Oh the miracles.
So first of all, sadly this week the amazing Hermana Cameron went home, and I was so sad! She´s awesome, and I feel very priveleged to have had the opportunity to work with her. She taught me a lot, and she truly loves this work, I really enjoyed my time with her!
But Hermana Bangerter came! And man, she is INCREDIBLE. Seriously I don´t know how this keeps happening to me but I literally get the best companions. I´m not even just saying that or trying to have a good attitude, the Lord just keeps putting me with the best missionaries and I keep learning a ton from them, so yeah, that cycle has kept going with Hermana Bangerter! I feel like she´s one of my best friends already, and she came here ready to work and hit the ground running! She started calling all the girls and asking them how they are and what miracles they´ve seen and ah, she´s a great example to me of just loving people. And she is genuinely interested in the lives of the people we work with and we´ve spent the last few days getting to know people better! It´s been fun and we´ve seen tons of tender mercies!
So where to start? Um first of all, we´ve been going to lots of former investigators houses, and since I still don´t know this area super well the map has been our good friend this past week. So yeah, friday night we were going to visit a potential investigators house, she had told us we could come back friday night at six, so we went and....she wasn´t there. But, President Deere taught us that miracles happen when people fail on us, and angels have prepared others in our path, so to keep our heads up.
Well, we start going down the elevator, planning on going to one of our backups, when, as we walked out of the elevator, an older man was there holding his grandson. Hermana Bangerter asks him how he´s doing, and he´s like, ´´I´m good, you guys can come over whenever you want, you can come to my apartment now, I live on floor 7!´´ and we were like, wait what? All she asked him was how is he doing! Haha, so we pretty much just stare at him and nod okay, and the elevator is small so he goes up first and we are standing there waiting for it to come back down. Haha and we were laughing and I was like, ´´Hermana do things like this normally happen to you?!´´ and she said no. And as we were waiting, suddenly a man from behind comes walking down the stairs, and we turn around, and he see´s our nametags and yells ´´Elderes!´´ and I was like, okay obviously he´s had contact with the missionaries or else he wouldn´t know the boys are called ´´Elders.´´ So we started talking to him, his name is Kilian, he´s super cool, and he has a cousin in Park City who´s a Mormon, and he had been to the english classes years ago in Venezuela with one of his childhood friends who is a member also! So we set an appointment with him for the next day. Then we were like, okay, that was so weird that that older man asked us to go up but let´s try it! So we go up, and we knock on the door and he´s just this little old man, and he´s like, ´´come in!´´ and we´re like, ´´is there a woman here..?´´ and he said his daughter was there, but we couldn´t see her so we cautiously walk in, then we saw his 28 year old daughter and we were put at ease and they were so so nice! They said they had a Book of Mormon and had been taught by the missionaries! The daughter was like, ´´yeah, it was about 20 years ago and they used to show us videos that they would project onto our wall.´´ Haha, so yeah, we´re super excited about that! And they kept telling us that their family is huge and that we should come over one day when they´re all there and teach them! Yeah, MIRACLES.
Then it gets better, the next day we go to a relief society activity and try to help out there, but then we had to leave to go meet with Kilian, but the relief society president told us to come back because in an hour they´d be eating lots of typical spanish food. So yeah, we went and met with Kilian and he´s just awesome! He has such high values and he´s so prepared. And we talked with him for a while, and then we were like, hey, do you want to come to an activity in our church right now? Haha so he came and we crashed the all women relief society party, but they didn´t mind and they were so good to him! They kept giving him food and then the bishop showed up and was talking to him and it was just an awesome enviornment! Then after we went and explained the Book of Mormon to him, because it´s been a long time since he´s read parts of it, and we watched ´´He is the Gift.´´ It was just such a cool experience. Then yesterday he came to church and met more members and he loves it!
Also another woman showed up to church yesterday, and she was like, ´´I lived here for years but 8 months ago i had to go back to Cuba for medical things but the missionaries used to teach me, I already know the Book of Mormon is true and so what more do I have to do to be baptized?´´ Um yeah. That was an incredible miracle!
