Sister McKenna Watts - Chicago Illinois Mission: Week 36

Hey Family. :) I really love you guys. A lot. I hope you had a super fun week. :)

This week here feels like it was a crazy roller coaster. We had some really fun and incredible experiences, and some definite roller coaster ones as well.

Sister Golba-Ingles opening her call!

So first off, with the biggest and most exciting news of the week, SISTER GOLBA-INGLES got approved for full time missionary service!! Ahh. I am so happy. :) 6 weeks ago when President Woodbury called and told me that I was going to be training, he told me that Sister GI was serving here in Chicago as a two transfer missionary. Basically it was a test mission to see if she could adapt to the stresses and demands of missionary life and work.

She has been beyond amazing and every single step of this processes I have just been in awe at her faithful, powerful, and incredible example. She has been so positive and optimistic despite some very real and difficult challenges. After a lot of interviews, questions, and reports we found out earlier this week t

Celebration ceral after opening "the call"

hat she has been approved to serve as a full time missionary. :) After we got off the phone with President Woodbury we just sat on the floor and cried for joy. We were so happy!! He told us that she should be expecting to have her mission call come in the mail in the next few days. Well. :) On Tuesday we checked the mail and there was a very special, important and life changing white envelope waiting for her in the mail box!! We were so excited and were absolutely filled with pure joy. :) We were on our way to an appointment, so sister Golba-Ingles just hugged that envelope and smiled so big through the whole drive. So fun. :)

She decided that she wanted to save it and open it at District Meeting in front of our district. :) This has all been top secret and hardly anyone knew that she was serving here under special circumstances so all of the missionaries were thrilled beyond words for her. She opened her call and has been called to serve in the Pocatello Idaho mission. :) Ahh. She is going to be so perfect for that mission, and I can't even wait for her to serve there. She is an unreal amazing missionary and I know that she is going to touch so many peoples lives. I like to think that the only way Heavenly Father could have made it work so that we could have been companions, was if he did it this way. I am so grateful that he did, because I adore her and I have loved getting to serve with her. :) I am grateful that Heavenly Father places very special people in our lives for very specific reasons. I love her, and I have loved being her friend and companion!!

This whole adventure with her has been very amazing, so I have to say that those moments surrounding her call were some of my favorite of the week. :) We did teach one lesson that I really wanted to talk about. We have been working with one of our investigators named R***** for a while. I love her with all of my heart and I know that there is a ton of really amazing things in store for her and her family. We went over to see her on Wednesday and she was totally and completely distraught. Just so sad. She has been having a really hard time because there has been a lot of hard things happening lately with her and the father of her daughter. We went over and she was so happy to see us. :) It was amazing because we were there RIGHT at the exact time that she needed us to be. She asked us if we could go on a walk with her so she could vent to us. :) It was one of the most interesting, thought provoking, and inspiring conversations I have ever had. I learned two things that I am so grateful for. :) 1-Heavenly Father gives us commandments for a REASON. He tells us to live chaste, moral, and virtuous lives because if we do it saves us from SO much heartache and allows us to feel so much happiness and peace. It's amazing. And then a second lesson. :) R*****, the whole time was taking about how sad she was that L****'s dad wasn't being everything she had hoped. We were able to talk to her about how no matter what L***** will ALWAYS have a perfect Father in Heaven. Who loves her perfectly, will bless her perfectly, and will do everything for her perfectly. I can't even describe the peace, light and hope that came into R*****'s eyes when we were talking with her about that powerful truth. I know it's a truth. We have taught L***** "I am a Child of God" And she sings it every time we are with her. :) I was just so grateful for that truth and the hope that it brings, because it does bring hope.

We had some really great lessons this week, that we were really excited about. :) but wanted to talk a little bit about an experience that we had this week. So I don't know if you remember Tyrone? He was the man that we had a few really special lessons with. He ended up coming to church and bearing his testimony a few weeks ago?? Anyway. :) We have been meeting with him and it has been going pretty well, but for some reason this week he flipped a complete 180. We were talking to him on the phone and he all of a sudden got very angry, condescending, demeaning, and just really mean to us individually and to the church as a whole. I don't think I have ever been so hammered For who I am and what I believed. The whole time we were on the phone I was just praying for Charity and for patience. It was one of the most intense and emotional moments of my whole life. It was very hard. I won't go in to detail about what was said. But I was thinking about that experience a lot this week and just about how sad we are about what has happened. We had interviews with President this week and we had an amazing interview. :) At the end of us talking I asked him "President, what do you think I could be doing different or better?" He was quite for almost a minute, and you could tell that he was listening very intently on what the spirit wanted him to say. In the most tender voice he said "You need to have greater faith that the Savior is walking every step with you." That line really caught me off guard, but it was so powerful. It brought me instant peace and comfort. I know that is true. We are not alone in the lords service, in missionary work, ever. We are so loved. Since that interview there have been a lot of things that have happened like what happened with Tyrone and I am so grateful that I have been able to say to myself in moments of need I have been able to say "have greater faith Sister Watts. Jesus Christ is walking with you." That has brought me a lot of comfort. I'm grateful for my Savior. Life is hard, sometimes we don't understand Gods plan or our part in that plan, but I know he never leaves us to handle it alone. Never.

I love you guys so much. Thank you for all of the support, love, and prayers. I feel it and I am grateful for it. I love you with everything that I am.

Love, Sister Watts