Song lyrics- mostly what I'm fluent in. (; Can connect perfectly to a moment in time.
On Wednesday I went to the missionary training meeting for the 3rd time in a row and really enjoyed it (I could probably conduct the next one, I'm so familiar with the subjects and Hermana Pace's "skrift" story). There are three people from my MTC group training new missionaries. Hermana O'Neill and I are training 6 weekers and Elder Stratton is training a new missionary. This meeting marked the end of my semi-awkward old/new companion tripanionship, and I sent Hermana Manotas off to Bilbao and I couldn't get these words out of my head "Only know you've been high when you're feeling low. Only hate the road when you're missing home, only know you love her when you let her go." Guys, I've gone soft.
Thursday was the first "real" day I had with my lovely new companion, Hermana Terrazas. Her name is Spanish... but she's not native. As the day went on I taught lessons with her, I carried on conversations in the bus, and gave a somewhat complicated testimony and... for the first time in my life, I felt like I could speak this language. I didn't have to pause awkwardly to think of a word or nod in a conversation and pretend to understand because for the first time (in forever) I could understand and be understood. And it was glorious.
This week we were late to a lot of things (lots of roads are closed and buses are re-routed because of fallas) but the things that DID happen were good. I talked about Bea last time, right? Well when we called her on Thursday to see how she was doing she said that she got kicked out of the apartment and was now living in a nearby catholic nunnery. (Get thee to a nunnery!... wait, people actually DO that?) I didn't know quite what to say to that, but she said she'd come to church.
And she did.
The bishop gave us the number of a menos [less] active/recent convert, and we called her and set up a visit for Sunday night. We had a nice visit and asked her how we could help her come back. She said she just needed a little "animo" (um....to feel excited) to get to church and asked if she could come with us on visits and to lessons. Which is GREAT. It'll help us a lot and it'll help her too.
Silvia called us this week and said that she doesn't want to keep choosing between us and her church and asked us to stop visiting her. I convinced her to let us have one more cita [appointment], and we're going to bring a member who is PERFECT for her (Used to be Evangelico, has a son about her same age, and is a recent convert.) I'm praying that everything will go well. We've been working with Silvia for as long as I've been in Valencia. I love her and don't want to lose her. (Cue "I won´t give up" from Jason Mraz.)
[I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not, and who I am
I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up, I'm still looking up.]
I haven't had a "normal" Sunday in a long time: last week we had 8 investigators in church and EVERYONE wanted a photo with Hermana Manotas, this week was ward conference, we sang, and a lot of new people came. So it's been a little crazy, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Let's just say that it's very smart to have Preparation Day on Monday so that we can rest from our "Día de Reposo." [Day of Rest]
Hermana Terraza's favorite Scripture to share is Mosiah 24: 13-14, so that´ll be my spiritual thought for now.
[Mosiah 24: 13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.]
Sometimes at the end of the day, I have the words to the song "Have I done any good in the world today" run through my mind. And I can honestly say, "yes." And I think that's the definition of true happiness (or a good one, anyway).
I love you guys.
Hasta luego.
-Hermana Een
Summary: Our investigators are all awesome... but some of them are struggling. I had an aha "I-can-speak-this-language" moment and it was glorious.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment