Enlightend by the rearview mirror

Just another crazy beautiful week in the life of Jessica Rose. Let me just start off by saying that I LOVE Sister Smith as a companion. We have a lot more fun now that we're not both SICK all of the time like we were in Concordia. I have never laughed so much in my entire life. We're so polar opposite, but somehow we manage to use our differences to have so much fun together. This week was her first week at the Visitor Center and so we focused on making her a LADY. Sister Smith is very tom-boy, very rough around the edges. So I kind of felt like I was living "Princess Diaries" or "My Fair Lady" as I instructed her not to fall on the ground and pout when she dropped her pencil, and not to SHOUT, and not to jump down 5 stairs at a time or slide down the banister. HILARIOUS! I LOVE this girl! She tolerates my Princess Complex! Last night we made a DRAGON DUNGEON movie. The Lacey home is remodeled as you all know, but it's super ancient. Downstairs in an unfinished limestone basement. So we went on an ADVENTURE, and decided to make a movie about a DRAGON... THEN, (this was not a part of the script) SHE RAN UPSTAIRS, AND LOCKED THE DOOR AND I WAS IN THE BASEMENT BY MYSELF, SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER BECAUSE I WAS SURE THE REAL LIFE MONSTERS THAT LIVE DOWN THERE WERE GOING TO GET ME! ....Then she unlocked the door and we laughed for like 20 minutes. We also got Nerf guns and decided we were going to attack the Riverview Ward Sisters, who live upstairs with us. Sister Adamson used to play Rugby with Sister Smith before the mission, and knows her nickname is Roo. So this video was titled, "We're gonna go... Roo hunting!" My goodness!!! We are ridiculous! We laugh at everything! I love her!

It is such a tender mercy to be with her. Sister Villalobos still has to keep us in line, because we're constatnly play fighting over SOMETHING! Haha! So aside from my amazing companions, I have AMAZING NEWS, Casey (Who I was teaching in Concordia) came into the VC on Monday and told us that his troubles were cleared and he's getting baptized May 4th!!! He asked Sister Smith and I to speak at his baptism. Sister Villalobos, Sister Bradley and Sister Scott will be coming with us, since they all taught Casey too. Casey wants them to do a musical number. I LOVE CASEY! I'm so happy that his life is FINALLY starting to fall into place! MIRACLES! MIRACLES!!!! Haha.

It's finally Spring time here in Independence!!! Sorry to everyone in Utah for all of the snow, I'm praying some sunshine your way! It is beautiful here! There is no other sky as blue as the skies here in Missouri, and there is no other grass as green, or trees as lush as they are here. It's no wonder we call this the Garden of Eden. It is just beautiful! Elder Nelson, our Visitor Center Director, moved into a new home this week, so he held and open house and we all got to go visit! It was a lot of fun!

This week the Community of Christ (Formally known as the Reorganized Latter-Day Saints) is holding their World Conference, which takes place for a week every other year. They vote on new doctrines and rights for the church. They operate with Delegates, who debate over different topics, THEN it goes up to the First Presidency. The Delegates are talking about some pretty hot-button topics this conference. Then after the first presidency puts their say in, it goes out to a general vote, and majority wins, and that becomes the doctrines and rights of the church. Anyway, I've had the chance this week to take two men from their Quorum of the 70 on Tour, as well as many of their delegates and members. It has been interesting. We all have the same heritage, so it is neat to share more about that with them. They don't believe in eternal families the way that we do, so it's been interesting to talk about that as well. The three of us also had the chance this week to teach some Jehovah Witness Missionaries about the Book of Mormon. They approached US actually, and we thought they wanted to bash, but they asked their questions, and we gave them both a copy of the Book of Mormon and we told them to continue in faith, that there were people out there waiting for the message of Christ. It has definitely been one of the most interesting weeks of my mission!

I had this really profound moment this week as we were driving to one of our appointments. On a street corner I saw a homeless man holding a sign, "Homeless Vet. Need help. God Bless." And out loud I said, "I only have my credit card. I wish that I could help him." Then kept driving... THEN I HAD THIS MOMENT as I looked behind me, that with all of the traffic behind me in my rearview mirror that there was not A SINGLE PERSON within my sight who stopped for that man. And I thought, how sad is that. It's like in the Book of the prophet Mormon where he says, "Ye do love money, and your fine apparel, more than you love the poor and needy, the sick and the afflicted... Ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry and needy, and the naked, and the sick and afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?" WILL NO ONE STOP TO HELP THIS MAN? ...Then I had another moment, his sign didn't say he needed money. His sign said that he needed help. It wasn't just that no one stopped to give him money, but no one stopped to be his friend. And it started to weigh on me, and a thought came to my mind. "Keep your money, I want CHANGE." It's not about building people mansions, it's about reaching out with love. Satan will try to tell us that what little good we could do, wouldn't really make a difference. WELL DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! That is a big fat, Satanic lie! Everything little thing we do creates a change in the world. I began thinking about my calling as a missionary. That this is not about money... This is not about the a NUMBER- number of baptisms, number of lessons taught... This is about CHANGE. This is about helping people KNOW that God loves them. Letting them know that they have a SAVIOR WHO DIED FOR THEM and rose again. That there is HOPE FOR CHANGE.

I'm so done with the status quo. Keep your money, I want change. That change is starting with me...
Dream Big. Wish Hard. Create Change. Make a Difference... and above all. LOVE ALWAYS.
I love you with all of my heart! Continue in love and faith. Forward, onward, upward.

Jessica Rose