Saturday, June 25, 2011

Peace. Love. Guest Services.

Hello everyone!

I hope all is well, wherever you are! From the bits & pieces we hear about the world it sounds like insanity is the name of the game – fun fun fun! Temple Square is still beautiful & amazing.

This week my Zone Leaders, Sister Crandell & Sister Barratiero committed me to attaching “10 Minutes of Pondering” onto one meal a day. The first time I did, I managed to assign a motorcoach, hear that the Canadian post is on strike & help a Sister with a personal problem. Apparently, I have issues not being productive! I finally went into a cubicle – to ponder – and I felt like I was 5 & had been sent to time-out. I’ve gotten much better at it though, no worries.

Calling home for Father’s Day was wonderful. I am so glad that President Holmes allows us to do that. It was a blessing to hear from most of my family, especially to hear that all is well. When you get down to the basics of life – if your family is doing well – you almost can’t stop yourself from breaking into “Oh what a beautiful morning!!!” hahaha…not that I ever do that. Of course.

District Meeting on Sunday went fairly well, considering that I’m pretty sure my body was about to shutdown. Literally. I pulled through though and with the help of my ZL we had a very spiritual meeting.

We saw the Quail babies!!! It’s official: Quail babies are the CUTEST little baby birds I’ve ever seen in my entire life! They’re about the size of a large gumball & are to die for :)

Sister Sanders talked to me Thursday about a tour I’d taken earlier, “I saw you with him & thought, ‘Who is that with my future husband?!?! Oh…it’s a missionary - *gasp* - it’s Sister Despain!’ I thought you were his girlfriend! So, who was he?” Robby from California. Very proud of the fact that he is on the swim team at Berkeley – complete with over confident movie worthy voice intonations. He was raised Catholic but doesn’t follow any religion now. He’s not sure if he believes in God. He’s not sure where he finds peace. He’s not sure what he’s going to do with his major. Basically – lack of direction & purpose in life. Turns out, also a lack of desire to find it. Eternal salvation: Denied.

Sister Davydenko from Ukraine is so sweet & absolutely hysterical. I asked her to take a motorcoach with some elderly people & she replied, “At what o’clock the Grandparents will be here?” BAHAHAHA just play it in your mind with a very thick Ukranian accent. HILARIOUS.

In ONE day this week we had 1 New Investigator, 2 Progressing & 1 IRC. These are very sad little numbers but due to our current situation I was delirious :) I’m doing my best to stay positive, find those silver linings & remember that it’s not about the numbers. I’m learning a lot about life, missionary work & myself. I’m finding my limits of what I can handle mentally & physically. The church is true. Christ is the Savior of the world. He was alone so we wouldn’t have to be & I have really come to see that play a huge role in my life. I feel very privileged to be a missionary. As always, loving the work.

Peace. Love. Guest Services.

Sister Despain Jr.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

June Roses in the December of our Day

Privyet! Feel privileged; you were just greeted in Russian :) Sister “Hart” from Armenia taught me!

Reports have been difficult to write for the past few weeks. We’re encouraged to keep our weekly reports brief, positive & uplifting. This report…might be what we like to call, short.

Tuesday morning we visited the Hope Gallery to see their collection of Carl Bloch paintings. After taking some time to browse the paintings, we had a testimony meeting. Earlier that morning I had been struggling quite a bit & was not feeling particularly Christ-like. This little field-trip helped me feel much better. One comment in particular stood out to me: Sis Gunter in regards to the story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead, “Everything they could do, He let them do. Everything they could not do – He did.” I think she made a wonderful point. Christ lived with the bigger picture in mind. He knew how important it was & still is to have us do ALL we can. I found this extremely relevant to my being with Sis D. I’ve really come to realize how great an impact I can have as her companion.

I spoke with President Holmes yesterday. He said, “If she (Sis. D) were my daughter, I would rather have her pushed too hard – than too little”. I felt ever more comforted as he validated my concerns and “backed me up” in all my desires as a companion. I’ve been concerned lately that my expectations are too high, especially after some Sisters have called me mean – for having S.D. struggle to do some things on her own. He encouraged me to push her in every way possible & to maintain my high expectations. Thus allowing her to get out of her shell & see how much more she can achieve as an individual.

Tough love, baby.

We finally have made a baby-step of progress with investigators! Doug from Texas is planning on going to church on Sunday! He is amazing; he was headed down the wrong path & realized it in time to change his life around. He said, “It’s been getting’ up in the 100s lately & I think the place I was headed – is much hotter than that!” Hahahaha I am excited to see him progress in his walk towards a better life.

In case you were wondering where all the Texans have gone -- they’re here at TMSQ! Crazy!

I know Christ lives. I know Heavenly Father is mindful of each of our situations. I know that He does not give us more than we can handle, as we include Him in our efforts. The strongest testimonies are grown in times of strongest opposition. Who wants to stay the same forever? Let’s grow!

I don’t believe in “bad” days – just different days!

Sis A. Despain

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Break ups, Mindi and Potatoes: I Heart TMSQ

I’ve started this update about 3 times & I’m just going to go with what comes to mind first. Enjoy!

It’s gotten a little easier, not being with Sister Nelson. We page each other & call & we still run together in the morning :0 She always has wonderful advice. Advice for this week: (1) It’s not about the numbers. (2) Pray. Another Sister noticed that the cheese Sister Nelson had at lunch said “Despain” on the front and commented on it, “So you got the cheese, huh?” “You know how break-ups go :)” That basically sums up our companionship – we’re ridiculous & I love it!

