“Sometimes they don’t understand because we don’t listen.”

Moral of the Story: As we listen with the Spirit we can hear the things that aren’t said but meant.

This week was full of training & exchanges. Most insane week of my life. Wait….ya – of my life! Zone Council was on the 26^th floor of the Church Office Building – it’s not every day that you can say, “No worries – I just have a meeting at the COB” – unless of course you’re Pop…then that’s like every day!

There are four things we’re focusing on as a mission this transfer: Jesus Christ, Humility, The Book of Mormon & Listening. In regards to focusing on Jesus Christ – the emphasis was on testifying of our own personal relationship with Him. As we real-played it (notice how it’s not role-play anymore) the Spirit was all of a sudden super strong as I testified of who He is for me. The next day, we were with two guests up at the Christus & I shared those things with our two ladies. Jesus Christ is my friend, He has been there with me through everything. When I had no one else to turn to, I knew He had been there every step of the way. As I pray I can feel of His love & of God’s love. I know that through Him all things are possible…and that is what I remember as I look in this room.

Humanitarian Center Exchanges: I love this place! If you’re ever in SLC and you have 45 min – head to the HC! This is the easiest place for me to share personal stories, it’s so fun. As a family we have done a lot of service over the years – but just HOW much I never realized until I had 50 million stories to share!

One that I loved sharing was about my first day of Kindergarten, don’t judge me for accuracy – I was 5. The first day of school I got my personal box of 5 crayons and I felt so special! I was used to sharing everything (thanks to my oh-so-wise parents) and I was amazed that I could have brand new crayons all for ME! Whoooo! It almost went to my head but no worries, I kept things under control. The school kits that are made for the Humanitarian efforts have only the basics: paper, pencils, ruler and scissors. Not much, right? But if those 5 crayons made ME feel special – I know that this simple kit can do the same for these kids :)

Welfare Square Exchanges: We were doing personal study when Sis Etienne asked, “Why do you think Christ walked on water?” Yes, we know the obvious answers – but couldn’t the point of it be brought about by other means? Why did Christ choose to walk on water? My answer: He had previously showed his humility by allowing the water power over Him, through baptism. At this point in His ministry, it was time for Him to show His Divinity by exercising His power over the water – by walking on it. Something to think about.

The other night I was on exchange with Sister Barazza (Spain) for a few hours. We got paged for a Spanish tour – so we responded faster than lightning! She is adorable, “Sister Despain – this is a dream come true for me!” “What???” “Taking a Spanish tour with you!” I had no idea that’s what she was excited about! Hahahaha a dream come true? Wow! I’ve never felt more complimented. She is a power house of a missionary – a very strong testimony that she isn’t afraid to share! She said my accent is cute :) And yes, she said that’s a good thing.

I’m exhausted at the end of EVERY day – but it’s for all the right reasons. When you’re so fully invested in something, there’s nothing else you’d rather do! I love being a missionary. Love love love. I can hardly explain why. I think it comes from the happiness that is a natural part of bringing others closer to Christ. As Zone Leader, this gives me the opportunity to make sure that even Sister missionaries are coming closer to Christ. This is the best thing in the world. I’ve never been busier or happier.

Loving the mish,

Sister A. Despain

Transfer 3/4

I’ve never been more exhausted in my life :) I can’t believe how tired I am! Being Zone Leader is SO FUN though, I really enjoy it. We are 24-7 busybusybusy. On Thursday I left my planner at home & hated life. But I found it – under 3 copies of Preach My Gospel so we’re back on track, no worries.

I’ve only been called as Zone Leader for 3 days & already it’s been so crazy I can’t remember everything. What I do remember is that I made a chocolate cake last night :) Ah yes, the important things in life.

My companion, Sister Rodriguez is amazing. She is a fantastic missionary – in fact right now she’s chewing out this guy on the phone for not being humble enough to recognize God’s hand in his life. She has a gift for sharing personal stories that really help others open up and share more about themselves. She’s a powerhouse – I love being her companion. We have a lot of fun together.

This transfer we’ll cover the Humanitarian Center every Wednesday night, so this was only my 2^nd time back – ever. But it went great! We ended up getting 6 potentials from a Youth group we took around!!!

