Adventures of a Mississippi Miss: The Philosophy of a Bouncy Ball

There's a lot to learn from a bouncy ball.

Elder Robinson (a senior missionary here, who's about to go home) taught me that.

The philosophy is that the bouncy ball always comes back up. But it has to go down in order to go up again. The neatest part is that the more force that is used to throw the ball down, the harder it hits the ground-obviously. And smacking the ground can leave us bruised, broken, and hurt-despite how hard we may try to avoid it. But then that same amount of force pushes that bouncy ball right back up again.

The harder is goes down, the higher it bounces back up.

This week I feel like we've sure had a lot pushing us down. We hit the ground hard y'all. And it hurt.

It started with Sam, who was supposed to be baptized this week. His testimony is still golden and he's ready as can be. But on Tuesday we had to tell him that he can't be baptized yet. He has some legal standings that need to be resolved in order for him to be fully repentant and baptized. And they aren't supposed to be addressed until his court date in September. That was definitely not the news we wanted to give him.

We saw Bonnie earlier this week and she decided to move her baptismal date to April 15. Sister Lamb and I both felt better about that and so the date was moved. Bonnie's son, Tony, told us that day that Bonnie had been drinking and we didn't believe him-she seemed to be doing a lot better. Quite frankly, I really didn't want to believe him. But a few days later, on Thursday, we went to see her. And my heart quite literally broke.
I have not been that sad since my first few feeble days in Mississippi.

Bonnie was drunk as could be.

She gets very depressing when she's that drunk- like a completely different person. She saw no point in continuing to live. She felt that no one loved her, and that included her Heavenly Father.

I don't like drunk Bonnie. At all.

Sister Lamb and I stayed to talk with her for an hour but we had other appointments to be at. We testified of God's love, and with tears flowing down both of our faces we left.

So we were pushed down a lot this week. We smacked the ground hard.

I've learned a lot about the will of God, and I'm still learning to trust in Him and to have patience. Because this is still His work. He's in charge here.

But because He's so good and merciful, He's picking us up.

We also got a new investigator this week. His name is William Tootle. We met with him literally right after our lesson with Sam when we had to tell him about his baptism. He was a member and chose to have his name removed from the records. He held the Melchizedek Priesthood and was endowed. But after 3 years away, he knows this is the truth and he wants to come back. He already knows who he wants to baptize him, and he wants to work to get his testimony where it needs to be in order to stay this time.

Then at church yesterday, we got 3 solid referrals from members of our ward for people who are interested in learning the Gospel.

Bonnie is doing better. She's going to get the professional help she needs. As she's gotten more sober, her optimism has come back. She even came to church yesterday!

And after we told Sam about having to wait to be baptized, his teary eyed response was, "No matter how long it takes, I'll be ready."

So I know that Heavenly Father's plan is greater than mine and Sister Lamb's. This is His work. Not mine.

I trust Him.

Pictures:

1. Holding Tony's (Bonnie's son) iguana