Dear Family,
On
a sunny Monday morning I write my final letter to you as the only Elder
O'Brien in the family. I was excited to find out that Chris has his visa
and that his mission won't be delayed. After Wednesday, there will
only be 3 family members at home. It is a new chapter in our family's
life. Both sons have grown up and gone on missions. It will be an
emotional day on Wednesday and it will be hard to let go but the
experiences Chris will have and the blessings you'll receive will make
it worth having us both gone. When you drop off Chris at the MTC I
won't be there, but when you pick up Chris from the Airport I will be
with you with you waiting for him in the terminal with my arms wrapped
around you bracing ourselves for an emotional reunion and we will be
together as a family. Remember that on Wednesday.
It has been a long week. A week of labour and emotional times.
So
on Saturday
the entire district painted a lady's house. She has special needs and she's not able to paint the house
herself. She told a member of the church she wanted someone she could trust and
Sister P told her she knows exactly who she can trust. So she got
us, the Houlton Sisters, the Caribou Elders, and the Presque Isle Sisters to come and help paint her house (The lady we helped). She
lives in Madawasqua, Maine. It was two and a half hours away and we had
to get permission from President Pratt to go. It is right on the border
to Quebec. I'm not kidding; Quebec was only 16 kilometers from where we
were
on Saturday.
It was on the very tip of our mission boundaries. So Sister P told us that it would
last for 3 to 4 hours. But it ended up taking 7 hours to paint the whole
house. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day and I was sore
yesterday. I had never done a district service project before that. It
was a good time. We all had fun and we got to bond as a district. I was
on the ground painting most of the time. While other members of the
district were 20 feet in the air on the ladder, I stayed put on the
ground. On the way there the GPS took us from Maine to Canada and back to
Maine. Apparently it was faster so we did and the border was very hard
on us. So on the way back, we just went from Madawasqua to Caribou and then
back to Woodstock. We went through Edmunston, New Brunswick on the way
there. When we got to Edmunston, it felt like we were in Quebec because
everything was in French. We could tell that Quebec wasn't too far away.
So that was the labour side of the week.
So there's this
couple in the branch named J and L. They are a younger
couple. The wife is very active but J is not. J had a
rough upbringing as a child. They are polar opposites
of each other. L is very clean and active in the gospel while J
isn't active and isn't very committed. The other week on the phone J lied
to her about where he was. L caught him on that and was upset with her thinking,
"If he's lying to me about this what else is he lying to me about?" So
now they are separated and L wants to get a divorce. She is
tired of living with him and having to deal with his issues. Last Monday
night, J asked us to give him a blessing to help him get through
this. So we did and it was a really powerful blessing. After it was done,
we were all crying. So on the weekend J
wanted to meet with us and he told us his life story and everything
that happened with him and his wife. J is similar to Elder Evans'
brother and he feels very close to J because he reminds him so much
of his brother. This hits home to me for me too. L reminds me so much
of Julie and J is similar to her ex-husband. But J is a lot more
humble about the situation and he acknowledges his weaknesses and the
issues that he has. We are J's only sources of support right now and
he is attached to us and we are attached to him. It is hard for me to
be around L because I flashback to Julie when she was going through a
divorce. I feel drawn to talk to L and use my experience with Julie
going through a divorce to help her. I feel like they're the reason I'm
in this area right now. So that has been the emotional side of the week.
After lunch on Friday we street contacted in
Houlton and the first two people we talked to we picked up as
potential investigators. It was a surprise to me and Elder Evans. That
rarely happens.
Had a good week! Good luck Chris! Have a fun trip!
Love,
Elder O'Brien
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