So to start out this email, I wanted to share a funny experience that we had this week. In companion study, we do all sorts of fun things, like planning for the lessons we will teach, Preach My Gospel Activities, and reading the Book of Mormon in English to help my comp learn the language. I have fallen in love with a little game we play called "Preguntas del Alma" (questions of the soul), where we come up with questions or doubts that our investigators have, or commonly asked questions, and we answer it with a verse in the Book of Mormon. It is so fun.
But the funny story happened Tuesday morning as we read the Book of Mormon in English. We are in the part about Nephi's vision explaining Lehi's vision, and I kid you not, I COULD NOT EVEN REMEMBER HOW TO PRONOUNCE WORDS IN ENGLISH. At one point, Hermana Davila just said "Yeah, we can just read in Spanish if you want."
Que vergüenza.
You could say things are going well with the language :)
This week, I had many testimony builders of the power of hymns to invite the spirit. I have always known that, it's not a new testimony. And anyone that knows me knows that I am passionate about all types of music. But it all started with listening to Motab as a little girl whenever we ran errands with my mom. It's odd sometimes for me to hear the hymn sung normally and not how Motab does it. My crazy huge love for music started with the hymns, and it continues to grow.
One of those testimony building experiences happened with Hermana Dominga; a little grandma here in the ward that has been a member for forever, she is totally adorable, gives us lunch every Thursday (and its always tan rico), she is a gem. And Hermanita Dominga had a bad fall, is confined to her bed, and called asking if we could come to help her feel better.
Well, we honestly didn't know what we could do, so we just went with confidence that the spirit would guide us to know what to do. We chatted for a moment or so, shared a scripture about the Atonement (Alma 7:11-13), and then I felt that little nudge to whip out my little green hymnbook and sing a hymn together. Upon asking her favorite hymn, she said that she wanted to sing The Lord is My Shepherd.
I know, I know that missionaries always use cliche phrases in an attempt to describe the spirit, but it really is something that is indescribable. Something so celestial that we, as mere human beings, truly cannot describe it. The only way I can think to tell you all how it felt is to say that I could truly feel, at least a small portion, of the love that our Heavenly Father has for her. As we sang that hymn, as she silently cried and then bore testimony to us of the Atonement, it was just palpable. The spirit is so beautiful. And I always feel it strongest when we start singing those sacred, beautiful hymns.
Another experience that I had this week with the hymns happened at a zone baptismal service, called Noche de Blanca. We invited as many as we could to be baptized for one specific date, and we ended up with 8 people being baptized this last Saturday night. Oh, it was incredible! So many people in white. I just love that. And of course, as a zone, we did a little special musical number, singing Nearer My God to Thee (mas cerca Dios de Ti).
People...I sang a solo.
That has never happened before.
It was always singing the soprano part in a quartet of some sort, but never just me, alone, singing, without a microphone or anything.
OOOH IT WAS TERRIFYING! AND I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT! AND I WAS SO SCARED! (and my mission president was there)!!!!
But I did it :) and my voice didn't even tremble :)
Now, the best part of it all, was that Saturday morning as we contacted in the street, Hermana Davila asked me "how many musical numbers I have done so far in my mission", since I am always singing in the pension and in the streets and she knows that it is something that I love doing. She was almost MAD to hear that I had never sung alone in front of a crowd before. She asked me if I would do it if someone asked me to or if I was assigned to do it, and I said yes, but only because I do what I am asked to as a member of the church.
So when we started putting together the musical number, an hour before the baptism, and the elder directing asked who would be comfortable (look, look at the wording! COMFORTABLE!) singing a solo, guess who volunteered me?
That little Nicaraguan rascal.
But I did it. Totally overcame THAT huge fear. Look at the things that I am learning in my mission ;)
And on the teaching front, things are going great. If you all could pray for our investigator Erika, her baptismal date is set for this coming Sunday, and she really is ready, but she is still feeling waves of self doubt. Satan is such a jerk, but if we could all just come together with prayer power, I think that we could just see a miracle.
We had a great experience with a less active sister this week named Lucy. It's a little difficult to get to her heart, or even to get her to just sit and let us teach a little something, so we had to think of other ways to gain her trust, and thus, give her a desire to listen to our message. So we offered to help her with her sweets business; she taught us how to make Alfahores and cuchufli, two classic Chilean numbers, and then we shared a short message with her.
And it was SO WORTH IT! As missionaries, we get so focused sometimes on teaching that we lose the big picture of HELPING others, and sometimes, there is a little something more that we can do, in addition to teaching the gospel, to help others. And after helping her, she truly wanted to listen. And we ended up hearing her testimony of the Book of Mormon, which is very strong and very outdated and in need of refreshment. And, in that moment when we could recognize her need and we KNEW what it was that we could do to help, she had sufficient confidence in us to listen to OUR testimonies and accept the invitation to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover.
This work is the BEST EVER!
So be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine and put it on a hill for the world to see and bask in because YOUR LIGHT IS BEAUTIFUL AND YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR TESTIMONY!
Hermana Harkins
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