Monday, March 31, 2014

Dear Family!

  This week has been relatively uneventful but we have had some ups and some downs none the less. The work in our area is going really well and I love the people here. The town is so beautiful and I love being so close to the beach. The area does have it's challenges though but that just pushes us to work harder and do better.

 On Thursday Sister Vasi and I decided that to show our devotion to Heavenly Father we would talk to every single person we saw no matter what and so that is exactly what we did. Every time we got in the car to go somewhere or to see someone there would be someone walking down the street so I would drive past them and then make Sister Vasi jump out of the car and talk to them (She was a bit shy when she started and she didn't like talking to people so I had to push her and make her do it and now she's great) Anyway on a normal day we are expected to do out best to talk to at least 20 people and somedays it's hard to even do that but this one particular day I feel like everyone and their dog were out walking around. We talked to close to fifty people and we didn't have one rude person! It was a miracle. Most of them weren't interested but they were still nice about it and we found some new investigators for us and the elders. It's funny though because we'll talk to men on the street and they will be super keen to learn more and they will give us their name and address and say that we can come back but then the elders will go there and all the sudden the men aren't interested anymore. I have no idea how that happens. Why they are more receptive to us I have no idea because the elders we share an area with are some of the best missionaries in the mission. They must not like the way the elders dress or something :)

   Sad news though. This is one of the hardest things that have happened to me on my mission so far. Last week I told you about Janet and Jesse. Well I can't go into detail due to the public naute of this email and the blog but unfortunately despite all the fasting and prayers Jesse won't allow Janet to meet with us or have contact with us anymore. To make it worse because of the way things progressed between Jesse and Janet, Jesse (who I really loved because I felt at home at her house) now feels like we betrayed her by allowing Janet to come to church with us. The whole thing is just so so sad. I love Janet and I feel like I have known her my whole like and to me she's like a little sister and now I won't be able to see her anymore. It is so sad. However despite all of this I still have a calm feeling inside and I know that everything will work out. I was texting Janet last night and I told her that this wasn't good bye and that I would see her again and she said "Promise me Sister Simkins that I will see you again someday. I just don't know how to say goodbye to a person that already means so much to me. I feel like you are my big sister and I love you and I don't want to say goodbye. Please promise me that I'll see you again." I promised her that I will find her again. Whether I am still on my mission or not I know that I will see her again because I know that she was one of the people that I came here to find. I am still praying that everything will somehow will work out. I know that Heavenly Father is in charge and that it is all in His hands but I am still pretty hurt by the situation. I can't forsee this being resolved anytime soon but I also know that I believe in a God of miracles so we'll see what happens. Janet will join the church oneday whether it's now or later she knows it's true and she knows that this is what she wants for her life. Missions are so great but they are also pretty hard. There is opposition in all things so you have to have the bad to enjoy the good.

  Well that is all that I have this week but I love you! I hope that things are going well!

Love,
Sister Simkins

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