Thursday I never even made it to the Square. We did however, have wonderful trainings! Welfare Square, West Gate & Guest Services – whew! Everyone is trained now so things should go relatively smoothly. Cross your fingers :)

Guess what, we had a baptism AND wedding last night! Wahoo! It reminded me of Elder Lee in Peru – having investigators get married so they could get baptized. It was a wonderful experience to be a part of. This couple has been together for 14 years, living as husband & wife with their children but never got married. Their daughter Jessica was baptized 2 months ago & shared it with her parents! Sister Rodriguez took them around last transfer – and last night they were married and baptized! It was the greatest thing ever. They looked so happy :)

Rebecca: Usually we teach the basics of the first two lessons as we go around – according to the directions of the Spirit. One of the greatest realizations I’ve had on my mission was when it clicked that we teach every part of Lesson One in most of our tours –just with more visual aids! We were on our way to the Christus to contact but decided to stop at the planters & contact this lady with a bike, looking confused at her map. We took her through Temple Square and shared with her about the basics of the church. We told her that her local missionaries could help her develop a personal relationship with her Heavenly Father & she referred! Except, she’s homeless right now because she’s traveling…so we’ll keep in touch via email and hope for the best! What is it with golden homeless people?!?

For the last transfer we set a mission goal to get 11, 000 referrals and we ended up getting 12,293!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We woke up this morning to 4 bodies lying on our living room floor – Sisters’ CO2 detector went off at 3 am – so they stay with us the rest of the night! Shvesta Kleine, S. Andersen, S. Birati & S.Tahi – so we had Germany, America, Kiribati Island & Tahiti sleeping in our living room :) Our mission is the best.

The Virgin Birth. Gethsemane. Calvary. The Empty Tomb. Spring of 1820.

It’s all true.

Sister A. Despain

Transfer Week!

I know this is probably the most exciting part of my week that y’all want to hear about…so I’ll tell you my new assignment first. Huzzah for a new transfer! I’m assigned back to the Extended Zone, I’m moving further down the hall (so hard, I know), my NEW PDAY is Saturday, my companion is Sister Rodriguez from Mexico & we’re the ZONE LEADERS!

Yes, this is very exciting – you’re right! All around I am thrilled. I’ll get to live with the APs, who are amazing & such hard workers but still make time to be hilarious. I love Extended – we cover Welfare Square, Humanitarian Center, Guest Services, Office Assistants, West Gate & Beehive House. So we’re everywhere – all at once – and NO, you never see the ZLs. They’re the busiest ZLs of the mission and I can’t wait! I love being busy!

First thing Thursday morning we contacted 4 people from Mainland China. One of them spoke English really well – he’s going to UNC-Charlotte so we bonded over NC memories. We had them for about 3 minutes, realized this would not be as productive as a Mandarin tour & decided to find one. Sister Au-Yeung(HongKong) showed up out of nowhere! We made the introductions and passed them over. She told us later that all of them referred to meet with missionaries!!! Eieieie!

First ever Spanish Marathon! Who got coerced into saying the opening prayer? Hermana DeEspana!!! The native Spanish Sisters have an amazing love for me & my Spanish – which typically demonstrates itself in getting me to participate as much as possible. It’s good though. I love being a part of such an amazing group of Sisters, there is so much work to be done in the Spanish-speaking parts of the world! Just ask Elder Lee!

Sister Iglezia & I took a motorcoach yesterday & had a blast! What was truly amazing is that we got TWO referrals! A hilarious group from mostly Eastern states who had a lot of questions! They were wonderful! I never knew I loved microphones so much – I love having the strap over my shoulder & knowing that 35 people are all listening to my testimony. Most missionaries don’t get to have gargantuan lessons like that and I love it!

Sister Pei, the missionary I took for surgery is doing great! Her nose isn’t bleeding anymore & bit by bit she’s making it back to the Square. She is such a hard worker & pushes herself so much. I love the motivation of the District I got to serve with this transfer; the missionaries here amaze me and motivate me to continue working hard.

After getting my new assignments I realized yet again, how much Heavenly Father spoils me J He most definitely is our Loving Father in Heaven! More than anything I’ve learned that He answers prayers. I know that as we align our will with His, all will be right in the end. I love this work so much. Don’t doubt it for a second – this is the Lord’s work! It’s all true.

Love,

Sister A. Despain

Organizing Tupperware

Hello hello hello! This week I realized how fantastic organic grapes are! No, that’s not a joke.

Linda called inbound a few weeks ago, crying hysterically & when I offered to have missionaries visit she said, “Thank you for being my angel”. She’s from NC & she’s very sweet. We’ve taught her a few times & are excited to hear how church was this week. She is bipolar – just like Jessica 1 from my 2^nd transfer. She got a new counselor & finds prayer to be very soothing. I love helping other children of God to find their special place in this world.

Justine is my #5J from Chat. Remember the four Jessicas from my 1^st & 2^nd transfers? Well here is Justine – not a Jessica but still a “J” – so I’m pretty sure that counts. She is a Junior in college in PA & got in touch with the missionaries this last week. She had some questions about the life after this, that we were able to briefly cover in our last phone call. We’ll call on Friday again to hear how things are going for her. She’s fantastic.

