Every day isn't always a stamp day

We are teaching Jennifer Lopez…yes…the real Jennifer Lopez…she’s real…but she’s not J-Lo.

This week was blah-ish, but good. Oooh! I went on exchanges with the Windcrest sisters. I went down to Windcrest and was Sister Green’s companion. Sister Green is super cool. I love meeting new missionaries because they are all so interesting. They all have crazy lives! Each missionary is unique, but we’re all united in one common cause. I love exchanges because it’s a fresh start. I am always a better missionary when I go somewhere I am not used to. I rely more on the Lord and I rely more on Preach My Gospel.

The ward choir sang in Church and believe it or not I felt the Spirit. They weren’t super amazing—they were a ward choir, but they sure sung their hearts out and you could feel it.

We went to the relief society president’s house and she was telling us about her 4 year old son who sometimes would come home from school sad because he didn’t get a stamp. He would get a stamp at the end of everyday if he accomplished a certain number of requirements during the day. He would come home sad and his mom told us that she would pull him aside and ask him, “Did you do your best today?” and he would reply that he had. “Then you’re okay…everyday isn’t always a stamp day.” Later that day we had some appointments fall through, I wasn’t accomplishing my personal goal of being a perfect missionary, and I was getting frustrated with myself. I turned and looked at Sister Latimer in a moment of overdramatized despair, “This isn’t a stamp day for me!” So this last week I’ve been trying to figure out how to be hopeful and happy when I’m not having a stamp day…because I’m not on a mission to earn stamps! I’ve learned that anytime I realize that I have something in my character that needs tweaking and I decide I want to be better at that certain thing, I immediately take five steps backwards. It’s like an invisible mirror from the land of honesty comes out from nowhere and shows me things about myself that I really didn’t want to know. Blah. But these things were always there and ignoring them doesn’t fix the problem. Finding out what they are, and then setting personal goals, and then, most importantly, praying like crazy helps me fix my problems. So that’s what this last week has been. I’ve had a very good dose of self-realization which is never fun. However, my self-esteem is still intact. I have faith that the savior can dissolve my selfish personality traits and I am so grateful for that! As soon as I recognize something I can work on I feel the Spirit testify that the Savior will help me do better. I’m dealing with the same traits I’ve dealt with my whole life, but I am changing and I’m doing better. And just so everyone knows, Me and my companion get along fine. Haha. I just read over this and it sounds like Sister Latimer and I got in a huge fight or something. Oh man, that’s funny. No, we get along great. No big event is triggering this email. Just a series of subtle internal moments of “I should do better.”