Soooo sorry, everybody! I forgot to send the email about the last week´s adventures. So this week you get double! yaaaay!
Adventures of Two Weeks Ago:
First off, Adan was finally baptized! WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
¡POR FIN!
This poor guy had so many trials in his journey toward baptism, but he stuck to what he believed and persevered. He´s so awesome! He cried to hard during the talks in the baptismal service. Presidente Warne attended and I sang Adan´s favorite Hymn ¨Divina Luz¨ (¨Lead Kindly Light¨)
Adan was baptised by his best friend in the church named Ian. Ian accompanied us in one of our last lessons with Adan before his baptism and Adan told us, ¨Ian has been with me through thick and thin, bad and good.¨ And it´s true. Ian stuck with him even when everything seemed to be falling apart for Adan. His example of love is incredible.
The thing about serving a mission is that you don´t just learn and grow from your studies of the Gospel. You learn and grow alongside the members and the investigators. Watching the progress of another person in the gospel is a gift and an opportunity. I've only been in my mission for four(ish) months and I can already tell you that it´s changed me. It´s changed my perspective a lot.
When Adan came up out of the water, the look on his face was pure happiness. He was waving at Hermana Pisconte and giving us the thumbs up with a huge smile on his face. I want to see that same expression on the faces of everyone we´re teaching.
We´ve been having a lot of slow weeks. It gets me down at times, but I can´t let it . Yes, people have their agency and can make choices of their own, BUT I can also step up my game. Any time we have slow weeks, I do some self-reflection. I´m becoming more well-versed in the scriptures (no pun intended) studying the lessons in Preach My Gospel and studying like crazy and striving to strengthen my testimony every day so that I can - as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said - ¨combat anything that any skeptic can throw at me¨
Also, If there´s one thing I´ve learned to be true in the mission, it´s that obedience brings success, but exact obedience brings miracles.
So this has been my focus.
And, as President Ezra Taft Benson said, ¨When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment, God will endow us with power.¨
I know that this is true. And it doesn't just apply to missionaries. There is power in obedience to God´s commandments and following the example of Jesus Christ and His teachings. How often have the prophets of old practically begged the people in the scriptures to obey what is right? And not because the commandments are just rules rules rules.
They are guidelines for spiritual and even physical safety so that we can be the happiest that we can be in this life and in the life to come.
So as for other stuff, this week I participated in kind of a Barber Shop Quartet thing for the last Zone meeting. It was fun. I can´t remember what the name of the Hymn is in English, but in the Spanish Hymnbook, it´s number 208. You can search it online. Elder Wall recorded it and said that he´ll be emailing it to us. Once I get it, I´ll forward it to you.
In other news, I´ve come to a point in my Spanish where I´m feeling more comfortable. And Hna. Pisconte tells me that I´m still testifying in my sleep. hahahaha! I can pretty much get my message across just fine and tell stories. I love telling stories and that was one part of my communication that I really missed. But for the first time in months, I feel like I can be myself speaking Spanish almost just about as much as I can speaking English. =D
Anyways, that´s all for my email for the week. I love you guys so much. STILL PRAYING! =D
¡Les quiero muchisimo! ¡Ustedes son los mejores!
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