Family i hope you all get to read this email while you are all gather around the kitchen table eating dinner together. I know that what we would do with Tysons emails before i left on my mission and i really enjoyed it.
This week i have a story to tell you all. It is about another lesson that i am learning here on the mission.
Well there is a girl. Her name is Vikki. (i am not using her real name) She has grown up in a very tough part of California and it is a straight miracle that she is on a mission. She is rude, inconsiderate, and most of all the most disobedient missionary i have seen. i was her first companion and i know first hand how she is as a missionary. She made the first 3 weeks of my missionary experience absolutely miserable. I do not like her. I have very strong feelings of dislike for this girl. She does not have a nice bone in her body. For the past 10 months i have had to continuously see her at the Mormon Battalion. I have seen every one of her companions cry because she is so rude to them. To me it does not make sense. She acts like she is being forces to be here. She does not want to follow all the rules, and so in my rational brain i think "why dont they just send her home?" "Why does she makes this so painful for everyone including herself?" "Life would be so much better if Vikki was not here ruining everything at the Mormon Battalion!!"
I have thought these things for a long time. But now i am a leader of the MoBat and i have to help the sisters. Today i was talking to one of the other leaders that has more experience with Vikki. She was telling me how our mission president will not send her home. He is going to make her finish her mission. and once again in my ration brain i think "WHY???" SHE IS NOT HELPING ANYONE??? she is making everything so much harder. But let me tell you the lesson that i learned/am still learning.
How would the world respond to this situation? They would send Vikki home. Get rid of her, talk about how horrible she is, get her out of their hair so they can go along with their happy life not having to worry about her problems. This is what i naturally want to do. The easy thing to do is get her out of this mission. It would make all the sisters happier. The work would progress, and life would be so much better for everyone, except maybe vikki. She would go home and go back to the harsh city she came from, get back with the same group of people she was hanging out with, and say "i tried to serve a full time mission." And thats that. Does that not seem like the right thing to do? Dont you think that everyone would be getting what they wanted?
But let us think about what Jesus Christ would do in this situation. He would not send Vikki home. He would love her. Love her with all his heart even though He knows that he will never receive the same love from her. He would serve her, help her in all aspects of life, and never get angry or frustrated. Well as a missionary i get to wear Christs name on my chest every single day. So shouldn't i act like him too?? Yes...i should. That means i need to love Vikki, even though every fiber in my body wants to run away from her and has zero interest in anything that she says. But i need to overcome that. This week i have really been working hard on charity. The pure love of Christ. Loving other the way He would. Because isnt that what life is all about? Love? If we love God we are going to follow His commandments? If we follow his commandments we are going to love others.
Well that is not easy, and its not suppose to be easy. As disciples of Jesus Christ we say we are examples of Him. Well Christ did not have an easy life, and if we want to walk down the road of discipleship then we should be prepared to experience some of the things that He experienced. A little bit of the pain. A little bit of the sorrow. To shed some, not all, but some of the tears that He shed. To love Vikki is not going to be easy. It is going to take work! Prayer! diligence! and a devoted heart to God. Charity is something that i am not perfect at, but it is something that i am learning. And that is one of the very many things that i learned this week :)
I love you all so much and hope that everything is going well for you!!
Sister Olivia Price❤
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