Invitation from a Missionary

Invitation from a Missionary

Monday, April 7, 2014

Dear God, if I give all my love away, can I have a refill?

Dear Family,
Let me begin by saying... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! (On Wednesday, but I can't tell you that on Wednesday, so I'm just telling you that now.) I hope that it is an absolutely Marvelous Day!
I did indeed have an absolutely splendid conference! Although I have yet to see Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk. I'm assuming that that is in the Sunday Afternoon session, which is the only session I have yet to see... Time differences and what not, me and Sister Pieksma are planning on watching that on Wednesday when we are scheduled to have church watch. But all in all I absolutely adored conference! Although i did miss making donuts with you guys... Instead I ate godis... not my most stellar idea. But it was enjoyable at the moment, I'm pretty sure there is a life lesson there. (There is nothing wrong with Godis, I assure you, just in excess...)
But really Conference was amazing! I loved it, I learned loads, and I thought the themes that ran throughout conference were very interesting. There was a lot about being true disciples and about standing up for what is right. It highlighted what they often say, the standards of the world are getting farther and farther away from those of God... We need to make our choice.
I hope that Taft is finally feeling better, and I hope that Dad begins to feel better very very quickly... and I hope that you and Keana just don't get sick! I'm just hoping not to get sick for the rest of my mission... because being sick is horrid. So, those of you who are sick... Get better... Please... And those of you who are not sick... Please just don't get sick. That is my request for this week.
This week has been a good one. Something pretty exciting happened. About a month and a half ago Sister Pieksma and I tracted a building and one of the woman in the building told us that we could come back another time, well we'd been trying to do that for... well a month and a half, but she was either never home or didn't have the time... But yesterday, we went in between two of the sessions of conference... AND SHE LET US IN!  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would definitely read it, and we explained it a little bit and... well, did what Missionaries do, we taught her... I can not tell you how exciting that was for me. It was... a riktig lesson. And I had been wondering if those really existed anymore. No, we have had riktig lessons, but... I can't really explain it, but this was very different and it was a definite renewal of hope.
I did something a little silly this week, I was putting on mascara (no, that's not the silly part, although some of you might find it a little bizarre for me...) And I somehow managed to drop the mascara into my hair, and then get it stuck there... I could not get it out of my hair, and by the time I did half of my hair was black. I should have taken a picture for you. Ironically I had showered not to long before that... so my hair got a nice good wash twice that morning. Getting ready for the day is such a hassle, sometimes I wish I could just skip that part. Bleh. The worst part is... It's one of those things that has to happen everyday... yet... you always end up having to get unready at the end of it... It's like making your bed, you make it in the morning... but you already know that you're going to mess it up at the end of the day... (Yes, I AM making my bed every morning... Don't worry, I've yet to succumb to the tiny voice in the back of my head telling me it's silly...)
Anyways, back on to my week and off that random tangent. So this week... Something pretty fun and exciting happened... President Newell came up to Norrland! He came to Örnsköldsvik and we all got to have interviews with him. It was pretty exciting. It's strange to think that this might very well be my last ever interview with President Newell, he goes home at the beginning of July, and it could easily happen that the opportunity for interviews never again comes up. Especially given that I'm in Norrland and that's the hardest area for him to come to. So I'm grateful for that. President Newell can be very insightful and I feel as though I learned a lot.
Quite honestly this last weekend has just been full of insight! Personal interviews with President, General Conference, more General Conference... I'm absolutely loving it! So much to learn and ponder... And I do rather enjoy both learning and pondering. It's always quite fun.
Oh, last Tuesday was Katherine Ottossons birthday, and so Sister Pieksma and I made her a birthday card and got her some chocolate and delivered it to her house... And then her husband texted us and invited us to come and eat dinner with them... on her birthday. He had invited all four of the missionaries, to her birthday dinner... It was super sweet and I felt a little bad, because it was her birthday! They shouldn't be doing things for us. Well... It's his birthday this week, and we want to do something awesome for them... We just still haven't decided what yet... (Han's birthday is the same as Mom's!!!) (Again... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!) (Love you!!!) But really, this world is full of the sweetest people. Hans also helped us figure out General Conference this weekend, the internet at the church is still broken but he and President Ottosson figured out a way to get internet at the church so the missionaries (and any investigators... Salima came to one session!!! :D ) could watch conference. And while it was a super pain because... well, just because, I don't know why that's to technilogically advanced for me, he got everything worked out, and he's told us not to worry about figuring it out again for the Sunday Afternoon Session because he would download it for us and get that set up so we can watch it during church watch. And it just astounds me all the time how there are people out there who's natural instinct is always to help others, to lighten other people's load. And the Ottossons are definitely some of those people. They are always putting others first and doing their best to help us, our investigators, everyone. They do SO much, and yet for them, these are just things that they feel they ought to do, they don't see just how amazing they are. Anyways, the Ottossons are awesome. And now you know that... :D
Hmm, something else fun happened this week, Sister Pieksma and I were helping President Ottosson help a family move, they've been to church a couple of times but aren't members, and currently do not want missionaries to come by. But anyways, we were helping them move out and loading things into a moving trailer that President Ottosson had rented (Like I said, the Ottossons are AMAZING! Really, truly amazing!!!) and I was helping Mario (the father of the family) move a couch out of the house, and we were chatting, and we finally get the couch out of the house and Mario turns to me and says 'When you get married, I'll help you move too!' And then he paused... 'In Sweden though.' So... If I ever decide to live in Sweden... I'll have help moving... For some reason that isn't quite enough to tip the scales... Helping them move though did however convince me that I want to create a way to become a child again... Growing up seems so stressful! I'm sure it has it's bonuses too... But... eh. (Just kidding, as much as I loved my childhood... I can't really progress by going backwards... so I'll keep traveling this path to... being a grown-up...) (that word is just strange, grown-up, but adult seems like a strange word too...)(I think words are just strange.)
Alright, so I have a little annoyance to share with you. I'm completely forgetting German (It's too similar to Swedish and the words start mixing together, ironically while my Spanish isn't stellar I can say more in Spanish right now than I can German, and I knew German better than I did Spanish...) (I can imagine Dad shaking his head and telling me that I should have put more effort into learning German... I hang my head in shame.) Anyways, my German is disappearing... but German... can be a very sneaky language. Yesterday, I was chatting... and I said 'gelegenhet' I couldn't remember the Swedish word for opportunity! And that was my FAVORITE word in the MTC (Möligheten) (It's super fun to say... And the word opportunity is super fun too...) And for about five minutes... I was just really confused as half of my vocabulary just seemed to blur and shift and get mixed up! I thought I had gotten over the language mix up stage! Alas... I have not, and sometimes I wonder if I will... I mean, it has to happen sometime right? I am learning some fun words in Swedish right now... Ödet, means destiny, and you know the Swan Princess... Her name is Odette, it's pretty much pronounced the same though, pretty much... and I don't know why... But that just seemed really cool to me... But it seems alot less exciting when I write it... But... you know, connections! (I don't know if that was on purpose though, that they used the name Odette...) You would all probably like it if I went back to the ten minute email sessions where at least everything was relevant and makes sense... I'm trying, I just find the strangest things fascinating and want to share... but then I realize that... it's kind of random.
Anyways, I don't feel as though there is anything else all that big to talk about today. I had a good week, I enjoyed conference, I'm continuing to learn so much, that's something though... Some of the things that I'm learning... I never would have thought that I would learn. At least not here on the mission. It's strange, it's also strange what Heavenly Father can use to teach us things and what he can use to help us... He can use literally everything and anything... It's... Just so... Mind-blowing what he can use to teach us important things, things that I would never have guessed, but then I think that goes to show that all good things come from God, and that he can use them all... I don't know, I can't explain better than that, at least not in this email with the time allotted to it.
Can I also just add that our minds are AMAZING! AH! I'm... AH! Just so happy! Again, I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's love, and the fact that he made all of this possible. AH!!! I... Life is good. And the inside of my head is sometimes a little strange. Maybe sometime I'll explain, I can't right now, A) Because I don't understand myself. B) Well... yeah.
Sorry, I promise, no more random tangents that don't have to do with what happened this week. I continue, this week has been good, I learned alot, and... I have hope that this next week is going to be good. I'm excited.
Alright, so that's it for this e-mail!
I love you all SO SO SO MUCH!
Love,
Syster Kjanela Fawcett
'Dear God, if I give all my love away, can I have a refill?'

