Whoooooo what a wonderful week this week has been!
Let's see...where to start...
This week on Tuesday we had our second intercambios with Hermana Roper and Hermana Callisaya! Except this time Hermana Roper came to our area and I'm not going to lie, I was pretty stressed out. Not only would I not be with my normal companion (who knows our investigators needs and loves them like I do), but I knew I would essencially be in charge because I'm the one that knows the area and the people that we're working with, and also we didn't have set appointments during a certain time that we were supposed to be with a member...all aside from the fact that having two gringas walking down the street together was sure to cause a riot ;) I prayed a lot that the Lord would help everything work out okay, and of course, it did :) yes, maybe we had a hard time having focused, efficient lessons, and maybe we got a few more weird looks than normal, and maybe we had to go to a few more houses than I would have liked before we found someone that was home, but everything worked out just like it needed to, and we ended up having a really good time.
I love the opportunities we have to do exchanges with other missionaries, because I always learn so much. Something I learned a lot of from Hermana Roper is that I don't need to change my personality just because I'm here in a different country speaking a different language. She puts so much personality into her teachings, and you can tell that she's just being herself. We were able to talk a lot in English and I didn't realize just how much I needed that. It's been so good for me to have to speak Spanish all the time for the simple fact that it's helped me learn the language a lot faster than I likely would have otherwise, but I was able to recognize changes that I was letting happen that were causing things to be more difficult than they needed to be! The biggest thing that I noticed is that I've begun to tak a lot less just because I think that people won't understand or I'm scared I'll mess up. But that's not me! Better to give it a try and have it be really broken spanish than keep everything bottled up inside! It was a huge help for me and I'm seriously so grateful that the Lord knows what we need even when we don't know ourselves!
When Hermana Rios came back on Wednesday, I was so excited to see her. It was great with Hermana Roper, but it's just not the same without your companion. On Wednesday we found out that the father of a less active family that we've been visiting passed away. That was really rough. We went to their house and with a few members of the family sang a few of the father's favorite hymns and said a prayer. It was a really special moment, but also a really interesting moment to reflect on just how short life really is. It makes me think: What can I be doing right now to improve the legacy I'll leave behind when my time comes?
On Thursday we were supposed to have divisions, but neither of the members that we had made appointments with showed up, so we had to change our plans, but it was really neat to see that everything really does have it's purpose, because we were able to contact a woman while we were waiting that just so happens to be a menos activo that lives in our area. I know that the Lord really does have a plan and a purpose for everything!
On Friday we had the opportunity to go to a training meeting for all the ward councils in Piura and Sullana with Elder C. Scott Grow. It was really neat to have the opportunity to be there and to learn a little more about how the missionaries and the ward council can work together a little bit more effectively. The best part was when he bore his testimony at the very end. The Spirit was SO strong and testified so strongly that this man is a man called of God to be a special witness in this time.
The next morning we traveled to Talara for another meeting with Elder Grow with the zones from Tumbes and Talara. It was SO neat to see how much faith he has in us as missionaries and just how much work we still have to do...how much room we always have to improve. One thing that hit me really hard was that he was so in tune with the Spirit. We could tell that he would recieve a prompting to say something, and it didn't matter how much sense it made, he just said it right then and there. What an example of immediate responses to promptings! Again at the end when he bore his testimony it was so powerful. I literally didn't want him to stop talking. It was such a neat experience to have him there. The biggest thing that I learned from the conference is that there is always room for improvement, and like my dad always says, we should always try to be content but not satisfied :) Hermana Rios also had the neat opportunity to have a personal interview with Elder Grow afterwards. It's amazing how inspired that was...it helped her to relieve a burden that she didn't even know she had, but that has already helped her so much in the last two days. I am so grateful for inspiration from the Lord and for His chosen servants that so willingly follow it.
This week we'll have our first baptism! It's for a 13 year old daughter of a menos activo that we've been working with. We're so excited for her :)
Well, that's all for the week folks! I hope you can take a little bit of time this week to think about the things that you can be doing to improve yourself...be content, but not satisfied :)
Love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Garner
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| Hermana Rios, Samantha, Hermana Callisaya (zone p-day) |
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