Somehow I didn’t make it on the Language paging list for Spanish. So I reminded the OA’s (who are conveniently in the District I’m over) and asked them to put me on…again. I’m getting Spanish pages!!! Except the strange thing is that I’m always in GS when I get paged, so I can’t take the tour?!? One of these days…I’ll actually be available.

Highlight of the week: I attended the Spanish Language Meeting! *Eeek!* I time-warped back into the Cary 3rd Branch and felt completely at home. I even said the closing prayer! I’m one of two Americans who have passed off in Spanish & I feel proud of that. Ready for an embarrassing story? It was pretty funny. I was doing a role play with Sis Wiesner (just 4 of us) and I was asking something about the Pope [el papa] but instead of saying the Pope…I said [la papa]…the potato. Best believe! Hahahahahaha

I met Mindi!!!! When I first saw her I thought, “Wow – she could be Angie’s sister!” And she is! She was very sweet, very kind. I was glad to finally put a face to such a wonderful person :)

Rochelle [the red-headed Texan] was on the Square! Her younger son, Derek was engaging in what his father called “recreational drinking” at the water fountain :) hahahaha

HOMELESS RALPH IS SITTING ACROSS FROM ME!

We took the Draper 6th Ward Youth through the SVC yesterday! LOVED IT! There are few things I love more than being with Youth. I feel completely “in my element” around youth, they’re the best. At the end, I was talking with a leader & he said, “That was fantastic! You’re amazing at this – you have the perfect personality to be here. You kept their attention, had them laughing and even I learned something new today! You’re wonderful!” Afterwards, S.D. and I evaluated and determined that we would do certain things to help her be louder & more confident. I’m excited to help her grow.
I met ex-Elder De Barros the other day! Apparently he knows Jeff :)

We’re having wonderful conversations with David, Grandpa Despain’s referral. He is amazing!

This week I realized some of the joys in mission life are small & go unnoticed. They come in the morning, when S. Moreira (Brazil) rants for 5 min about how hard English is. They come as S.N. & I joke about how hard breaking up has been. They come when President air-punches me & then tells me how great I am. They come when we get a referral from Ghana in 2 minutes :)

I absolutely love being on my mission. I love sharing this gospel with everyone I meet.

Sister Despain Jr.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Never Ending Story: Part X

I have to admit that writing about my week – every week – seems a little redundant but I love that no two weeks are the same! Some days I don’t even know what to do with myself and Sunday was definitely one of those. As District Leader I had to meet with the companionships I’m over & get update on their week. It sounds fairly simple but Sisters end up being late, Sisters need to tell me their life stories, appointments go long etc. and the question of the week is: Why, of all missions, does Temple Square not have a mental health counselor?

The district I’m over is fantastic. We have the one trio of the mission and they are doing so well! It’s tricky being in a trio here on the Square – you can easily be overbearing. Each of them are so sweet though, they’re succeeding so far!
Sister Moisio (Finland) spoke in church & shared with us how the process of refining silver is a lot like Heavenly Father working with us. The silver has to be held in the middle, the hottest part of the fire – it’s done when the silversmith can see his reflection in the metal. See? It’s just like us. God allows us to be tested & tried so that we can become more like Him. I love that analogy.

Leadership Training was this week & it was amazing! I learned some wonderful lessons that will come in very handy over the next few weeks. The most important one though, was a role play we did on “being ourselves”. We took of our name tags *gasp* I know, it’s okay – we lived. We sat on the floor with another Sister, went by our first names & talked about our missions as though we were best friends from back home. Noemi asked me why I decided to make the sacrifice of going on a mission. Typically I tell people about how blessed my life is etc. but I answered her a little differently. “My family is really happy. My house is clean, bright, wholesome & full of love & laughter. I know that it’s that way because of the gospel it’s based around. I loved growing up in my house and I figured, if I could bring that to someone else – that would be the best thing I could share. That’s why I went on a mission.” Yay for self-discovery.

We had an amazing comp inventory on Wednesday. There’s nothing like getting everything out in the open. One thing that I have found very helpful in companionships is clearly stating our objective, our personal goals. I want to be the best, literally. I told Sis D that I’m willing to push myself in every way – if that makes me improve. I have so much love for this work & I want to give it my ALL until the end. I’m RUNNING this marathon – no way am I stopping for any breaks. Even though we may not be on the same page – at least we know where the other is coming from :)

That morning we had a first transfer with us, Sis Au-Yeung from Hong Kong! We met Pat from England right as we left the SVC. She had met with Elders before who had told her all about SLC & was very excited to finally be here. We very naturally offered to take her around & tell her the whole story. We did so, with a greater amount of comp unity that we’d had all week (the power of CompInventory!). Downstairs in the NVC we watched a clip from President Monson on Making Choices. She loved it & said he was right on. Her only hold up is that she believes she doesn’t have faith – not even the mustard seed! Together, we invited her to meet with those missionaries again & they would help her find that mustard seed. She accepted. We are thrilled.

I got us two new investigators this week! They’re amazing and I can’t wait to start teaching them. Since I gave most of our investigators to Sister Nelson, I actually get time to call people and invite! I LOVE IT! I’m teaching the referral that Grandpa Despain gave me :) He is my favorite! The other one is actually from a Facebook contact! Isn’t it amazing how helpful technology can be?
My first District Meeting went very well! I made an agenda ahead of time to clear it with the Zone Leaders & they loved it! We focused on re-phrasing & inviting WITH your companion. Everyone said it went really well! I love the Sisters I’m over, they are fantastic. I gave them little cards with the Elder Cowboy quote on it: Sister _____, you are beautiful! You are an amazing missionary! And TODAY is going to be a fantastic day!”

All is well :)

District Leader Despain