Hola Familia!
I just love you so much and it's so good to hear from you! It sounds like all is going well. I finally got that package today! Thanks so much! It was so sad because we got the package slip in the mail on Saturday night so we had to wait until today to go and get it. The waiting was awful. But thank you for thinking of me. And of Hna Wallis too. That made her day. And I love the shirt!! Thanks a bundle. I'm so excited for Cameron! I think about him all the time and I can't wait for him to get his call. Heavenly Father is truly working miracles in our lives.
So this week we have had lots of things happen, but at the same time it feels as if nothing has happened. Being a missionary, I often feel like I'm in a time capsule. We do the same things everyday and everything starts to blur together. It's not really a bad thing, just kind of weird. Exchanges this week were so good! And way too short. It was so good to be back with Hna Stewart. I really miss being her companion. She and her companion are training a visa waiter right now, so that was interesting. I am so glad that I didn't have to learn Spanish from the beginning and that I already kind of spoke it to come here. I have a whole new respect for those that learn languages that they have no experience with. This poor Hermana had so much she wanted to say and just couldn't say it. I can't imagine how frustrating that would be. But she has so much faith and she just wants to serve the Lord. I know he will bless her. And hopefully she gets her visa soon. We taught this awesome lady about the Book of Mormon and she just got it. I've never seen anyone pick up on the Book of Mormon so fast before. It made perfect sense to her. And that's how it's supposed to be. The Book of Mormon just makes sense. The gospel just makes sense. It's simple and it's perfect and it's really a neat experience to teach people who have truly been prepared for right now to accept the gospel in their lives. I love being a part of it! We also had some heartbreak that night because we got dropped by one of their investigators who just couldn't give up the Trinity and accept that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are separate. It was heartbreaking because her and her daughter said that they had prayed and felt that they had gotten their answer and that they weren't supposed to change. It's really hard to accept people's agency when things like that happen. Maybe now the timing just isn't right. But we won't give up on her. Hna Stewart made me promise to go back and visit her if I ever go to Spring Lake. And that is pretty likely to happen. As long as I don't get sent to the other mission. Transfers have become a whole new kind of scary because we don't really know how it's going to work with the new mission yet. Whatever happens will be the Lord's will though.
Reyna still has a baptismal date, so we're really excited about that. She also wants us to start seeing her more which is great. She's been through so much heartbreak and we've seen a change in her as she's started accepting the gospel. And she's already made it through all of 1 Nephi! I'm so proud of her. We also starting teaching her English with her friend Lourdes, who is a daugther of Hna Castaneda. It's so fun!
Junior is still breaking our hearts. We've had some super spiritual experiences with him, but he's just so scared to commit to anything. His cousin Pili also told us that his mom (who is still in Mexico) doesn't want him to come to church or really have that much to do with us, so he's really torn. He's such a good kid and he wants to do what is right and his mom is telling him to do one thing and we're telling him to do something else. I can't imagine how hard that would be. He's felt the Spirit and he's recognized it, but he's so scared of losing his relationship with his mom if he commits to anything. He really enjoys learning from and reading from the Book of Mormon and even though he's embarrassed, I think he really likes to pray too. I wish I could understand this situation better. There's a part that I'll never be able to understand because I've grown up being a member and I've never had any opposition from family and for that I'm so grateful. I just wish I could have a little experience with what he's going through so that I could know how to better help him. I guess that's where we come to rely on the atonement. Every day I come to realize how much I can't do. I can't understand what Junior is going through, but I know that the Savior can. That He already felt all of that confusion and all of that heartache and that He can help Junior. And He can help us to know how to help him. We're so limited in what we can do. And that's hard for me to accept sometimes, a lot of the time, because I really just want to fix things. But we're not called to fix things. We're called to invite people to come unto Christ. To teach them how to have a personal experience with the atonement so that they can allow the Saviors love and mercy to change their lives. One of my favorite quotes talks about how the world would take the people out of the slums but that Christ takes the slums out of people and that ultimately it is Jesus Christ that can change human nature. Well that was a big blurb that I didn't plan on saying. It just fell out of my brain and into this email and was a way for me to figure things out a little bit more. Basically we really love this kid (he's not really a kid, he's 22) and we want what's best for him. It sure is hard to love people though. That's one lesson I keep learning over and over again. I've just become so invested in their lives and when they experience heartbreak or when they do something that is going to hurt them more than help them it hurts me too. I was telling that to President Riggs in my last email and he said that's part of the experience. And it makes the joy that much sweeter. And it's so true. Because when people get it and when they feel the Spirit and recognize it, it's amazing.
So those are our two investigators that we're most invested in right now. We have a bunch more, but they're just not progressing. Which is the way it's been the entire time I've been in this area. Lots of people here think that we're just here to teach people about Jesus. And everyone here likes to talk about Jesus. I wish I was kidding. But people have no problem letting you into their homes to talk about the Word. They only have a problem once they realize you actually want them to commit to something. So we're trying to switch some things up in our teaching to help people realize that we're not just here to talk about Jesus. We're here because we are asking them to prepare to make covenants. We've had a couple lessons this way and it seems to work better. At least people realize from the start that we actually want them to do something and that we're out here for more than just to invite them to church. Hopefully as we get better at it we'll see more success. We've been finding like crazy, now it's just time to find the elect.
Well family I just love you so much and I think you're the best. Thanks for being the best family in the world. Also, tell Dani that I love her too, next time you talk to her. And if you ever talk to Laura on the book tell her that I got her letter and that I have one pending.
xoxo
Hermana Simpson
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