Hola everyone! Hope all is well at home getting back into the routine of school and everything. All is well on the southwestern front. Survived my first talk in Spanish...and song:) Our branch has come up with this plan to have a 40 day fast for la obra misional..missionary work. Each day one family signs up to fast for missionary experiences and also for the missionaries to find those who are willing to listen. Pretty cool. So the missionaries spoke yesterday and then Hna Cope and I sang...I've never felt so unprepared to sing because we have no time to practice. The funny thing was I wasn't really nervous at all, which is very unlike me. It all went well. Hna Cope makes anyone sound good! I just realize every day how much Spanish I have to learn...
This week we were able to see Lori who we haven't seen in a long time because of the holidays. She has two little babies and lives with a her husbands mom which is a part-member/less-active family and she is cuped up in the house all day. She has been through a lot with her babies one was born pre-mature and while in the hospital with him her 1 year old got Mursa and almost passed away. She fell into depression...so when we first met her we had a long talk about the Atonement, the Plan of Slavation, and the Book of Mormon. Hna Cope was teaching Brenda her mother-in-law who is a talker and I was teaching Lori...so I challenged Lori to start reading the BOM a little everyday and promised her it would help her to be happy again. She started reading and when we stopped by to visit her she told us she had been reading and stopped taking her depression medication...and she was happy. She looked different. So this week I tried to explain the reason we have the Book of Mormon. The Apostasy...why it was necessary to have a Restoration becuase I could tell she was still confused about why...and suddenly the light bulb went on. She said I just feel like there are all these pieces scattered everywhere and they all just came together like a puzzle. IT MAKES SENSE! Gracias!! music to my ears....now if she can remember and do something with it. Keep reading, keep making the time, find a way to get to church with her baby who can't leave the house. There are always so many obstacles in the way, but that is because slavation isn't easy.
Saturday proved to be one of those days where all the little things just seem to not go your way. Along with all your apointments cancelling or just not answering the door. Still no reason to get down. I tried so hard to be happy and positive. But sometimes you just feel like everything is fighting against you as a missionary. Anyways...we got through it with some good laughs. We met this man David, and started talking to him. He had this 2 month old lab Toby who was CRAZY. Hna Cope and I start talking to him and the dog just keeps jumping all over us. Im wearing my boots with straps so everytime they move he thinks its a game and jumps at them trying to chew them off then keeps biting at my feet and legs. I was trying so hard to ignore him so he would just go away but he wouldn't. And David didn't do anything he was so interested in what Hna Cope was saying. I was trying so hard to focus on where the conversation was going but oh my gosh this dog is like attacking me. Hna Cope is laughing...trying so hard not to. And I just keep going from one side of her to the other to keep Toby from biting my legs off. At one point i don't know how he got so crazy i dropped my BOM and all the stuff in my hands...still David is just totally not worried about it. So I came to the conclusion well I will keep the dog occupied and hna cope you can teach this guy....oh my gosh. So eventually we got a return apt and got out of there and hna cope just starts cracking up. Of course me being me, i think she is going to be mad at me because I was so pre-occupied with the dog but she just starts cracking up...and we laughed about it the rest of the day. So we ended our day with some true authentic Caldo de Pollo with fresh REAL tortillas and it was so good....sit down to enjoy it, squirt my lemon in the bowl and the lemon squirts right into my eye...haha. Nice topper on the day. Sometimes you just have to laugh.
Well, its been a good week. This week is Hna Copes last week. So i am inheriting lots of good stuff. She has taught me so much, and I am just trying to soak it all up. Most the Hermanas in the mission are pretty young so I have no idea what is going to happen with transfers. Who knows if our area will close...but it will be interesting to see. And only Heavenly Father knows. I am going to miss Hna Cope so much. I don't think i've every laughed so hard in my life. I was thinking though last week when over the course of about two days everyone was coming up to me and really challenging my testimoney directly. In the same day 2 men just looked at me straight in the eyes and one said, I know that book, the Book of Mormon is not true. The canon is closed. Joseph Smith was not a prophet. Almost with anger and a lot of hate. Another man from Jordan at a gas station who we've come to know pretty well, told me you can't know your Heavenly Father. You can't see him. It isn't possible. You can't prove it. And in both of those moments it only made my testimony stronger. Because I could say I did know. And a little girl standing up to a man saying I know maybe to them is a bunch of balony. But it is real. I know. You can't know something until you feel it and so of course they don't know. They may have seen a lot more than me, have a lot more life experience. But that doesn't change the fact that i know my Heavenly Father. And I know his love is real. I've felt his love for others as i've taught...and its so unreal. And this is just the beginning for me. I know the Book of Mormon can change people's lives. It answers my questions all the time.
A challenge for you all: Take any question you have, take your scriptures, kneel down, humble yourself, thank him for the scriptures and the Holy Ghost....then ask him whatever question you are struggling with at the time. Open the Book of Mormon and start reading until you find your answer. You will find it. It is a promise based on 2Ne 32:3 and 31: 20. The Book of Mormon is amazing. Make the time for it if you can. I know you are busy busy people and its easy for me to say as a missionary when my whole life is devoted to this. But i've never seen how much the Gospel-The Book of Mormon can help anyone's life.
Love you all so much, have a FABULOUS week!
Hermana Holland
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