And then, another funny experience, so we have this friend here. He´s from Nigeria, and he´s just this super super tall black man. Well we´ve taught him a few times but a lot of the time he just seems to overlook the big picture and focus on little things. He, like a lot of people here, don´t realize why we as missionaries have to have another girl with us in order to teach a single man in his home. Well most of the time we just explain the rule and move on but he is just like, ´´You dont trust me and so how can I trust you?´´ and I was just so frustrated, standing there in his doorway, and I am just super blunt with him and just told him I love God more than anything and I´m not purposefully going to disobey him and I was just so sad and mad honestly. I just feel so much of God´s love for this man and I just want him to be happy and I was just like, I am not letting you go that easily. So I just kept fighting to explain to him, saying things I probably shouldn´t have said, like when he said, ´´I think you´re scared to be around me I can see it in your eyes´´ and I firmly told him, ´´You´re wrong, I wear Christ´s name and I´m not afraid of anything´´ and haha it was a really funny situation that i wish someone had been recording. Well, al final, he said he wouldn´t come to church, and I just got tears in my eyes, which normally doesn´t happen, but I just could feel him missing out on so many blessings and that made me sad. Then after talking some more, long story shortish he said he would come! Haha...I know people shouldn´t come out of obligation to you but I just needed to get him into that church so he could feel of the power of God that resides there. And he came! And he got to know the elders and the members and I think he enjoyed it! So yeah, that was exciting!
And then Jen, who is one of my awesome friends here! She´s 12, and she´s been studying with the missionaries for 1 1/2 years, but her mom wont let her be baptized. I think I might´ve already mentioned her, but yeah, her aunt´s in our ward and Jen is adorable! She loves Christ and she´s even doing her personal progress now! And anyway, her aunt was telling me last week that Jen´s mom likes our brownies and that she thinks us making them with the mom would help our relationship with her. And so we got all the ingredients and things ready and took them over to our lesson with Jen. We talked to the mom, which was pretty much my first time saying more than just ´´hola´´ to her, and she said we could make then with her in her kitchen! It was so fun and we just talked and got to know her and it went well, and I know it made Jen happy too! Then the mom made us this Paraguayan (spelling?) dish and it was so yummy! It was a good night. Her mom didn´t want to watch ´´He is the Gift´´ with us, but we watched it with Jen, and at the end of the night she was like, ´´hey this was like a family home evening!´´ and she just seemed to content! It made me so happy.
So yeah. The miracles. We´re blessed. Our bishop is the best, and I just absolutely have fallen in love with this ward. I can already feel it´ll be hard to leave. I sat by this one woman in sacrament meeting, and she put her arm around me and asked how my family was doing, and I told her good, and she asked me if I was sad to not be with them during Christmas, and I told her that I miss them, but if I had to be anywhere besides home this Christmas I would pick to be here, in this ward, because so many of them feel like family to me! I have been very very blessed to be put here right now. I am grateful that the Lord has allowed me to come here, and learn so much! I was reading in Alma 23 and 24, and I was thinking about how this people had given up all their weapons of war, that they used to shed the blood of their fellow men and to fight against God, once they had come to a knowledge of their wickedness. I was thinking about the things I need to be willing to give up to show the Lord I´m truly converted, especially when I get back home and am put more so back into the world again. And it was interesting because that day Hermana Bangerter had been reading in Alma 44 about when Zerahemnah (bad guy) was surrendering to Moroni, and Moroni asked him to promise to never come to war again against his people, and Zerahemnah was willing to give up his weapons at the time, but he wasn´t willing to promise to never come to war again. And we talked about how of course he was willing to give up his weapons at the time, that would save his life and was the most convenient for him at the time, but he knew in his heart he was still holding onto those ´´weapons.´´ I just thought about the liberation that comes from burying our weapons that we use to fight against that which we know is right. In Alma 24 the king is telling the people not to unbury their weapons to fight, and in verse 11 he reminds them of the process it was to repent, and how God had forgiven them and how their ´´swords have become bright´´ and that they should hold on to that purity. I just loved learning more about this and it makes me want to just let go of the sins that hold me back and just give myself over to the Lord, because really, that´s where we´ll find the happiness we´re looking for. But we´re humans and sometimes we forget, but I know the Lord strengthens us when we decide to follow Him! So I invite you, and myself, to think of the ´´weapons´´ we can give up, this upcoming year, so we can freed from the things that might hold us back, and we can more fully give ourselves to the Lord.
I love you and I love being here! Thanks for the support, and especially for the prayers!
Love,
Hermana Miller
Alma 23:5-8
No comments:
Post a Comment