Wait!
I just realized that I forgot to ask my questions! It'd been a while since I had those that I forgot about them!
Alright, so super quick... I've been thinking about Agency, God's Omniscience, and foreordination. Now... I know that we have agency... and I know that God knows all things from the beginning... But I'm a little confused on how these both work together. I know that they do... But how? Does that make sense?
Anyways, I love you, and sorry that this weeks letter was short, but my mind was literally everywhere and I came to the conclusion that if I kept writing I would just continue to get off topic and I don't want to waste your time.
But I do love you. Life is good. This weekend was really good for me, I felt a peace that I don't think I've felt in a long time. I actually got a blessing from President Newell this weekend, honestly, I just really wanted one from Dad, but that's not really possible right now, and then conference was right after, and it all mixed together to answer some of the questions that have been weighing on me... And... I just really know that God loves us. That he loves each of us so personally and individually, and that his hand is always out stretched with love, mercy, and compassion. And I think I'm beginning to truly understand what it means to stretch out and take his hand.
But... I have been trying to study up on my question... but I'm not really sure where to look, and I'm a little confused on a few things, so I thought I would ask you! You always know the answers! Anyways, I love you, so so much.
Happy Birthday Mom!
Love,
Kjanela,
'This life isn't easy because Salvation was never a cheap experience.'

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