I literally have no idea how to start this email, because we had SO MANY miracles, SO MANY blessings, and I want to talk about them all! But there is just not enough time...I will do my best.
Church is true.
First and foremost, I've gotta testify of fasting. On Wednesday we fasted as a zone of us missionaries in Maipu to find new people to teach, and in one day, we found two families to teach. In the whole week, we accumulated SEVEN new people to teach.
Guys. Seven people! Seven souls! Three families! Its amazing! SEVEN! Fasting works. I keep receiving more experiences to confirm this truth- fasting truly blesses people and it makes miracles happen. When we can show the Lord our devotion through this small sacrifice, he WILL bless us.
AAAH I just love the gospel!
Second, I have been blessed with the amazing chance to sing in a choir of 24 missionaries from this mission to do a special Easter Program, all throughout the Santiago West Mission. 6 missionaries to sing each part (SATB) were picked to sing hymns in Spanish and put on a musical program, and it is AMAZING! So far we have only practiced two songs, Beautiful Savior and In Humility Our Savior. It is so beautiful. The spirit is so crazy strong when we sing the hymns, we are so blessed to have a Heavenly Father whose heart delights in song. D and C 25:12. Boom. Church is true.
Third, I learned two very important lessons this week- Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel is all about Attributes of Christ, and I adore studying it, trying to figure out how it is that I can improve to be more like him. This week, two attributes kept popping up, kept getting up in my face and insisting that I pay attention and apply what I see and hear and put it into action.
The first is love. As I mentioned last week, I am in a new area. And it is astonishing to me how quickly I came to love everyone! I mean, it was so instant! I was a little nervous that it would be hard, with a new area and all, but I am completely convinced at this point that love is something that all missionaries must have, instantly, naturally, and strongly, in order to help people feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for them. Even the toughest people, the individuals with the biggest problems and the hardest hearts, I found that I could love them enough that my heart ACHED for them and their pain, and it made me want to come back, to study for them and find something to uplift them and let them know that we, but more importantly our Heavenly Father, loves them. Love is SO important in building up Zion.
The Second was Humility. Not that I am excessively prideful or anything, but I had many chances this week to be more humble, especially with my companion. Let me tell you more about her that I learned this week.
Hermana Marquez is from El Salvador, and is the second oldest in her family. She has 8 younger brothers and sisters, and her dad is not in the picture. Her mom has worked her whole life and Hermana Marquez has worked her whole life, as well. I asked her if she worked before the mission, and she laughed a little and told me yes, and rattled off a list of the things she has done to help her family, from selling chocolates in the street to nannying a rich family.
Because her mom always worked, and because Hermana Marquez is the second oldest and the oldest girl in the family, it became her responsibility to take care of all of her younger siblings. I heard her story of her devotion to seminary as we taught an inactive 16 year old in the ward, how Hermana Marquez had to wake up at 4:00 every day to have enough time to walk an hour to her church building to attend seminary at 5:30 in the morning, go to school at 7:30, then return right back home to take care of all her siblings, never getting to sleep before midnight. She had this routine all four years of high school, and before it was all the same, minus the seminary part.
I was a little nervous about getting a new companion, and Hermana Marquez is not exactly my very best friend in the whole world, like it was with Hermana Velazquez. But she is amazing to me. She is an example of a righteous woman, a humble woman, and someone who sacrificed literally everything to come on a mission. Studying to be a nurse, taking care of her family, her pure love of caring for her siblings...she is sacrificing so much to be here. And she is so incredibly humble that she would never say it like I, loca Hermana Harkins, would say it, but she is amazing. And she is going to get crazy blessed in the Celestial Kingdom.
I had many, many amazing experiences this week. I want to share them all. But right now, I just want us all to be humble like Hermana Marquez. To acknowledge how immensely blessed we all are. I know, I am such a missionary, inviting you all to strive to be more humble, but what can I say. It's naturally in me now to invite others to be more like Christ.
Do what you do, y'all :)
Hermana Harkins
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