June 10, 2013

This week we survived Tropical Storm Andrea. I'd never experienced a tropical storm, but let me tell you, tropical storm is a perfect way to describe it. It was really hot and humid and very stormy. I have never seen so much rain in my entire life. We stayed inside pretty much all day on Friday because of all the flash flood warnings. Our bathroom ceiling also started leaking directly above the toilet and it filled a bucket up half full! The rain was absolutely crazy!

Aside from that, it was a pretty slow week. Two of our investigators told us that they were no longer interested in meeting which was pretty sad. It's heartbreaking to watch someone progress and see how the gospel blesses their lives and then have them willingly choose to reject such happiness. I pray that both of them will run into missionaries later and change their minds.

I've had some really interesting thoughts this week about the "harvesting" of missionary work. The area I've been serving in is a really slow area, and sometimes it can be disappointing that we don't have many people to teach and that most people are not very receptive to our message. One of the senior couples in the mission said something profound that I really liked. You don't reap and sow in the same season.

I've been reflecting on how really true that is. Missionary work is about planting and harvesting. And you really don't plant and harvest in the same season. Sometimes you're the reaper and sometimes you're the sower. Both are very important jobs and both are essential to missionary work. The concept also applies to member missionary work. Don't be discouraged if right now you're only planting seeds with those you interact with. We don't always get to see the results of our harvest. Rarely do we get to harvest what we plant. 

I've seen this illustrated with all of the people I've taught on my mission. All of those that we've been able to teach more seriously have been the harvest of seeds planted by previous missionaries. I pray that as I continue to plant seeds, someday these people will be prepared for another missionary to harvest.

Anyways, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

With love,

Sister Jasperson

Tropical Storm Andrea!