Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Blessings

THE STRUGGLE:

This last week was a bit of a struggle. My companion has a lot of health problems so we had to kind of take it slow. We spent all of Friday in the hospital waiting for her blood tests and had zero lessons. The rest of the days I felt like I was dragging her along. The poor thing had migranes because of the extreme heat we're in all day, and she has Colitis. Which basically means her intestines are really inflamed and it hurts every time she eats and walks. Which is basically all we do all day. 

I was doing my best to work as hard as I could, but when the week came to an end we fell short of almost all of our goals. I found myself asking why, a lot. WHY? Why when I am trying so hard to be good are we having such a crummy week? Where are all those promised blessings? I seemed to have lost them somewhere along the way. 

Then, during a lesson, I was listening to a member bear his testimony and he told us about times on his mission when he wondered the exact same thing and how, now that he is home and has a family and a different life, he can see the blessings so clearly. It really was exactly what I needed to hear.

´´Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.´´ --Jeffry R. Holland

. But the week wasn't all bad. We had a meeting of a ton of missionaries from the areas around here and a member of the Seventy came and spoke to us. And of course they asked me to share an experience in Spanish as part of the devotional to get things started. 

I was super nervous. Speaking in front of a bunch of people is hard enough, but speaking in front of a member of the Seventy, your mission president, and a ton of missionaries in a language I'm not too great at is WAY WORSE! I made it through ok, and after the meeting everybody was so supportive and nice about it. HERMANA BIEN HECHO! And lots of hugs and handshakes. I was just glad it was over.

THE SUCCESS:

We had a baptism this week! WOOHOO! Her name is Nubia and she is GOLDEN. A member of our ward invited her to her son's  baptism and after her experience there she wanted to know everything about the church and wanted to be baptized herself. Um wow. 

She's like the investigators at the MTC. She always keeps her commitments, she asks great questions, and it's pretty much guaranteed she's going to get baptized. Teaching her was such a beautiful experience. I'm pretty sure she taught me more than I taught her. 

She told me the other day that she wants her daughter to serve a mission someday too. Plus she's already referred us to several other family members of hers. She's a better missionary than three fourths of the people in our ward who have been members for forever! 

Love that woman. Her baptism was beautiful and perfect. Aaaand there was a cake afterwards. We sang a special musical number for her. I almost cried. It was awesome.

FUNNIES:

-Sat behind mini nacho on the bus the other day. He had on a luchador mask and his little chubby belly was poking out of his t shirt. Me and him chatted about our favorite color and whether it would be better to have a pet giraffe or a pet elephant. He got off the bus  before I could talk to his mom. I hope the missionaries find him some day.

-Sat down for lunch with members the other day and the mom put a plate of 4 huge hotdogs on the table. Thought they were for all of us to share but soon found out they were all for me. I ate them all. The power of prayer is real my friends.

-The people here eat so much jello its not even real. We had an activity in the church where people could bring desserts to share. 90% of the desserts were jello. Jello with yoghurt, jello with nuts, jello with milk, jello with fruit, plain old jello. I DONT EVEN LIKE JELLO. I have decided when I return home I will never again eat a jello. Ever.


-There's a family of spiders that live in the corner of our bathroom. It started out as just one, then he got a wife. Then they had two kids. Then the wife went away and lived in the other corner for a while. Then she returned. Then she died. Im thinking the husband killed her but theres no way to know for sure. The other day I was observing them as I washed my hands and I realized that this is what happens when we don't have a TV.  Instead of following the life of Juan Pablo on Bachelor, I'm following the latest and greatest drama of a family of spiders that lives in my bathroom. 

Gotta love that missionary life.



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