Happy Valentines Day! It is just about the same in Chile as
it is in the United States, a lot of big balloons and teddy bears and
chocolate, and the good stuff only comes from the people that actually know you
and know what will make you happy. On February 14th, I woke up to find a note
taped to the floor next to my flip flops saying "Hermana Harkins, follow
the arrows". The arrows taped to the floor lead to our table where Hermana
Velazquez, my valentine (who would have thought I would have a 22 year old
Argentinean for my Valentine in 2014? Not me...), had set up breakfast!
And ya wanna know what we had for breakfast?
LEMON. PIE.
A very happy Valentines Day :)
Later that evening I made her brownies. We know exactly what
to do to make each other happy. We basically rock at being Valentines.
I don't know if y'all remember a few weeks back when I
mentioned that Hermana Velazquez and I taught an investigator of some other
elders in our zone who had a problem with the priesthood and wanted to talk to
"girl missionaries". Well she got baptized this week :) we got
permission to go to it and it was so wonderful to finally see her work through
the insecurities and put her trust in Christ.
Baptisms. They rock.
Something that I learned this week is that while most time,
as missionaries, it works really well to be very personal and loving and all
those lovely things. But sometimes, we have to be transparent, like a jury.
Sometimes we have to abandon our feelings and our opinions and just let people
yell it out. A part of our calling as missionaries is to help less active
members come back to church, and we are working with a 23 year old young woman
who has some very deep drama with members of the ward and who refuses to enter
the chapel because she doesn't want to see everyone being "fake" and
"pretending to love each other." Hermana Velazquez and I tried every
loving and patient attempt to get her to talk to us, we gave every personal
example and scripture that we could think of, and still she gave us sassy and
immature and offensive comments as to our efforts. In that moment, that is when
you need to just be transparent and not let it all hurt your heart.
And then that is when you can be BOLD!
After working hard to be transparent and soak it all in and
breath it all out, we just came right out and told her to come, ignore all the
"fake" people if that is what she has to do, and focus on the
Sacrament. Focus on the speakers. Focus on the classes. FOCUS ON THE SPIRIT
BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WE COME TO CHURCH TO DO. We don't come to church to
socialize, we don't come to church for the people, we come to church because it
is so necessary to renew our baptismal covenants, to partake of the Sacrament,
to be clean again, to endure to the end, to prove to God that we are devoted to
him and the covenants that we make with him. And we get it, Hna. V and I have
not wanted to go to church sometimes, but you DO IT ANYWAY because God is more
important than the rest of them.
We were bold.
She came to church :)
Also this week, I witnessed my first big fat miracle, the
kind that you tell your kids about years after, the kind that you never ever
forget.
We were visiting, yet another, less active member, reading
the Book of Mormon together to help out her testimony, and her 23 year old son,
Fabian, came in and started chatting with us a bit. We hadn't even said a
prayer, so we invited him to sit with us and read, if he would like. He was
very excited and launched into this story of how he was always so happy when
the elders would come when they were teaching his mom the discussions, how he
always felt their tremendous love, and he ran up to get his own copy of the BOM.
While he was doing that, we asked Hna. Violeni where she was
in the BOM. She told us that she was just starting to read 2nd Nephi 31.
And for all those returned missionaries out there, you know that this chapter
is magical. The Doctrine of Christ. Hna. V and I were exchanging glances, pure
excitement in our eyes. "OH MY GOODNESS LETS BAPTIZE FABIAN" Is what
our eyes said.
So he came back down and was all excited and ready, we
prayed, read the chapter, and asked him what he felt. He told us that he felt something
very strong, something too big for his body, something flowing through his
veins. He then gets very serious and proceeds to tell us "I know that this
book is true. I know that it is the word of God." He tells us how, when
the elders were first visiting their whole family, when they were all taking
the discussions, that they invited him to read and pray about the BOM. And how
when he prayed, he felt this same sensation- a very strong feeling in his heart
and flowing through his veins, and that when he felt this, he ran outside and
was stopping everyone and telling them "this book is true! This is the
truth! This is the truth!"
So obviously we invited him to be baptized.
I MEAN REALLY, HE KNOWS THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE AND ITS
OUR FIRST LESSON WITH HIM!
He starts to cry, and tells us that he is scared that he
will be baptized, make this tremendous promise with God, and then mess up. He
kept saying "I'm only human, I'm only human." We explained about the
Atonement, the power and love that we can feel through it. Seriously, never in
my life have I felt the spirit as strongly as I did in that moment. It was
something tangible, it was something that everyone was feeling and everyone knew
that it was the spirit, and that is something truly beautiful.
I know that this church is true. I know that the spirit is
something very powerful, it is something that changes lives. I am so thankful
to be here, to be a missionary, and to be an instrument in Gods hands to help
people know of his love. There is nothing I would rather be doing right now
than to be here, in Chile, helping in this marvelous work.
Be bold, everyone :)
Hermana Harkins
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