Sister Madyson McCook: January 5, 2015 ~ Week 46 (1st week Arlington)

1st week Arlington

All I can say is...wow. So much has happened this week. With the assignment to be a Sister Training Leader, it's like a whole new world in the missionary life. My eyes have been opened to how aware a Sister Training Leader is of her missionaries and zone. It is so interesting and I am learning so much. It has also made me completely exhausted to the point that I actually sleep through the whole night. Only in Arlington has that happened ha-ha.

I went on my first tradeoff with a Sister on Friday. Inspiration led me to stay in Arlington with one of the Sisters who's been out for 16 1/2 months. Soooooo my fourth day in the area. It was fun :) I'll have to say, I learned the area pretty quickly. I'm surprised; I know that God is blessing me with this gift. Something I am learning about being a leader is the correction aspect. No more beating around the bush....ha-ha. I'm not afraid to address anything, just telling them 100% without beating around the bush to get there is what I'm learning. Role plays have helped out A LOT. I have to do iPad checks now and also check area books. I didn't expect so many corrections to have to bring up to missionaries, but there are many. I'm nowhere near perfect, I'm grateful for Kember (Sister Call) for training me on every aspect of obedience, I can see the difference.

MLC on Wednesday was AMAZING. It stands for Mission Leadership Committee. It was so wonderful to be around so many amazing missionaries and learning with them. I wasn't overwhelmed or anything, it was like another zone conference. Nice little perk :) setting the mission goals for the next year was so neat. There was an experience where we were all deciding on what the mission baptism goal should be. It was pretty divided. President had us all say a personal prayer. And when he asked what we felt, it was a unanimous decision. That was a testimony builder to me, how much Heavenly Father is truly in charge of this work. The goal is 600. Oh please pray for me, President Craig is coming to our Zone meeting this week and is watching me give a training!!! Ahhhhhhh that is scary...a little bit. I'm not too worried about it. I'm giving it on 'Opening your mouth and talking WITH everyone: about the gospel'. I am so excited to do this, because once that aspect becomes part of your nature, your faith becomes dormant.

Oh, all I can say is that I just enjoy life SOOOOOOOO much! I love being a missionary. This terrible realization is starting to be all over my mind that I am not going to be a missionary forever. Today is my 11 month mark. How did that happen? It's almost a year. Life is going by too quickly

I am loving Arlington already! The members here are amazing, all they need to know is the 'how' of sharing the gospel, and they will be wonderful.

One of my favorite 'AHA' moments ever. (Thought you would enjoy this personal revelatory experience). It comes from Mosiah 2:6 if you want to go read that first and then read the following:

It's no accident that the temple was the place that was chosen for everyone to gather and meet up at. We don't have any idea what kind of spiritual level these families were at other than the majority of them were righteous in keeping the commandments (Mosiah 1:11)...but Mosiah gathered every person he could find in the land of Zarahemla. Those families all gathered around the temple. What a sweet reminder of the eternal perspective of temples & eternal families, a goal for those who have fallen away.

I love you so much!

Sister McCook