Little stuff... think about this… how many people do you try to save? Why do people want to be a doctor... to save lives. Saving lives... I have so much I would love to write but so little time. Read Mosiah 28:3 and Alma through the twenty verses where it talks about Amulek... he was the best member missionary.
I do have one more CD of pictures, but I don´t see a point in sending it to you, when I´ll be home before we know it.
I´m so excited to see this blog... I have heard amazing reviews about it. Did I mention that a few weeks ago I found out one Tuesday that Megan Glauser, (friend from Bingham High), Emily McKee (roommate from BYU) and Christina Willey (neighbor from BYU) are all getting married? It was like the day of getting letters saying that everyone is engaged!
It was a long, tough week. In fact, I´m not going to lie... it was the worst week of the mission, but rejoice with me... I survived and it´s behind me. Let´s just say that things went very wrong and I was very attacked (not physically, just verbally) by someone. Luckily your comp is your witness that can back you up in all things. Through this trial I learned how to ask for help, receive it, and just plain keep going. I was brought to the very depths of sorrow, but that doesn´t matter because I have already climbed back out and hiked to the top of a mountain. I´m fine, I´m more than happy, I have peace, and I know that all experiences teach a lesson. My Father in Heaven knows the truth, so that is all that matters.
To finish off such a lovely week full of growing and prayers, one of our investigators decided Saturday afternoon that she wasn´t going to be baptized. Shot though the heart! We returned to the pench and started prepping the place for the new sisters who are coming in to help us handle the work here with 3 branches. We eventually finished up and went out to work and got caught in a rain storm like you have never seen before. The funny thing is that all that day I didn´t shed a single tear. Not even when the baptism slipped right through our fingertips. I felt totally numb and past feeling as the scriptures say. Later that night after we dried off from the rain it dawned on me that you never know... maybe it didn´t go through for some reason we can´t see. Like one of those, “what if we would have had an accident in the train? Or What if someone would have been robbed on the trip?” For all we know the Lord was mercilessly protecting us from something much worse. I felt such a calm stillness as that thought dawned on me and I was totally at peace with it all.
That was part of the news that Elder Woodmansee gave us when he called to see how I was doing and find out just what had happened. He said that the President was entrusting me with the responsibility to lead and divide the work and handle all the details and plans and that they were sending us two sisters... another companionship to be primarily Navarro missionaries. I was thrilled and we spent hours working hard to receive revelation and figure out how to divide it all and do what is best for the work without trying to keep all the good investigators and future baptisms. We finally got it all on paper and today in the transfer meeting my mission-long dream basically came true... They sent Sister Pruner!!! and Sister Gurr to come help us out. I´m going to get to be almost companions with Sister Pruner – my first comp in the MTC for the next 6 precious weeks! I´m so excited, but I cried when it all came to light because I feel like I don´t deserve to have that dream come true.
As a mission we had 188 converts this transfer. It is just so tough to not hit the 200 mark again... we are so close and giving all we have, but the adversary is also fighting with his armies and all he has. Let me just tell you that this past weekend 41 people that were supposed to get baptized... didn´t make it. He is fighting too. During that chaotic week, we also had divisions with the sisters in Mercedes so to start and end it each companionship had to invest about 4 hours in trains. It is hard to lose so much time, but I got to see Mercedes and was reminded just how much I love Las Heras... I was so ready to be back on my own turf.
I was in the branch in Navarro yesterday with a member from another ward that did divisions with us and I was so touched in the fast and testimony meeting (with 8 other people) that I was crying. Micaela – my temporary companion - said that she had prayed and prayed for the rain to stop so that she could get to Las Heras to help us out because she had committed to come and wasn´t going to let anything stop her. The sun came out and shone through the windows of the living room aka chapel of Navarro and we saw the power of God made manifest. I also cried when a new convert stood and said that they were going to the temple the other day and it was a long way getting there, but they couldn´t bail or turn back because it was like, “Heavenly Father was waiting for us.” I heard that and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Our Heavenly Father literally is waiting for us. He wants us to come home. He wants us to make it back safely. He is worried and looking out the front window to see if we´re about to pull in the driveway. He is waiting for me, He is watching to see me come home. He is waiting for me to finish the mission strong. This morning in my personal prayer I promised the Lord that with these precious 6 weeks I wanted to become and be and serve and work, and give and love each day. I wanted to do all with no regrets and I have tons of ideas about how I am going to keep my word on the promises I made Him. It is all up to me. I am responsible for all I do. I have 6 more weeks to serve, and the rest of my life and the eternities to think about it. What am I going to do? I am going to give all that I have and do the very best I can. I´m going to be so totally lost in the work that they have to send out a search party to find me and pack my bags and take me to the airport. It is all up to me.
I testify with all of my heart that I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and is here upon the earth. His church is led by a living prophet and the keys of the Priesthood are not found anywhere else. I know that Christ lives. He literally lives. He is the way. Heavenly Father is waiting for us. He is watching us. He cries when we fall and rejoices when we get back up. I testify that this is His work. I am a humble servant and a faithful witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel. The Book of Mormon is true. It is perfect and teaches pure doctrine.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
With love and unfailing trust in His plan... until next week!
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