365 Days!

365 Days.

Well I guess its been 369 now.

Thursday I passed my year mark out on the mission. Its been a whole year since I watched Jamison and my Mom drive off and I was left to walk into the MTC. That's a scary thought, its been a long time since I've seen all of you. But I know its a worthy sacrifice. It was really cool how the anniversary played out. I got to be on exchanges with my good friend Sister Esther Wynder that day. When I found out at the beginning of this transfer that I was going to get to go on exchanges with her I started praying that we would be exchanged together on the year mark. See, the Lord does hear and answer every child's prayer. We had a wonderful time, it was like being companions again haha. We went to an all you can eat steak house for diner to celebrate. Then we may have stayed up all night talking... We had a good evaluation of how far we have come in this year's time.

Its really funny the wisdom that ends up hitting you in the face out here. I guess living a purely religious life for 18 months will do that to anyone eventually though. Its funny, before my mission I would here other people say that their mission will have changed their whole life. It will affect them, and their marriage and their children and their family, and I thought how is that possible? I didn't get it. Its starting to become clear. Melissa Wallentine, my moms friend that lives in Utah and teaches at BYU, she told me before my mission that she couldn't imagine being a mother or a wife without serving a mission. I know what she means now! Its not just about the gospel either, its about people, dealing with people and about relationships. I've learned how to be a better friend and companion. I've learned how to talk to people and relate to them better. I've learned how to be more confident in myself and my abilities. I've learned about what I want in a marriage, in a family, and in life. I have learned what it is like to have a clear view of the future as I would like to build it. But also of course I understand the gospel better too. I get it, like I really just get it. I get how this all works and the important that the gospel has or should have in our lives. I guess before my mission I thought of our church largely as a Sunday thing, I mean there are a lot of commandments or rules that I kept the rest of the week, and once I went to BYU there were more reminders, but it was still as if my life and my religion had a division. But true religion is a lifestyle. Its an everyday application that brings the world into perspective. This gospel is so important! And it should be woven into the way we live our lives in unity, no lines or divisions. When that happens, we find happiness. We find our relationship with our Heavenly Father and we find the really important things in life. I get it now. I understand not only that the gospel of Jesus Christ can change people, but how it does, and I understand better what we have to do to let it.

I think about why I was supposed to come out on this mission. My decision was a really quick one, really spontaneous. The more I think about it the more I think that maybe it was really just about me. Ok, I am not getting self-centered here. I think that the Lord needed me to come on this mission to be able to have the growth and the realizations that I've pulled out of it. I hope that I also have helped people, and I still have time to do so, but I also am very grateful for what I've learned. It has given me a desire to go back and start a life. Before my mission I was just fine with moseying along, I didn't really want to get married or start my own family really. I knew it was going to happen...someday... but I wasn't really wanting it right then. I wasn't ready for it. It was some distant big commitment I needed to make. Well this mission has given me a fire for the family, and there isn't a day that goes by where I don't have excitement for the time when I can start my own. It is one of the biggest desires that I have now. I am so ready for that. Its a redirected course from where I was headed before.

I still have 6 months, but its going to go by so quickly, as I know it will for all of you too. Time is funny that way. Its all down hill from here. Next week starts a new transfer, I don't know what will happen. Maybe I will move again. But I will only have 4 transfers left. I had better hurry up and suck all the rest of the knowledge out of this experience. Haha.

This week our investigator who was supposed to be baptized had a crisis. Her mother ended up telling her absolutely not. Her mother agreed before, but after having a talk with her aunts minister she completely changed her mind. Our investigator called a member Friday night in tears and very distraught saying that her mother had been yelling at her and said she could not get baptized. We mobilized the missionary damage control team and said member drove us all the way our to this investigators house (which is a goodly distance away) and we tried our best to comfort her and talk to her mother. Her mother would not hear sense, but we were able to give our invst. a blessing (the zone leaders came with us) and assure her that she could still get baptized some day, even if she had to wait. She will be going to college next week, and she can continue meeting with the missionaries and going to church down there. She is such a pure spirit, and this really affected her. I hope that her faith can endure this and that she will be able to press on at school. It was a very dramatic weekend.

Anyway, that's all I have time for. I love you all, write me and know that I appreciate every letter.

Sister Melissa Thiessen

melissa.thiessen@myldsmail.net

Taiwan, Taipei Mission
Sister Melissa Thiessen
F4, No.24, Lane 183, Chin Hua St.
106-42 Taipei, TAIWAN

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