Red Meat, Baptism and God's Love

Family and friends!!

I have two words that describe this week: red meat. Literally, almost every dinner appointment we had pulled out the big guns and fed us steak and potatoes. We loved every single second of it, but some serious visits to the gym are in order.

As always, I'm loving the work. I'm searching my brain as to what new and exciting information I can share, but this mission is turning my memory into soup...

OH! I had my first baptism this week! An 8 year old girl who Sis. Hone and her other companion had been teaching since before I got to WA. It's pretty groovy to see anyone get baptized, but kids are different. They want to do it because it's right, not because they've sorted everything out into a logical compartment. Fortunately, the Gospel makes complete sense (because, you know, God is a God of order), but there are people who get caught up in technicalities instead of just taking it to the source and waiting for the answer. God is not a drive-thru machine where we shout in our order and pull up to the next window, hoping that some incompetent individual isn't assembling our burger. God wants us to be happy, and He wants to bless us, but we have to DO something, too. Kids just get that. I love it.

Other than that, for the first time this week since I've been here, the temp rose above 45 degrees. This brought indescribable joy to my rain-soaked heart. Also, you people are rock star status at writing me. THANK YOU!! I'd like to share a quick story from one of the letters I received this week. (I hope this person will forgive me, and take this blog shout out as an expression of gratitude). It went something like this:

This friend of mine had had the worst day. She left her purse on the bus in Tallanasty, Florida and missed her class. As she's crying on the bench outside her lecture hall, two sister missionaries approach her. Immediately their countenances change from happiness to concern. They put her at ease with humor and then share a small message about God's love for her. From my understanding, they do not preach to her, but instead they show love and share basic principles about how God is aware of all of us and wants to bless us.

As I read this letter from my dear friend, I had this palpable boost of joy and understanding. I don't know about you people, but God has never answered my prayers with pillars of light or heavenly manifestations. Instead, I know He sends good, genuine people to comfort me. These situations are not by happenstance. Sometimes all we have to do is listen to those small promptings. You may know it as your conscience. I know it as the Holy Ghost. Whatever you call it, it pushes you to do good for others. Follow it. You cannot know how the other person will take it, but that really doesn't matter. One of the things I'm loving most about this mission is that I don't have preach to anybody. There is no "convincing." There are only situations where I, like those missionaries that found my friend, can follow the promptings of the Spirit and help others feel happiness. Beautifully simple when I stop to think about it...

Final thought: this week remember that some of the most profound moments in our life come when we're in the unlikeliest of places. You don't have to be in a church to feel God's love or to share it. Just do your part wherever you are.

Love, peace, and the smell of evergreen trees,

Sister Goodpaster