Well we had one of the best weeks everrr LLENO de milagritos and a handful of those little moments where I found myself thinking "wow...I am a missionary!" Maybe it was so fabulous because we couldn't leave all of last week...well look at that, our trials make us so much more grateful for the nice, little things :) wonderful how it all works, isn't it?
We are going to go in a nice, random order :)
1) this Saturday, we had a meeting in a city in our mission called Republica. It's about an hour away from where we are working in El Abrazo, and getting there required multiple bus and subway stops and changes. When we received word that we would be having this meeting, my companion said "I don't know how to get there." But I told her that it's all good, because I do.
Moment number one of "WHOA I am a missionary!"
I know that it is something small and seemingly insignificant to know how to get to one of the meetinghouses in your mission. But I'm just saying, the first time I used the subway system here in the field, it was to get to Santiago, and I remember following Hna. Ortiz like a little lamb and thinking to myself "I am never going to figure out this system!" (I can't like this!) and then, here I am, guiding not only my comp and I, but a group of about 20 elders that we ran into on the way that didn't know how to get there either.
Progress, people :)
And the meeting was great, lots of great personal revelation received for myself, our companionship, and how we can help people in our sector. Plus, we got pendrives with all the conference talks from the last two general conferences to use in the work, and lemme tell you, we all just flipped out. Missionaries are such nerds for that kind of thing, it's the best ever.
2) In our meeting with our ward mission leader this last Friday, he brought up Jesus The Christ, ya know, the HUMONGOUS book with beautiful details about the life of Christ. I told him that I had never read it, and he loaned me his copy. But with a challenge. He told me that if I could read up to page 200 by this next Sunday (July 27th), I could keep it.
Challenge accepted!
Then my comp chimed in and said "But she reads really fast, that's too easy." So he bumped it up to page 250.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
I'm at page 119 :)
3)We put on a little FHE for an inactive member's family where he is the only member. It was about something really simple, how the gospel blesses families and the things that we can do to feel the presence of God in our lives and in our homes. Simple stuff. It's just that the spirit was really strong, and this family, that usually doesn't even acknowledge us when we come by, were smiling and laughing and participating with us. THEY were bearing testimony to US about how much God loves us! It was AWESOME! And it was one of those moments where I found myself thinking "I just never want my mission to end." It is so great to see people progress. It is so great to feel the spirit testify of how much God loves each one of his children. And in that simple little FHE, oof. I felt it.
4) In another lesson this week with an inactive family, the 16 year old teenage daughter came down wearing a Justin Beiber t-shirt. Hna. M and I gave her the hardest time for it, and she insisted that he is crazy beautiful and talented. As we left the house after the lesson, my comp said to me "I just don't get it. Justin Beiber is whiter than white flour." It doesn't even translate correctly to do justice at how BLASTED HILARIOUS that moment was. Perhaps it was the timing, perhaps it was the fact that my companion is a little shy and super sweet, but it was wonderful. Missionaries can laugh too!!!
5) We have an investigator named Cesar, the husband of a pretty inactive sister. He is a huge jokester, always brainstorming a sassy comment to make and a way to lighten the mood and talk about...basically anything but the gospel. We have been pestering for about 2 weeks now for a time when we can come by and teach them about the Plan of Salvation, passing by their house, calling and leaving voice mails, leaving little sticky notes on the gate of their house saying we had stopped by...lots of little pester tactics that we enjoy :) And FINALLY we got an appointment set up for yesterday in the evening.
As he opened the door, he greeted us with "Here they are, the most persistent sister missionaries in all of Chile!" We laughed it off and let him kid a bit before getting down to business and teaching about the plan of salvation. And at first, he meant it all as a joke and was just trying to get under our skin, but as we finished the lesson, we both testified of WHY we are so persistent in being able to come and teach them.
We are persistent because we know that the message we have is TRUE, and that it will bless their lives, and when we can't get a hold of them one way, we will try another and another, until they tell us that they aren't interested, because when we teach about the gospel, we truly are teaching about our salvation.
I mean, do you GET that?
WE ARE TEACHING GODS PLAN OF SALVATION, PEOPLE!
We have the knowledge of what it is that we need to do to be able to return to Gods presence and live with him and our families forever. THAT is what we are here to teach. And so you better believe we are going to be a little persistent, you better believe we will leave voice mails and notes on your gate and continue asking when we can come by, because we have glad tidings of great joy and we don't want a single person to miss out on it!
*deep breath*
6) We are continuing to teach our golden investigator, Juan. This week, we taught all about the Doctrine of Christ. And it was SO RAD, when we taught about the Atonement and the repentance process, he talked about the need to be humble and that really, we can't repent unless we are humble. And its like, we KNEW that, but it was so impressive in that moment!
I mean, you will hear many a returned missionary talk about how much they learned from their investigators. That they learned patience, charity, diligence, a bunch of those awesome, Christ like attributes...that they learned how to teach depending on the person, how to teach clearly and precisely, all sorts of good stuff like that. But you never realize how much you can learn doctrinally from someone who is hearing about the principles of the gospel for the first time, to hear THEIR thoughts, what it is that THEY are picking up and learning from our message.
And Juan learned about humility in repentance. And WE learned about humility in the service of God. That, even as missionaries, the "experts", (nada que ver!) we have SO much to learn. Oh my goodness, the mission is just the best ever.
Be Bold, stay rad, do what you do :) till next week!
Hermana Harkins
p.s. I will be writing on Tuesday because we have changes this coming Monday, so don't be alarmed when nothing comes Monday. I will write Tuesday, with maybe a new comp and/or new sector! WHAAAAT ADVENTURA CADA DIA!
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