Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Hey guys,

Everyone can let out a sigh of relief.  I stepped back from the edge.  Man, this week has felt a world of difference from the other week.  And the ironic thing was that this past week should have been harder than my hardest week here in Tacoma.

-some irate tattoo'd dude cussed us off his property.  I thought he was going to punch me.

-i got a $124 red light camera ticket....with my bishop and his wife behind me in the intersection.

-i found out that a major side effect of that Celebrex that i was taking for my inflamed cartilege is depression. wow, that would have been helpful to know. Sheesh, makes a lot more sense why the week after i got transferred (the week i stopped taking it) i felt like a rain cloud.

-i was lucky enough to receive a 45 min ripping on the phone from sister weaver. in which i cried. and i never cry from stuff like that usually.

But the difference was that i had more faith, hope, charity, and love.  In Helaman 5:40-41

"And it came to pass that the Lamanites said unto him: what shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us? And Aminadab said unto them: You must repent."

So that was all it took. Faith unto repentance.  I had no more excuses not too.  I pushed aside my pride and got down on my knees and made a pledge to change.  And i asked for help.  That is one of the biggest markers of humility.  asking for forgiveness and recognizing that you cannot do things alone.  Remember, change can happen immediately with faith, obedience, and repentance.  Healing starts sooner when you let it.

we had a lot of good things happen too.

-we found 5 really solid miracle new investigators.

-that cool black girl in the wheel chair, Kasondra, let us start teaching her again.  she is growing and progressing ever so slightly. finding more hope.  i don't know if i ever mentioned why she is in a wheelchair. but 2 years ago, Kasondra attempted to take her own life by jumping off a freeway overpass in downtown tacoma.  she should have died.  but as her new tatoo says," i am living proof." she is living proof that God lives. that he can heal even the most broken people. literally and figuratively. she has butterflies all over the walls of her apt.  she loves them because they symbolize change. metamorphosis. becoming something beautiful that can fly away. she's legit.

Our mission had the opportunity to go up to this place called Zion's camp up in Belfair.  It's about an hour or so away from Tacoma up northwest on the kitsap peninsula.  The church owns the property and it is usually used for girl's camp/scout camp. stuff like that.  we used it for spiritual lessons learned through physical activities.  Ropes course, trust fall, log hopping, climbing over a 12 ft wall.  It was really cool.  I'm not going to lie, i went in with a dismal attitude.  but to my surprise, i had a change of heart and i really had some great take-away experiences.

we had a baptism for this lady named lisa.  she is a psyhiatrist/psychotherapist.  she is very very intelligent. owns a nice car. nice house. has a stable job. ironically, my most depressed day of the transfer was the day that we met her.  God and his sense of humor.  sending me a psychiatrist.  she is the definition of "elect."  just so prepared for the gospel.   inviting her to be baptized was the easiest thing ever.  she was a referral from a member in another ward that meets in our bldg.  he is a marriage and family counselor that works in the smame office that she does. lisa and brad have had several gospel discussions over the course of their time working together.  but it wasn't until lisa had a dream that she was drowning in a river and brad had reached in to pull her out of it, did she feel like now was the time for her to baptized.  she was adopted as a baby and found out in her early 20's that her biological mother was LDS.  lisa said that she has always felt drawn to Mormons and couldn't really explain why other than that they are really nice people.  she vividly remembers visiting the tabernacle in SLC when she was 8 yrs old and hearing the Mormon Tabernacle choir sing. she described her experience there as a homecoming. she felt like she was coming home and has ever since longed to be part of the family, the community of the church.  so neat.  she really taught me a lot about faith. about believing. about not fearing. but trusting. here is a lady that has wealth of knowledge. of science. of history. of knowledge. of literature. and she was humble and willing to set that all aside in the sense that she was willing to feel and learn more with her heart.  being humble and willing are the keys to change and repentance. to faith and hope. to happiness and joy.  i really feel that lisa was just as much supposed to find me as i was supposed to find her.

i love seeing change. the only constant is change. life is to change. the gospel is change.

love you guys,
sister baylon

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