I just love you so much! It sounds like you are doing so well! I've been thinking about all of you a lot this week and praying for you too. Keep being so good! It's so exciting to see so many people getting mission calls. The Lord is truly forwarding His work! We're seeing it here. That's so exciting that Mason is going to Leeds. My good friend Eric served his mission in Leeds and loved it.
We've have a pretty interesting week. We're trying to hard to be obedient and to do everything right. And it seems like when we do so, we just realize even more of our weaknesses. But, as it says in Ether, if men come unto Christ, He will show us our weaknesses. So I guess that means we are coming unto Christ. And we just have to have faith that His grace is sufficient to turn our weaknesses into strengths. I know that it is. We're also learning how to be patient with ourselves, which is hard. There's so much we have to do and so much we want to do and by ourselves we just can't do it all. But when we put the Lord first and follow His will, everything just seems to fall into its proper place.
This week has also been a mixture of crazy, heartbreaking, and really neat. Let's start with the crazy. Tuesday night at about 8:00 all our plans had fallen through. We had no idea what to do, so we prayed about it. We felt impressed to head south down the Route One to see a potential investigator. So we made it to the apartments and knocked his door. No one was home. We were really relying on that, but it didn't work out. And there was no one out and about, so we were stumped. As we started walking back to our car we were both praying that we would have the opportunity to meet someone with whom we could share the gospel. We got back almost to where we were parked and there was a young guy waiting at the bus stop. So we started talking to him and gave him a pass along card. And he said, "Thanks, I really needed this right now." So we start talking to him more and asking if there's anything that we could do to help him out and he starts crying. It turns out that he had been living in Hawaii but his mom had just had a stroke so he moved here about a month ago. She was his best friend and now she doesn't even recognize him. He's also living with his dad, who abandoned him and his mom when he was a kid and his dad is a drunk and also really verbally abusive to him. He's also gay and HIV positive. He told us that he's been contemplating suicide. because he just feels like he has nothing left to live for. It was so sad. But we talked to him about the Atonement and we went to our car and got one of our few English copies of the Book of Mormon and told him that he would be able to find comfort and direction if he would read the Book of Mormon. We asked if we could say a prayer with him and he said that would be great. So I started praying and even though we were standing on the side of the street and cars were driving by and it was freezing the Spirit was so strong. I could just feel the love that Heavenly Father had for his child, even though he has made some major mistakes in his life. Afterwards we we all a little teary eyed and Alberto said, "Thanks so much, I feel a little better now. Can I give you girls a hug?" And before I could say no, he grabbed me and gave me a great big hug and a big smooch on the cheek. Oops. I don't know if there was a way to avoid that situation, but I got kissed by a gay guy this week. And that's all I have to say about that.
The other thing I wanted to tell you about is Junior. We love this kid so much! Last Monday he came to fhe and loved it. We've been getting really exciting because he really seems to be progressing and he's feeling the Spirit more and more. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and he likes it. Fast forward to this weekend. Juan, his cousin came into town (he lives like an hour and a half away). Juan is Hna. Castaneda's son and he's bad news. He's been inactive for longer than he's been active, and he's just exactly the influence that we don't want for Junior. So we had a mini lesson with Junior Saturday but he didn't even want to read the Book of Mormon with us. He's super shy and I think he was embarrassed because there were so many people there and I don't think he really wanted to talk about church stuff because he was feeling pretty uncomfortable. So we just shared a scripture and invited him to church. He said maybe. And told us that they were going to a party that afternoon. I hate parties. So we stopped by Sunday morning and invited us to church and Juan was still there, they had been out late, and they had been drinking. We asked Junior if he was going to come to church and he told us no, that he was too tired. We tried our best, but he wouldn't be convinced. He told us that he really wanted to sleep. But he did ask us if we were going to come back in the afternoon. So I guess that was good that he still wanted to see us. I told him I hoped he changed his mind (it worked last week with Hno Castaneda) but it didn't work and he didn't come. We were pretty disappointed. At church Hna Castaneda told us that Junior also been talking to his mom in Mexico and that she's been discouraging him from moving forward so that's hard too. But we went back Sunday night and we had a completely different lesson. We asked him if he got his nap in and he said kind of. Then we asked if it was worth it. And he said kind of, not really. We asked him why not and he said it was because he should have gone to church. We then started reading in 2 Nephi and we talked about how Lehi had to sacrifice everything to leave and he still praised and thanked the Lord. Why? He had to give up everything. His gold, his silver, his home, his friendships. Why was he still so grateful. Junior said, because he knew that the Lord had saved him. We asked him if it was worth it, even though he had to sacrifice so much. And Junior said yes. And that's where the Spirit took over. We talked about sacrificing so that the Lord can bless us. About giving things up that don't really matter. And about doing what we know the Lord wants us to do, even if sometimes we don't feel like we want to. There were times when you could have heard a pin drop. Which never happens in that house with the million people that live there. Hno Castaneda and Pili were there and they had the opportunity to testify. The Spirit was just so strong! I wish I could explain it more. So yes, we chastised Junior, but it was done in love and it was done because we were so sad that he was missing out on blessing, on the opportunity to receive answers and on the opportunity to grow a testimony. And it was amazing. The Spirit really guided our words and wow. I think that's often how Heavenly Father is with us. He chastises us because he loves us. He knows what we're missing out on when we're disobedient or when we put other things before Him and He wants us to be happy and He wants to bless us. But he can only do that when we are doing what we need to do.
So that about sums up our week. It's been another good one. I love being here so much and I love being a missionary.
And to answer your question about the unmentionables, let's just say that Rocky Mountain Oysters are probably the closest. Just know that it was so yucky. And I never want to experience that again. And this week we got fed liver. Also disgusting.
Well family, I love you so much. I hope you have a great week this week! You're the best ever.
xoxo
Hermana Simpson
p.s. Can you give Dani my email address. They email policy has changed and we are now allowed to email friends as well. Thanks so much. A thousand hugs and kissies.
No comments:
Post a Comment