An Uke Miracle

Just a reminder: If you click the link (Preachinginparadise.blogspot.com) at the bottom of this email it will take you to Clare's blog and you'll see photos of her mission.

ALOHA family and friends!

Well, the time has passed and this last transfer with Sister N has flown by! We received transfer news on Sunday and it comes with lots of changes! It began Friday night when President Warner called me and asked if I would be willing to serve as a coordinating sister here at the VC. It was a shocking surprise, but I accepted. With that comes the assignment of serving online, so I will be leaving the YSA first stake, sadly. My new companion will be Sister K, my first non-asian companion ever!! We are already great friends, so I know that it will be a great transfer together. :)

This last week we had a pretty cool experience that made me think of Nate, and his Bob Marley experience in Guatemala. He inspired me! We were driving home and we still had about 15 minutes before we had to be back so we felt rpomted to stop at a house of some less-active Korean students. We had found out a couple days previously that they are good friends with sweet Jeongmin, a non-member that we have been trying to meet with. As we were walking to their door, we had no idea what we were going to say. But we had good feelings about it. We knocked, and they answered. They were reluctant, but happy to see sister na and began speaking to her in Korean. As we were standing in the doorway, we were getting attacked by bugs, and I knew that we needed to get inside so we could be less formal and get to know them better (doorways are always so strange for me...). When the time was right, I just kind of blurted "Can I use your restroom?" haha everyone laughed and they invited us inside. That is when I saw their nice ukelele's and was inspired with a great plan! After spending a sufficient amount of time in the washroom, I came out and asked them about the ukes and she asked me if I could play. I said I would love to play them a song! Thankfully, I know one church song (not super well though), but I started playing "Come unto Christ" on the uke and sister N sang with me. It wasn't perfect, but we could feel the spirit enter the room and we were about to talk about Christ and the Book of Mormon and get to know their struggles. We even talked about Jeongmin and one said she would invite her to our Book of Mormon study group that we have on Wednesdays. It was a miracle! We left that night as friends, and I owe it all to my inspiring brother!

I love being a missionary. It is not just work, but sometimes it can be so much fun. The greatest joy in life comes from reaching out of ourselves and our lives and seeking for ways to bring light in to the lives of others. I know I say that a lot, but that is a lesson I continue to learn every single day. It has changed my life. 

I love you all! Have a good week and stay cool!

Love Sister Willardson