It's not the petty imperfections that define us but the way we hold our hearts and the way we hold our heads

 

January 1st

"On the quest for truth, we should not sell ourselves short. We should not stop at one church, twelve apostles, two parents, or one country.
We should not be naive to the point that we build a cage around our eyes. We should cross lines and break boundaries, especially when they are merely verbal lines with no backing. We should smash stereotypes and tear up labels. We should explore—really explore—and make ourselves one with the things we find.

To understand God is to understand that He created everything, not just what resides in our reality. To say that there is nothing to learn outside the walls we're repeatedly told to stay within is to completely misunderstand the nature of our Father."

I become slightly angsty during meetings, and this is one of the things I wrote down during a long training on goals. (I don't think we have ever NOT started a meeting by talking about goals. Numbers numbers numbers numbers....)

I wrote this email last night, but have decided to cut some of it out.

If you are curious, you can email me personally and I would be more than to explain what the rest of the email said.

Basically:

Christ did not come home at night and tally how many people he healed.

He did not value service that was measured over service that was not.

Christ did not make it a goal to be Christlike!! He just was. He just is, because he was ALWAYS turning outward and ALWAYS serving.

Rant over.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! 🎉 This week was good, we saw a lot of miracles.

:) We have four people on date for baptism, and we had five investigators at church yesterday. That was SO cool. You just become so invested in these people that when they progress you're just SO happy!!!! Seriously!!!!

I was also FINALLY yelled at. We knocked an apartment with five men inside, one of them in particular was furious that we could not come in (since there was no woman there). He said if he dies without hearing the gospel because there wasn't a woman home then whose fault was it? Another made the point that if we can't trust them, why would they trust us? The frustrating part was I could completely recognize the validity of their argument but I'm not the one who makes the rules. I told them that but they wouldn't really have it. After the debacle I turned to sister Ngosha, smiled, and said, "I've finally been yelled at." I then skipped to the car. She literally thinks I'm crazy.




I will end this email with a Franciscan blessing:

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them, and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done."

Love, sister Pugmire



P.s. My lovely ex companion/best friend Sister Heninger uses song lyrics as her subject lines. I found this to be quite genius and will be 100% copying her. This one is from La Dispute. ❤️


Remember not our faulty pieces,

Remember not our rusted parts,

It's not the petty imperfections that define us but The way we hold our hearts, And the way we hold our heads, I hope they write your names beside mine on my gravestone when I'm dead.

And when we're dead let our voices carry on To find a better song.

To find a better song and sing along.