
She’s been called to serve an 18 month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Mesa Arizona! We couldn’t be happier! In only a few months we’ll have two of our daughters out serving missions. NEVER SAY NEVER.
And in that spirit, NSN, I’m going to share today’s letter from her sister serving in Kansas. (Nobody tell Hailey I did this.)
It’s an honest testimony of the beauty and blessings of missionary service.
OH MY GOODNESS…Mesa Arizona!!!! PUDGE, that will be sooooo great! I have LOTS of friends who served there and they LOVED it! And the weather?…tender mercy. Let me just say, from my own experience, that being a missionary in the dead of winter is no bueno. So, you’re going to love it! I am super excited for you!!! In fact, I cried a little when I read your email and saw your video online (minus the sound). I wish I could have been there. And don’t worry about what other people think…they don’t know what it means to be a missionary if they’re critical of your call. It will be fabulous. Here is a brief list of reasons why it’s great to be called stateside:
1.) Less culture shock–so you can just get to work.
2.) You get to spend more time learning the lessons and the doctrine. Seriously, this has been one of the greatest blessings of my mission—a chance to understand the scriptures better.
3.) You can say exactly what you want/need to say, in the moment you want/need to say it. It doesn’t sound like much, but trust me…when you’re standing on a stranger’s door step and you see contempt in their eyes, you need to be able to think on your feet and respond to the promptings of the Spirit immediately.
4.) Sister Sasaki used to always say this to me, “Sister Card, it’s so hard for me to teach because I don’t see the nuances.” When you’re teaching, you really have to evaluate subtleties in people’s behavior in order to know which direction to go with the lesson (with the Spirit’s guidance, of course)–and if you don’t speak the language fluently, it’s really hard to do this. For example, when we’d go tracting, often people would be really short with us/rude, but they’d do it with a smile on their face (you know, pretending to be nice or sarcastic) and Sister Sasaki would get really confused. Someone would reject us and she thought that they wanted a return appointment because they were smiling. So, bottom line, you’re lucky you can just teach and listen to the Spirit and respond accordingly without having to worry about pulling each word for every sentence together.
5.) The people you teach and love will still be near to you when you get home so your relationship isn’t severed when you leave your mission.
6.) You can just be yourself and use your talents when needed.
I could go on…but you get the point. You’re called where you’re needed…and if you were to go anywhere else, you wouldn’t be happy, cause you wouldn’t be needed! (sort of)…but you get the point.

(”When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy”- C.S. Lewis)
Thanks for the cute pictures! I love seeing what everyone is up to! It sounds like the cabin trip was really fun (as always).
Things have been a lot better here in Hutch with Sister Young and I. We’ve made some big plans for this transfer and the area, and I think the adversary has just been working really hard on us as a result. But, he’s not going to beat us…
Our goal for last week was to teach 40 lessons…which neither of us had ever done before…and WE DID IT!!!!! (Ha! Take THAT Elders!—we skunked them…just kidding…kind of…) We have been working like crazy to find new investigators so as a result, we’ve had to do a lot of tracting, and we were really blessed last week. We found two new investigators, and a couple good potentials, so we’re excited to get to work. I think it all kind of hit us yesterday though as we were fasting. Sister Young and I were EXHAUSTED. We could hardly function and we were pretty much useless in our three appointments before dinner because we were so tired/hungry…oh well…that’s what the Spirit’s for, I guess. Tonight we’re booked, and tomorrow we’re meeting with a member referral for lesson 1—so we’re super excited!
Also, we decided that we’d try to get in the newspaper here. (I know, sounds crazy, but we thought it might help the Church/us get a little more exposure in this town and bring in some new investigators.) We didn’t know if we could actually pull it off—but, turns out we can. We called the Hutchinson News Office and talked to a few different people and then finally got in touch with someone who writes for the religion section. She said she’d love to do a story on us, and we’re going to meet her tomorrow at 2:00 for the interview! As you might imagine…we’re a little nervous…but also really excited. Yesterday we fasted for this—so hopefully, it will all go well. I’ll keep you posted on what happens there.
We’ve been riding our bikes pretty much all day every day and are loving it (most of the time). We get a lot of honks and stares, but we’re learning to embrace them/just pretend the paparazzi is after us. The other night, Sister Young and I got lost on our bikes while trying to find a less active’s home out in the country and after 45 mins we finally gave up (it was approaching 9:00 pretty quick…) So, feeling a little dejected about all of the wasted time we started home. Because we were so far away from town, we had to ride on dirt roads and the wind was blowing against us pretty hard–which didn’t make pedaling easy. All I could think about was my burning legs, the restriction of my pencil skirt, the dust in my eyes, and the mile or two we still had to go. My companion attempted to make a little small talk, but neither of us was really interested in chatting for long because it was taking too much effort, so we gave up. But then, all of a sudden, a darling little tender mercy shown in the distance…big, huge, bright, Fourth-of -July-magical, rodeo fireworks went off in the sky, over the fields and in perfect view. And suddenly, riding along those country roads, in the pitch black, with tired legs and spirits didn’t seem so bad. It seemed kind of sweet. It’s fun to see how Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries. Sometimes he leads you to the perfect place at the perfect time to meet the perfect investigator, sometimes he helps you swallow another bite of chicken-whatever the members’ have prepared and you’re sure is contaminated, sometimes he just helps you laugh a little after you’ve been yelled at while tracting, and sometimes he gives you fireworks. I’m excited for you, Pudge.
You wouldn’t believe the sunsets here. The sky is so big and beautiful…I think that’s the most aesthetically pleasing attribute of Kansas and Missouri—the sky…well, and the big fields. And it’s starting to get hot. Hot and humid. Oh boy…
Well, I’d better go…sorry my emails haven’t been awesome lately…I’m going to try to write down things I want to tell you about before I go to the library from now on.
Love you lots,
Sister Card