so there's that. We got to do a lot of trainings in front of other missionaries and sometimes it all makes me feel like I'm in Student Government again.
And then or course we had general conference which was amazing!! ♡♡ now that's an eternal weekend of meetings I don't mind hahaha.
SAD NEWS. So I've written a few times about this GOLDEN 15 year old girl named Grace we have been teaching. THIS GIRL HAS MY HEART. She calls us her "adopted sisters" and she literally would just soak in everything we taught her. Honestly she is one of my best friends. She even told us she wants to serve a mission and started a savings account! Our mission president, his wife, and his daughter all met Grace and love her too. We even took her to seminary the day before spring and she literally loved it so much.
Well last week was Spring Break and Grace spent it in Eugene where her dad and step mom live. Grace's mom (who she lives with here in Bend) already wasn't a fan of her meeting with us, but when her dad found out he was NOT happy. He kept interrogating her and told her all about how the "mormon church is a cult" (turns out he had relatives who were members and they were super whack). Grace sent us a text during spring break about how she decided to take a step back from the church and meeting with us - literally 3 days after we had an AMAZING lesson with her about all the times she has felt the Spirit the past 3 months.
So I was mega stressed about it the next couple days until Grace got home. Did her dad show her a lot of anti? Was her entire testimony of the restored gospel shaken now? Was everything we had done with her the past 3 months just barely destroyed in one week?
To make a long winded story short Grace isn't allowed to meet with us anymore because of her parents. Even though her dad thoroughly explained to her that our church is a "cult" and had her read some anti stuff online she still believes. We could tell she was really shook up and was ultimately devastated about it all.
We had a conversation with Grace Saturday night where she told us she was going to give us back her Book of Mormon (which she painted with us) because her mom confiscated it. I LOST IT. I literally started crying right in front of Grace. Sister White and I told her how much we both love her and how incredibly sad we were but we would all still be best friends!!
When Sister White and I got in the car after that we CRIED HARD. We drove to the church nearby and both sobbed in the bathroom. The ugly cry.
In my head I knew that things weren't all that bad. Grace could still be our friend, and someday have an opportunity to learn when she is older. But HOLY I was SO SO SAD. I just saw how much joy all of this brought her - lessons, reading the Book of Mormon, seminary, all of it. She loved it. I was so excited for her to be baptized, serve a mission and get married in the temple. So I guess I was mourning what I 
knew she was now missing out on.
knew she was now missing out on.
Some sisters we are close to were at the church and heard us crying in the bathroom haha. They called the Elders who also taught Grace with us and they gave us blessings. It was really sweet. In my blessing it was said that Grace would be introduced to the gospel more times in the future, and that Christ knew Grace - because of His Grace.
So yeah that's the long sob story I have, but honestly even if I were to go back in time I wouldn't do anything different. We did ALL we could to give her the best experience and draw her closer to Christ. I honestly have some of my fondest memories teaching Grace and would do it over a hundred times, even with the sad ending.
God is so aware of all His children. He weeps with us and this is His work. I've definitely learned that most of all!
I'm going to hang onto Grace's Book of Mormon. And one day I'll be able to return the book to its rightful owner :)♡
