Just before I left I wrote a letter to myself that became the first
post on this blog. It was to serve as a reminder to me of my reasons
for leaving, meant to be read when times got rough to motivate me. I
think I may have read it once in the past six months. I am beginning to
realize that my reasons for leaving on a mission do not matter anywhere
near as much as my reasons for staying (I am still trying to figure out
exactly what those are.)
Another thing that I realized this week is that giving advice to
other missionaries is kinda like preaching to the choir, not always
helpful. There is not much that applies to all missionaries and
everything that does can either be found in the white hand book or
Preach My Gospel. The one thing that we came up with this week is to
follow the spirit and learn how it talks to you. That does not mean
the same thing for everyone, which is what I believe makes it so hard.
Not everyone will get a "burning in their bosom" to signify spiritual
confirmation. One of my goals this transfer was to figure out how I
receive spiritual direction. I am finding that the spirit does not
speak to me how I expected it would, the way that many told me it
would. Why is that? Were those people all liars? No, of course not!
They were simply telling me how they themselves receive revelation and I
am not them so I do not receive revelation that way. What a blessing!
Isn't it incredible that each of us is different? and that Heavenly
Father will talk to us in the way that will make the most sense to us,
not to Johny over there!? I think that one of the most important things
to embrace is that we are all different, oops there I go preaching.
But I have found that embracing that one simple truth increase love as
decreases comparing and pride. Humility is an awfully hard thing to
learn. If you want to be humble, don't worry God has many ways of
humbling his people and he will have a humble people.
Well I hoped you all enjoyed my crazy rant! How about a story (or two) :).
It
was Christmas Eve and dark out, we decided to visit a potential
investigator who lives on a street where there are usually lots of drunken
men and no street lights (lights are only found on the main streets
here.) This may be sounding like a bad idea, but what happened was
actually quite amazing. We went and knocked on the door. Our potential
had given us a wrong address, but inside we found a family of five that
seemed to just be waiting for us to come by and share something with
them. We came in and shared the message of the restoration. We have
now been back to visit them several times and they are planning on being
baptized in the beginning of February! We have been surprised at how
prepared they are and how hungry they are for the knowledge that the
gospel can bring.
Another story (speaking of drunk men.) A few weeks ago
we were eating with some members outside of our area (something that we
are usually not supposed to be doing.) We walked out and I was so
ready to get back to our area and go home. Good thing for us though
that Hermana Simpson was still in the missionary mood. When we walked
out of the driveway there were two men that we began talking to. One
was very drunk and began telling us about all of his drinking problems
and how he wanted to change. He continually called us angels. I think
one of my favorites lines was "you have to be angels, you came out of
no where." We gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, the number of the
member in charge of addiction recovery and strict instructions to go dump
out the Vodka he had in his bag. Had I been 21 I think I would have
taken it from him. He eagerly gave us his phone number and address.
We sent some Elders to go visit him that night. Around 5 in the morning
we got a thank you call from him. Two weeks passed and the Elders had
not told us anything about him so we figured nothing came of it.
Yesterday a man and his wife walked into class. After an hour I
figured out who it was. The entire Luna family had come to church, the
Elders teaching them were just as surprised as we were.
I hope that your Christmases were 'merry and bright'! Have a wonderful new year!
Love you and see you next year!
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