Even though we have a blog for Marie’s mission to England I feel I should share here a little of what she has been doing. I also need to share the small tender mercies from the kindness of strangers. Seriously, these have come at just the right moment!
The day Marie left the Preston MTC (Missionary Training Center) she couldn’t email us because there was no time. The new missionaries had to be loaded onto a bus and then driven south to the England Birmingham Mission Office.
Marie with President and Sister Leppard
There they met their mission president and his wife, President and Sister Leppard. And then met their trainers – the missionaries who would be showing them how to work. In the MTC Marie learned what she would be doing but now out in “the field” it’s where the rubber meets the road.
Sister Christy and Sister Wadsworth
Marie’s trainer is Sister Alexandra Maeve Christy from Ireland. She has been wonderful helping Marie through her homesickness. She would ask Marie while they were riding their bikes to tell her about her first brother, or what life is like on the farm, etc. Sister Christy is 28 and has been a member of the church for 4 years. Her mother is a member, her brother is taking the discussions, her father isn’t interested. Yet, here she is completely devoted to serving the Lord by sharing the gospel!
It was going to be a long two weeks not knowing how Marie was doing. The day she was traveling to Birmingham I took the kids bowling. When we got back there was a message on our answering machine. FROM ENGLAND!
We were sad to have missed the call but then also very glad because we wouldn’t have had a recording if we had been home to answer the phone. It also worked out for Marie. She thinks she would have just started bawling if she had heard a voice from home. We were so thankful for the kind gift left by the ward mission leader. He paid for an international call to let us know she had arrived and was safe and would be taken care of.
About a week and a half after that phone call this comment was left on my blog post about Marie leaving for her mission.
Hi,
It’s been quite a while since I looked at your website, however we had the missionary sisters at our home for dinner yesterday and after they left I randomly connected a few dots (large family, farming, grandmother in Tooele) and just wondered if there could be any connection and was rather surprised to discover yes there was. Sister Wadsworth is doing fine and has settled into the missionary work at full speed, although needless to say she is missing her family – we got to see a photo of you all. She has a great companion who will look after her – and of course she is starting off her mission in a great ward!
I will have to let her know I saw a little of her growing up on line when I see her on Sunday.
Wait, what? YES! Sister Hammond (hi!) had read my blog before and made the connection that Marie was my daughter. It was so nice to know Marie was being taken care of again. The comment came through while I was out tending the garden and I might have watered the plants with some of my tears of gladness.
A week after that we got an email from the Fisher family with pictures! You’ll have to go here to read it (scroll down) but, oh! the wonderful surprise to hear again from someone in England and see Marie is doing well.
Of course, we get emails from Marie every Monday but having these extra letters and notes from others who are there really brightens our week.
But that is not all. Oh no!
The kindness has also come from the USA. Marie received a very kind letter from a woman in Big Lake, MN. Here’s what Marie wrote, “She just wrote a very nice letter and said it must be hard to be away from my family and home, so she thought an extra letter would help lighten the load. She even sent me a stamp so I could use it to send a letter back to you in the States.” Thank you, whoever you are, for helping to brighten my daughter’s day. It may have seemed like a simple act but to us it is HUGE.
There was a donkey sanctuary in the middle of a park.
Marie and her companion are working hard. Meeting with investigators and working with less active members. They had to move to a different apartment while the bathroom in their apartment was fixed. For over a week they had to commute to their area by train, with their bikes, every day. It was pretty crazy and tiring! She is getting used to missionary life.
Marie and Sister Christy live close to the mission office so they get to help there a lot. Last week they got to help orient the new missionaries coming in, take pictures, and update the England Birmingham Mission blog. It was good for her to see the new “greenies” and realize how much she has grown and learned in just six weeks.
Eating a wild boar and chestnut pie. It was good!
I’ll end with what Marie wrote several weeks ago.
“I don’t think people realize just how powerful the concept of ‘good’ is anymore. To just be a good person, and do good work, watch good things, say good things, read good things, think good things, live a good life, keep a good house, raise a good family, eat good things, be a good member of the church, do good in their callings, be good disciples of Christ, and everything else. I think that’s all I want to be is good. That’s all we need to be.”
I love that last paragraph of Marie’s. It’s been so fun to read your other blog with all of her letters and comments. Her cute personality really shines through! Thank you so much for sharing her experiences.
I love that quote from Marie! What a sweet and GOOD girl. That’s really all I want for my life, too! And it’s inspiring because it’s possible. Saving the world, maybe not, but being good?? I can try! 🙂
I also love that last paragraph! And how happy those little kindnesses from strangers! Some missionaries sat by us on our flight out of SLC. I took a picture of them and sent it to their parents letting them know how they’d seemed on the flight, etc. I thought how anxious I’ll be about my kids away and unable to talk to me. Little glimpses of where they are at any given moment would really comfort me!
Yes! I forgot to share that a Delta worker texted us a picture of Marie and all the missionaries traveling with her when she flew to England. It was such a wonderful thing to receive! We decided we need to be more aware and do little things like that for other missionary moms.
She is a beautiful young woman with the Light of the Gospel in her eyes! She knows how to work, you have taught her well. How wonderful to have so many tender mercies in her first weeks. Love to her and her family.
Wow, this post made me cry! I have a daughter named Marie (she’s 10) and I just love to see what a beautiful, GOOD daughter your Marie is. The last paragraph with her quote is so wonderful. It is so true that living and working and serving in a new area makes you realize so many things, in a deeper way. I served my mission in Moscow, Russia and one of the biggest things I came away with is also how important it is so raise a good, close family. Thank you for sharing with us!