HOLAAA Familia!!
Holy cow I seriously cannot believe that it's already Pday again. This week FLEW BY!!!! There is always so much going on, I guess there's just never any time to think about time passing haha.
So one of the highlights of this week was on Thursday night. Our evening teacher Hno Bejar has been doing this thing lately where he's been giving us these tests to basically see where we're at with our teaching skills, so on Thursdayhe gave us a topic--ours was the Plan of Salvation and the Law of Chastity--and then 5 minutes before we had to teach, he gave us a paper that told us about the person we'd be teaching. It was way neat because it was another one of those times that we had no idea what we were about to teach so we just had to completely trust in the Lord and just go for it. We said a super quick heartfelt prayer, and walked into the lesson. We ended up teaching about the Atonement and the Law of Chastity--which was definitely not as awkward as I'm sure it sounds like it would be on a first lesson--and it was just SO AMAZING. We both talked an equal amount, and whenever she was talking and I'd think of something to say, either she'd say it or there would be a natural break in the lesson where I could say what I felt he needed to hear. It was so wonderful. I also got the neatest opportunity to feel just a little bit the gift of tongues...as I was talking (more than once) I would have something I wanted to say in my head that I couldn't remember the words for, but I'd just start saying as much as I could, and the words came. It was seriously so neat to feel like we were able to teach what he needed without worrying about our spanish or anything else. The Spirit in that room was SO STRONG. We walked out of there like "THIS is why we're missionaries" :) it was amazing.
Another amazing thing about being a missionary that I never really anticipated is how much we get the opportunity to pray. We pray morning and night, before meals, before and after class, before and after and during planning, companion study, personal study, and countless other times throughout the day. Before I came here, I never really understood the concept of having a prayer in your heart, but now I totally do. It's SO necessary to have the Spirit all the time, so I'm constantly praying or thinking about what our investigators might need, or how I will be able to apply this language concept in a teaching opportunity, or who around me might be needing a little extra love in their life. It's a seriously amazing blessing. I truly encourage all of you to try to focus on having a prayer in your heart at all times. It helps me to focus on others and be much more sensitive to the Spirit and to opportunities to serve and respond to promptings, and it's a wonderful way to live. :)
My testimony has truly grown this week of just how much the Lord truly prepares us to do the things that He needs us to do. As I've been here at the CCM, knowing all of the 100 scripture mastery verses we needed to memorize for Centurion has been INDESCRIBABLY helpful. It's gotten to a point where when someone in my district needs a scripture for a lesson, they've started coming to me. It is an awesome blessing to be able to pull out a scripture to answer the need of an investigator. I'm SO grateful for all the seminary teachers at Highland for pushing me to study and learn those because I can't even begin to imagine how helpful they'll be in the field since they've been so helpful here. Paige and Amber--seriously, start studying up on those now! I promise they'll be SO helpful for you throughout your lives, even if you don't go on missions!
Another example of the Lord preparing me came when we went proselyting this Saturday. It was so incredible to see how literally every principle that we had studied in class this last week perfectly applied to what I needed when we went out teaching!!
I seriously love going out and proselyting so much. When we went this week, I got to go with a Latino girl and it was really neat. She put a lot of trust in me for the lessons and the only thing that killed me was when I would get lost in the conversation and she'd look at me and I'd just have to shrug and smile sheepishly at her because I had absolutely no idea what to say! It kills me sometimes that I have so much love for this gospel and I just have a hard time expressing that in Spanish! But it's also really neat because I feel like I've learned a bit more of the importance of a powerful but simple testimony, and the importance of just pouring my heart into every word I say. I had one really neat opportunity where I shared Moroni 7:33 with a woman who wants to be baptized and has recieved all the missionary lessons, but because she isn't married she can't be, and since she and her boyfriend--who she actually calls her husband even though they haven't been married, but they've been together for 17 years and have two kids and a house, so I guess it sorta makes sense! But anyways, apparently they're in a lot of debt right now so he doesn't want to get married yet because he wants to have a party but they don't have any money for it right now. It was just really cool becuse I just felt so strongly as I shared that scripture with her that if she would put her trust in the Lord and have faith that as she acted on the things that He's asked us to do, He really would help her to realize her desire to be married and to be baptized. I hope that she took it to heart.
Goodness gracious that was a long letter! Thanks for all your patience! I'm just loving it so much down here...living a life SO deeply enveloped in the gospel is the most amazing experience ever. I LOVE this message I get to share and I am SOO grateful for the incredible blessing it is in my life. I don't know what I ever did to be so blessed to grow up with the gospel in my life, but I am SO grateful for it!
I love you all! Hope you have a FANTASMAGORICAL week! ;) Let people know by the way you live how much joy this gospel brings!
Con Cariño,
Hermana Garner
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