Dear Family:
I have never had so much to say in so little time. So bear with me if this email is all over the place. This week has been one of the craziest, if not THE craziest, week of my mission. Honestly, it was probably the most difficult I’ve had to go through as well. It’s like the pattern of the First Vision: when Joseph Smith was about to have a huge spiritual experience Satan did everything in his power to stop him.
The same is true today in our lives. When we are about to have huge spiritual experiences that devil is going to do everything he can to try and stop up. So let me tell you if there was anything that could go wrong this week, it did. That is no exaggeration. I won’t get into all the nitty gritties because trust me… it was horrible. But I know now that the light of the Lord will ALWAYS dispel the darkness when the time is right.
I guess I will share this one story: It all started on Tuesday when our car got hit, and to make matters even worse when I got out to check on the cars and the drivers I soon the realized that the driver who hit us was as high on drugs as high heaven. It was terrible. (I’m telling you all of this expecting you not to get freaked out okay!)
We were fine, the cars were fine, but he definitely wasn’t fine. So we got him to pull over at the gas station and had to call the cops. While we were waiting for them to get there I was talking to him and he told me his name, etc. I was devastated when he told me he was 19 years old. Oh it made me so sad. Here we have missionaries preaching the gospel at 19, and this kid could have killed someone driving high. We had to watch him get arrested and that definitely left a black cloud on us for the day.
Here’s the cool part: the next day was Zone Conference. It was such a tender mercy! Not only was it Zone Conference, but it was our last conference with President and Sister Robbins and the last one of the Cincinnati Mission. It was a powerful, powerful experience! I’m going to have to send you all the notes sometime because it was amazing! (I just don’t have much time to tell about it.) Then President made the announcement that on Sunday Elder Christoffersen would be in town and wanted to hold a special meeting with the missionaries before he left! Ah! It was that moment that my companion and I realized why all hell was breaking loose in our area. But that was definitely a motivator to get through the week no matter how badly both of us wanted to give up… and we made it!
So yesterday! Ah! It was AMAZING! We got to sit and learn at the feet of one of the Lord’s living apostles. (And I got to shake his hand! It definitely was one of the most tender experiences of my life so far. After this crazy week all I wanted was to be able to feel the confirmation of the Spirit that this was indeed one of the Lord’s servants called to lead his restored church on the earth today. And guess what! It happened. I received a sweet reaffirming witness that this is the Lord’s church, that He has living prophets and apostles and that this is His work!
No matter how hard the devil works he can never imitates the peace that comes from the Spirit of the Lord. There is nothing better than that feeling. He left with an apostolic blessing on President and Sister Robbins. We were all in tears. And then he left a blessing on us. And to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so confident that the Lord loves us and is aware of our every need.
I am way out of time! Maybe I’ll get some notes to you later! Just know I love you! And I know the Lord loves you! He does. There is no doubt about it!
Lots and lots of love!
Sister Painter
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