It was a good week with lots of great experiences, little moments where I found myself saying "wow...I'm a missionary." Almost 15 months in the mission and I still find myself saying that. I dunno, from what I have been able to tell, you get to a certain point in your mission and start going downhill, not working so hard, getting a little lazy on the obedience, counting down the days till you get home. Or you can be a missionary that just keeps on going. It helps when you have a companion that has some awesome greenie excitement for absolutely every aspect of the mission ;) we just keep going, we keep seeing miracles happen, and we keep loving life. I have the best job ever.
One of the great things that happened this week was with one of our investigators. She is really great, super receptive, she likes the message that we teach and how it blesses families...but she isn't married. And she doesn't see the need to get married to her pareja (how do you say that in English? I haven't a clue). And this week, my comp and I felt the strongest prompting to share with her The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It was very necessary to share with her this vital step in the Plan of Salvation and making it to the Celestial Kingdom. And we felt that the best way to do is to share with her the proclamation. Who can we trust more than the prophet of God? That President Hinckley. He just has a way with words.
It started out a little rocky- we invited her to read the first paragraph, where it says that marriage between a man and a woman is vital in the plan of God. And eyes widened and her jaw dropped and she covered her mouth with her hand and just stared at us.
OH THE TENSION!
But thanks to the Holy Ghost, we were able to level it all out to even ground and we had a little open conversation of the subject. It turns out that her reasons for not wanting to get married go much deeper than "I just don't see the point". It was evident that at first, she did NOT want to talk about it. But, 30 minutes later, she ended up confiding in us many things that she has seen happen, many things that have happened to her, and it gave us the chance to testify that God's way is always The Way. That when we strive to be in His path and keep the commandments that He has given us, when we strive to make choices that can help us to be closer to Him, even to live with Him in the Celestial Kingdom, He will provide for us. The lesson ended up being AWESOME, the Spirit was present, she confided in us her real feelings, and when we invited her to say the prayer at the end, she did so and then began to silently weep.
Oh no, what did we do?!
The thing is, her husband works a lot. He is hardly home. In Preach My Gospel it says that we shouldn't fear the silence, so we waited for her to collect herself, and then she said "I'm sorry that I am so emotional, I just really miss David, and the subject of the class today just made me realize how much I love him and how much I want to be with him forever."
It was great :) Church is true :) The spirit is real :) I just love love :)
Another great thing that happened this week was with a mixed family of inactive, recent converts, and investigators. We were teaching about the importance of the sacrament, and miraculously, the whole family was sitting silently, paying attention. I mean, WOW. At the end, we invited the less active 16 year old son to give the prayer, and almost immediately, his mom said "He won't say the prayer. He never does." But we invited him again to give the prayer, saying that it doesn't have to be anything extravagant, just what he is feeling in his heart. And you know what he did? He folded his arms and bowed his head and he said the prayer! And it was a great prayer! When he finished and we all brought our heads up, his mom was crying. She said that she had let go of the idea that he would ever want anything to do with the church again, and didn't even think to ask him to pray, or read the scriptures, or come to church. She was shocked that he even sat down to listen to the lesson.
Guys, sometimes all we have to do is invite people to do something. We can be amazed at what can happen.
And of course I have an adventure to share of new missionary training. I remember being in a meeting with my mission President's wife the day I found out I was training, and she told us that there will be days or lessons when our greenie says something absurd, and it will be our responsibility to fix it in the lesson and then to give that good 'ol criticism afterward. She taught us how to give sandwich feedback- say something good, advise, and finish with another good thing that they did. Honestly, I find it a success that the first time that that happened was right as she hit a month in the field. We are doing good! But alas, that moment did come. She said something absurd, the man got offended, there was some thick tension, the Spirit certainly wasn't present...and we left and I was trying to go through in my head how exactly I could help her to know that that wasn't ok. I was so flustered and I had no idea how to put it into the right words.
But almost as soon as we left the investigator's house, she blurted out "Oh Hermana Harkins, I feel like I did everything wrong and I have completely ruined it for him!" It turned out that I didn't even need to point out her error- all I had to do was love her! Give her a sandwich, like good moms do :) I am learning that there are just some things that greenies do. As missionaries, we all have to pass through those rough moments of messing up and feeling horrible, and it is always way better to have your trainer give you love instead of criticism. I certainly remember those moments in my training.
The thing that she learned in that lesson is that we, as missionaries, have the answers to almost everything. It's rad. We can answer people's doubts with many aspects of the gospel, it's one of the ways that I just know that this church is true. Because it has EVERYTHING. All we have to do is study it out in our minds, ask God to confirm its truthfulness, and we all can know. And in that lesson, this man had many questions, comments and doubts. The best thing to do in those situations is listen to him so that we can know HOW to teach this beautiful truth that we have. But my comp just got so excited that she could answer all of his questions that she began to do just that...answer everything. And that, my friends, can be a little overwhelming for the first lesson with the LDS missionaries. Long story short, it didn't end out too great. And she knew it. But it was something that she needed to go through so that she could see the difference #knowledgeofgoodandevil
But it was cool, because in the end, she recognized the difference. I told her that just because we have the answers doesn't mean we share it all. Just listen and follow the Spirit and it will all work out, I promise! And the next day, THE VERY NEXT DAY, something similar happened and I saw the desire in her eyes to answer every single question, but she explained that the message we share cannot all be taught in one lesson, but that with time and study and prayer, we can find all the answers to our questions. It was a proud mom moment.
So that's all, folks :) Be bold, stay rad, do what you do, and let your light so shine :)
Hermana Harkins
No comments:
Post a Comment