October 26,2015
Well....
technically I don’t hit a year for a week... but one of my favorite lines
from this week was we were knocking doors and a man said he was busy, so we
asked when we could come back and he said "in a
year". We laughed pretty hard.....
Catholic Peruvians.... the nicest people haha...
But few
highlights....
Hermana Smith
has a night light that projects the stars so we turned it on and just stared at
them for a while, it’s the little things.
The full
moon.... gotta love that.
It RAINED
for the first time since I was in Jaen so that was awesome, we went and played
basketball in it for exercise. Love it.
Yeah that’s
about it.
This week
was pretty chill, we had an intercambio and I got to go with Hermana Rasmussen!
She is from California and is so awesome, I think one of my favorite parts of
this calling is just LEARNING from so many great people.
Speaking
of which, we had a conference with Bolivia and Peru and Elder Anderson in a
broadcast that kind of felt like a conference call. Him, Elder Uceda and Elder
Soares all spoke, and I realized, I KNOW ALL OF THEM. I have either shaken
their hand or been 10 feet away from them, so that was cool. He gave it all in
Spanish and it was awesome. The gift of tongues is so real. So we had that on Sunday
and I played A REAL PIANO which was amazing, so crazy how much I used to take
for granted.
Besides
that, it was a little bit of a slow week. One of our only investigators Candy
and Vanessa told us not to come back, they just wouldn’t ask or accept that the
Catholic church may not have the authority and wouldn’t come to church, it was
pretty sad to leave them, especially because we don’t have many
investigators.
But Hermana
Nelly and Susanna are doing well! We went to teach them and their nephew and he
was right up their with Korihor! He did not want anything to do with it and had
so many questions and doubts. There were kids yelling and running through their
restaurant, people making random comments, crazy questions, and I just sat
there, end of a very long week and remembered the promise that you will not be
confounded before men. I felt very confounded. I felt no one was listening and
especially in that moment they weren’t listening. I questioned where was the power?
But one thing I LOVED about the conference was Elder Anderson talking in Spanish,
he seemed to have a split second in the beginning as he was starting out, said
a word wrong and panic crossed his face, but then his expression resolved to
confidence and he kept going and it turned out great.
According
to Elder Bednar.... not shrinking is the key. So I said a prayer and tried to
muster the patience and courage I could. My voice was shaky as I asked "do
you believe in Christ?" The room fell silent and the man looked at me and
said "I think so". I then bore testimony that the only thing that
will ever matter in this world is if we come unto him and come to know Him,
live his teachings and accept this plan. The words and Spanish and conviction
just flowed and by the time I finished, all of their expressions had changed.
He then said, "Well, you have the ability to persuade, I’ll give you
that!" I explained it wasn’t and never will be my ability, it’s just the
truth and the spirit that comes with it.
I loved
that and all the power and spirit that comes with being a missionary, and that
really through weak things like me, great things are brought to pass... even if
it is a slow process.
Love you
all, but I’m really glad I’m here not there. Keep up the great week and
remember to live what you know.
Hermana Clegg
And... I can't get my pictures to work... but there was just one of us chalking our roof and the moon. Next week!
