Half Baked Missionary

Hollaaaaa from your halfway missionary!!

  Nine months ago tomorrow I waved goodbye to my sister and stepped on a Mexico City bound plane to prepare for the next 18 months of my life. Ohhhh all the things I didn't know haha. And many things I have yet to learn! Milestones have the effect of self-reflection, especially since the end of April it's been a year since I opened my mission call. A year and 15 pounds later(thank you Utah member dinners haha) I find myself speaking spanish in Wyoming with a dying companion(not literally- that just means she's going home soon) tracting the trailer parks of the desert. Lol.

  What have I learned in all this time? Wow sooo much. I have learned about grace, and that I am not here as a missionary to do this myself. I have a companion and God and the Spirit and I must work together with all of them! I've learned to have fierce faith and be bold with love in inviting people to make changes in their lives that will bring them eternal joy. I've learned that I'm also here to use my talents and personality, that obedience and the black name tag doesn't mean I have to shelf my personality and be super serious. God doesn't want us to be different people, just better versions of ourselves! I've learned that people are capable of change, not because of me, but because of the Holy Ghost that testifies with fire. I have learned to trust, work, and leave God the rest.

  Another place I found myself this week was at my first Mission Leadership Council! All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission got together with President and Sister Hillier to talk about the needs of our missionaries. I loved talking about our missionary purpose, and how we can help each missionary have internalized that why we are here is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them grow their faith, change, follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, and receive the greatest gift God has for His children- the companionship of the Holy Ghost! If we continue to follow this path then we can live with God again! What greater message is there than that?? :) We also talked a lot about having a purer mission. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord! :)

  We also had more exchanges this week (pretty crazy week with less time in our area) and I felt like I should go with a sister to my area, but I had only been here for two weeks so leading the area felt like I was a chicken flapping it's wings and trying to fly. Also after about 8 months I had to drive for the first time! Ahhhh love feeling like I don't know what I'm doing but hey God blesses our efforts and the most important thing for me to do was talk to and serve that Sister. I love how I feel when I am really thinking about other people and trying to listen to the Spirit for how to help them!

Also apparently I'm used to the desert now because when we went down to Salt Lake this week I was blinking my eyes in surprise to soo much green haha!

Love your desert, half-baked, enthusiastic, ridiculously passionate, ready to work missionary,

Hermana Adison Alley