DJ is ½ Jewish & ½ Pagan…not sure how those two mesh – and frankly he didn’t either J But it’s all good! We took him & his friend, Charlie around on Friday. Charlie was very quiet, we were asking our most effective questions & somehow he was still answering very quickly. Master of brevity & clarity, that one. DJ told us he finds peace in nature, most of us do, but that’s where the source of his “religion” really comes from because he knew nothing of the scriptures or doctrine etc. His parents died when he was young & now he lives on his own…with his cat. He’s about 19 or 20 years old. He didn’t refer to meet with missionaries but I gave him a card for MORMON.ORG & hoped for the best!

Nicole was sitting by DOOR 13 of the Tab – also known as the quiet room (for those screaming children…or particularly rowdy guests…jk) so we stopped in the shade to talk with her. She accounted to us a fantastic story: As of a few months ago she has been struggling financially in her new found college-life. She had to get rid of her bed & couch, leaving her to sleep on the floor. After months of desperation, she finally placed a food order with the student ward. The RS President came by to drop it off & discovered their lack of furniture. She was then given the explanation of why they didn’t have anything to sleep or sit on & leave without a word. The next day, Nicole came home from school to find two beds in their bedroom with beautiful comforters & a very respectable couch in their living room! “I knew the church was true…but this moment made me think, ‘This church is SO true!!!’”. What a wonderful experience she had had, and was then able to share with us.

Please, everyone look out for those like Nicole – who on the outside appear to be doing fine. Take the time to really check in on them & see how they are getting by. Maybe they don’t need a couch but they could use a listening ear, a hug or someone to help organize their Tupperware cupboard :)

This church IS so true. Every day here at TMSQ strengthens my testimony of this. I know Christ lives. I know He leads this church & I know that Thomas S. Monson is called as His prophet in our day. I am so grateful that a 14 yr old boy was humble & curious enough to ask God a simple question that changed MY life. Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Sister A. Despain

Cambodian Seagulls

I hardly know where to start – I feel like I was just here yesterday, writing up another report!

This week was great & went by very quickly. As you may have read – last week I met amazingly well behaved children. This week….I met some less-than-fantastic-or-obedient children. From the children this week I came to the conclusion of “I would do it differently” as Meg would say sometimes :)

We had a neat experience Wednesday night with a man whose name I can’t remember for the life of me. He asked, “Do you have any questions for me?” which is most unusual for guests because typically they get unnerved at the very fact that we acknowledge their presence. That morning as I was running a question kept coming to mind, he presented an opportunity for an answer – so I took it! “Where do you say the authority for your church comes from?” He thought about it & worked his way around to initially saying, “The Bible…” and in the end replied, “You know…I think you may have some insight into the trouble with many churches today. I’m not sure why you asked that…but it’s a good question…good question.” He didn’t refer (I know right – how not, he clearly sees there’s an issue with authority) but his insufficient answer was the best answer for me. One thing that I have come to love about asking questions is answers that tell you more about a person than they mean to share.

Sis Chen (Taiwan) fell in the Seagull Monument during her Mandarin motorcoach Thursday morning :) No; I most definitely have not been making remarks about swimming, looking dry or the need to demonstrate what “full immersion” means – every time I see her. Love her to death.

You will have noticed my lack of updates on investigators. Because of the busy summer season our Motors time has been decreased and a greater emphasis placed on RC than teaching. So we haven’t had much time to teach, which seriously bums me out. Way out! But it’s okay – all in good time, we’ll have our investigators back.

Sunday night we took a Cambodian tour! Yes, surprise – in the one year I’ve been out, I’ve learned Cambodian! Jokes. We had a translator :) And we also had Elder Warczak!!! He was with the Nepali program in the SLC mission when I was with Sister Khadgi – so we had tours with him all the time. It was a great surprise and so much fun to help out with his investigators again. Their investigator was a wonderful person, in her 20’s – living in SLC with her grandparents who are members. She is on date for baptism & we could tell she felt the Spirit as we had the translator explain more about Jesus Christ.

I went on exchanges with Sister Birati (bee-rahs) from Kiribati (kee-ribahs) Island & Sister Pei from Samoa. They are AMAZING! There is no other way to describe them. They are 100% themselves with the guests. There’s something about Poly culture that I love – they can say whatever they want to whomever and no one is going to doubt them! You can’t help but fall in love with them!

I love being on a mission. I love being District Leader. I love the insanity of 55 cultures within 35 acres. I love that every day is different and I love that I wake up every morning – knowing that someone out there needs to talk to me. I love this gospel. These restored truths change lives.

Love,

Sister Despain