Baptism
January 12, 2015
Wow, this
week has been great. Thank you all for your love and support, sorry for some of
the Debbie Downer emails... but truth is the mission is not all sunshine and
daisies, but it definitely is at times. The weeks, days and hours just get
better and better for me. I LOVE this opportunity to serve in my life and
really focus and realize what is most important.
This week
was awesome. Started off with buying a little blue backpack from this cute
store called Glitter, and with that and the Spirit, everything worked out. Mas
or menos haha.
We are
currently trying to teach an older coupled named Oscar and Requilda who are
pretty old and pretty awesome. Every time we taught them the spirit has been so
strong and I’m excited to keep going with them. One thing I have loved about
the lessons with them is how interested they are in the Book of Mormon and
personal revelation, what a great gift we have! Oscar recently had surgery on
his knee, so they haven’t been able to attend church, but hopefully soon.
Another
couple we teach is Rosa and Johnson... they are SO perfect and have been taught
for a long time, had a date to be baptized and married, but it fell through and
we’ve been struggling to keep them progressing. Another thing I really love and
have learned that really, if we gain a testimony of one thing, that God KEEPS
his promises and we are blessed when we obey, everything else is CAKE. There is
no question and everything works out. But first you have to try, and that seems
to be the hard part.
However,
highlight of the week was this past Wednesday, started off with reading
"The Miracle of a Mission" By Elder Holland. AMAZING talk and one
that I really needed. There are a million things I learned, but one point I
loved was when he said to start today, and love EVERY DAY of your mission. It’s
not your job to succeed, its the Lords work, you just need to be an instrument.
That really hit me because I’ve felt a little stressed with figuring it out, when
really I don’t have to figure it out, only submit myself to the lord.
On this
same day a lot of things fell through, and we ended up seeing a piece of cake
that looked SUPER good. So we went into the bakery and ate it. (Best Two Years
moment.... inspiration hahaha indigestion!) While we were in there the
girl that worked there asked us question after question about the gospel, she
lives in the jungle, so we can’t teach her, but it was awesome to see how the
answers of the gospel helped her. While we were there a man came in and
recognized us as Mormons and said I go to your church! Come teach my family! So
of course we jumped on that and visited the family after. They were AWESOME.
They sat and told us their problems of how their daughter is kind of off the
edge in every way and they hardly know where she is, fed us a tortilla (eggs
with vegetables... my favorite!) and we made and appointment to come
back.
Also on
that day, my favorite investigator... probably a bad thing to say, but Deysi
who is part of a part member family, and one of the only ones not baptized,
READ HER BOOK OF MORMON. This really was a miracle, she is pretty sassy and not
really keen to listen ever, but she read a ton and had so many questions, and
wanted to know what she could do to repent. I have such a strong testimony that
that book is the word of God and CHANGES LIVES!
So pretty
much through all of that, I learned that God keeps his promises, and that a
mission really is one miracle after another. I wish I had time to tell all the
miracles like that that happen. A lot of things don’t work out, but in
following the spirit, what needs to does.
Oh, and
when we went back to teach that family, holy smokes. CRAZIEST LESSON YET. A
straight up black lady that somehow was speaking Spanish but still just as
black as anyone, when we walked in started to talk about how racist the Mormon
church was and everything in front of our "golden" investigators!
Then they told us that only 2 hours before they had come home from picking
bananas to find their lock had been cut and that their daughter and stolen a
ton of stuff and took off with her friends. It was SO sad... both the parents
were crying and really struggling, I can’t even imagine. But the black lady
(sorry I don’t remember her name) invited her brother who was a preacher for
some church! haha right then I started praying pretty hard... Pretty much they
all just gave advice, and I was really struggling to understand, but I felt
that we needed to share Alma the Younger, and so my companion did, a long with
some good advice and the spirit was so strong, it was really hard to see the
tears fall down both of their faces though. I know that that wasn’t a
coincidence, and although really scary and kind of awkward, the Lord helped us
through the whole thing.
In every
lesson I teach, whether with the old less active ladies or new investigators, I
realize that everything in my life has been preparing me for this time. I can
help other people with the knowledge and experiences the Lord has given me, and
really that is what it is all about. The little things matter. A LOT. Never
forget the influence you have on others and how every decision determines our
destiny,... and other peoples haha.
Also had
my first Zone meeting this week, which was awesome! I said I had two months and
all the Elders went oooohhh.... haha. We also got to help out the Elders with a
baptism, which was an awesome experience, and me and another Hermana sang a
special musical number. The members and church are still the same in some ways,
yet different in others. haha kind of wondering what is the line between a different
country and apostasy
Haha...
and every morning on the roof across the street, a little chubby kid comes out
and like practices karate and super hero stunts among the laundry. Usually only
last about 2 minutes, but makes my study every day. This place is
awesome.
Honestly,
I feel like I cannot express all I would want to about how well things are
going here. I have really felt this week that all we need to do is Trust in the
Lord and have faith. Nothing else even matters, it will all work out if we do
that.
Sure
grateful for all of you, best of luck in your own adventures, and thanks for
your love and support always!
Hermana
Clegg
Me and Hermana Bean... love her!
Mercado (market) sooo much stuff, creep right?
