July 10

Dear all,
Sister Rees and I had a great week full of fireworks, exchanges and
humidity. Compared to the Tri Cities, it's like breathing water here
haha! All of the doors to our apartment building are always fogged up
on the outside because of the humidity and you can't see through it.
But I'm pretty used to it now. Last Tuesday it was the Fourth of July
and nobody was really home, or if they were they were in the backyard
shooting off fireworks, so we weren't sure how effective knocking
doors all night would be. We decided to try and find a place where
there was a fireworks show or something where more people would be
walking around. So we found a place down by the water and the pier
where everyone was. We were able to talk to a lot of people and a
couple people came up to us asking about our missions. While we were
walking around, a little girl about 5 years old walked passed and
started waving to us with a huge smile on her face. I didn't really
recognize her at all but she starts saying to her mom, "Mommy those
are the two girls that came to the house to ask if they could wash our
dishes or mow the lawn!!! Can they come back?????". We had met them
while knocking on doors a few weeks prior and she remembered us. The
mom didn't really want to talk to us but her daughter did and we ended
up having a good conversation with the mom. It was really cute to see
that the little girl remembered us. Then yesterday we saw her again
while checking up on a former investigator's house that we had never
met an hour away in Easton. It was the craziest thing. I guess they
are cousins or something like that! On Thursday we had exchanges with
the sister training leaders which is always great. I left the area for
the exchange with Sister Lusk and we went to their area which is Bowie
Maryland. Sister Lusk and I were roommates about 7 months ago when I
was in Bethesda still and she is from Idaho. We met some great people
and had a lesson with one of the recent converts in their ward. He is
from India and joined the church about 2 months ago. When we go on
exchanges we stay for 24 hours and get to spend the night with them. I
love exchanges, but by the end I'm always ready to go back to my own
companion haha. On Friday after we exchanged back to our companions,
sister Rees and I were leaving the apartment when we saw a man in the
parking lot trying to get something out of his car. We realized it was
the same man that we helped move in last week! So we went over and
asked if he needed some help. He laughed and said, "wow, you two are
always here at the right time!". We helped he and his wife move all of
their pictures inside and he told us he would have to have us over for
dinner one night. He has a lot of really amazing stories and
experiences in life that are cool to hear about. He worked for NASA
and went to MIT...also he served in the military, is 70 years old and
working on his doctorates degree right now... he is really successful!
But he told us he knows a bit about Mormons and has worked with a lot
of them. On Saturday we were out knocking on doors in Centreville and
met a really neat lady named Rosemary. I loved her as soon as she
started talking to us. She is in her 50s and is awesome. She came out
on her porch and told us to sit down so that we could talk. She had a
lot of questions and knew SO much about the church. She has been in
the health field for a long time and was telling us what she likes to
do. While I was answering a question about the Book of Mormon she
turned to me and asked me to stick out my tongue....I was really
confused but I did and she was like, wow, do you have a rash or
something that's irritating you????? And I looked at her like she was
crazy but said yes, I had shingles that wasn't going away and she ran
inside and made a list of all these different things that I could do.
She said that she had shingles when she was 20 and told me all about
my immune system that the last doctor that I went to told me. It was
kind of weird how accurate she was for not knowing me at all. (She's
like one of those palm readers except with tongues hahahaha). Anyways,
she told us that she would love to talk more about religion and she
has felt bad for so many years about not making it a priority in life.
She has so much potential!
This week I read an amazinggg talk by Virginia H Pearce called, "Keep
walking and give time a chance". It talks about the pioneers (which I
love reading about) and the diligence that they had. This little part
of the talk I love. It says,
“Week after week, they sang as they walked and walked and walked and
walked and walked. When I think of pioneers, tragic scenes come to
mind: handcarts in blizzards, sickness, frozen feet, empty stomachs,
and shallow graves. However, as I learn more about that monumental
trek I am convinced that along with those very real and dramatic
scenes, most of the journey for most of the people was pretty routine.
Mostly they walked and walked and walked".
She goes on to list all of the little things that the pioneers had to
do to prepare for each day, what they did while they were pressing
forward on their journey, and then what they did at the end of each
day. She then says,
"So what does all this have to do with us in our current world? I
believe it has everything to do with us. Most of our lives are not a
string of dramatic moments that call for immediate heroism and
courage. Most of our lives, rather, consist of daily routines, even
monotonous tasks, that wear us down and leave us vulnerable to
discouragement. Sure, we know where we’re going, and if it were
possible we would choose to jump out of bed, work like crazy, and be
there by nightfall. But our goal, our journey’s end, our Zion is life
in the presence of our Heavenly Father. And to get there we are
expected to walk and walk and walk". President Howard W. Hunter said,
“True greatness … always requires regular, consistent, small, and
sometimes ordinary and mundane steps over a long period of time.”
Sometimes I know for me it's easy to want quick results after just one
day. But there is such a great joy that comes from steady progress and
diligence in the little things that we do every day. Scripture study,
prayer, partaking of the sacrament each week, going to the temple
etc.. I'm stubborn and so a lot of times I think that those things
aren't going to solve my problems, or they're too easy, but they
really are what will bring us closer to our Savior, give us daily
strength and increase our testimonies. Have a great week!!!! I love
you all.
Love, Sister Haertling