"I'm ok with not being perfect, but that's perfect to me"

Hi there!! Happy spring! You have no idea how much I have been enjoying the sunshine. It's the little things that make life great.

This week was awesome! We were so busy with service and zone conference (a conference involving a group of missionaries from my mission who serve in neighboring geographic areas where we get to hear from President and Sister Weathersby). It felt good to not be in our apartment all day long because I start to go a little crazy sometimes haha. On Tuesday we had the zoom portion of zone conference, and then went and did service with the Ladera elders. It was so fun! I love talking with other missionaries and listening to what they do all day haha. The missionaries in Ladera do a whole lot of service. Also, one of the missionaries, Elder Call, goes home in a month so he is pretty funny to interact with... anyway! We were helping out this super cool family who has probably 2 or 3 acres of land. They are planting a full-on orchard so that they can donate food to people all over Albuquerque. We helped them for about 3 hours just digging 18-inch by 18-inch holes. Now that may sound awful to some of you, but to me, it was honestly so fun. Tuesdays can be hard if you aren't super busy since it's the day after p-day, so I was grateful for the hard work. And sometimes, it just feels good to use the muscles and hold a shovel!

After that hole-digging service project, I kept feeling this pointy thing on my leg, but it was in my jeans and I didn't have a chance to really figure out what was going on. New Mexico is full of pokey things so I just assumed it was a stupid goathead sticker (yes, that's a stick that looks like the head of a goat, in case you didn't know). Well, after some lovely searching... I PULLED OUT A FREAKING ANT. Turns out the little turd was biting me. Anyway, I had literal ants in my pants this week, so that was fun.

We finally saw the Williams again this week!!! They were out of town for 2 weeks in a row, and let me tell you, that was rough. I like my weekly Wednesday Williams time! Walking into their house felt like home to me. It felt so good to be back. Sister Williams made me the cutest little gluten free chocolate mouse dessert and it made me smile big. It was adorable. And Brother Williams is just too funny. He stays pretty quiet, but you can tell that guy has a sense of humor. When he ate his piece of pie, he sprayed whipped cream, basically covering his entire plate and said with a sly smile, "full immersion!" It reminded me of the days when my poppy would spray giant globs of whipped cream into his mouth and then give the grandkids all a turn. I'm sure loving having surrogate grandparents in Albuquerque. Haha.

On Thursday we had zone conference!! Man I love zone conference. Getting to hear from President and Sister Weathersby is such a blessing. Hearing their counsel just brings me back to focus and allows me to remember why I am here. Also something crazy happened this week! Our wonderful STLS (remember that stands for sister training leaders), who we hang with every Monday, got a call last Monday from President while we were driving them to the dentist. We couldn't listen in on the call, but afterwards they looked pretty shocked about what had just happened. Well the next day we found out why! They got "promoted." They are now the STLT's (sister training leader trainers) for the whole mission! Which means they now have to travel to El Paso for zone conferences and assist the mission president. But, that also means we don't get to see them as often. So since we were missing our beloved STLs today (p-day), we made our district leader and his companion hike with us today. But it was fun seeing our STL's killing it, giving trainings at zone conference.

On to another topic - one of my favorite service projects we do is for Cheyenne. We have been going there for about 5 weeks now with some missionaries from another zone. She is the person we burn weeds and sticks for haha. But this week we were digging a giant hole for her trampoline (yes, I dug A LOT this week) and we actually were able to get a lot done. Cheyenne has an adorable daughter, Kataleyah. She is 3 years old and a little ball of energy! She is always running all over the places yelling "friend come play." Well on Saturday I was getting all kinds of attention from her. She heard one of the elders call me "sister," so for the rest of the day she was calling out for me, calling me "sister." We probably would have gotten a lot more done had it not been for her running around the hole, jumping in and out constantly, pushing dirt in every time! But she is too cute so who really cares. After we dug, we had a powerful lesson about the restoration with her. The spirit was so tangible. There is a special feeling that comes from talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We aren't the missionaries teaching her regularly, but I was glad to be able to add a few comments to the discussion.

Everyday I'm here, I feel like I am improving more and more as I relax a little more and get used to this missionary life. When I first got here, I honestly think I was afraid to speak up and just be myself. I felt a little robotic. But this week I felt myself let that go and just let my personality come through. It felt so much better. I feel like with all the disorienting and new feelings of entering the mission field, my personality was a little non-existent sometimes. But as I get to know these people and feel more confident just speaking up when the spirit prompts, I feel such a difference in my attitude. I'm just embracing not being perfect and being my usual, weird self in a "Disciple of Christ" way, haha.

Over the past 8 weeks, I have been doing a revelation workbook so I can better recognize the promptings of the spirit. It has been really helpful and I honestly miss it now that I'm finished. The workbook has 8 sections and you complete one section over a week's time. This week's section was all about asking God, "what lack I yet?" (see Matthew 19:20) and then listening for the guidance the spirit gives. Well I decided to do this the other night. After my prayer, I was laying in my bed and the thought came to me "you need to play your guitar more." I honestly laughed when I heard that. In a lesson later that week, I told one of our friends that prompting the spirit gave me and she said that "God was speaking to me in my language." I LOVED that. I didn't even think of it that way! It automatically made me feel so loved and recognized by Heavenly Father. He truly knows who each of us are and knows how to communicate with us to touch our hearts. So in order to play my guitar more, we started singing to Sister Fling (remember she's the cute little older lady who called me a carnation) everyday, and I play for us! It has been so fun and such a great way to start our companion study. So y'all need to keep me accountable and make sure I'm playing!

Thank you for all the love and support!! Every week I'm amazed at the tender mercies of the Lord and feel so blessed to get to witness the literal gathering of Israel (see Ezekiel 34). I'm humbled that God lets me play a part in this great work.

Don't forget that Jesus loves you,

Sister Wallace

1. President and Sister Weathersby!!!

2. Love me some fried eggs

3. Casually standing in a hole

4. My cute dessert courtesy of Sister Williams

5. My interesting drawing... if you are a missionary you probably will understand why I drew this during weekly planning...