Well this week was fairly different and full of firsts. This week I went through my first earthquake, very small, and I thought- very fun.we were in our apartment, and all I did was look at Elder Sanabria as it happened, to see what he would do. and he just looked at me with a smile on his face: waiting for me to panic, etc. Haha!- little does he know: I live for that excitement. I also had my first baptism fall through, My first lesson that I kind of understood, my first conversation with someone that lasted longer than three seconds, my first encounter with the stomach flu, the first time I have had pizza in like three months, my very first companion exchange, my first time being offered alcohol, my first door slammed in my face, my first time riding in a motor taxi, and first time trying the street-food (of sorts), which included: corn and cheese ice cream, their bread, and some other snacks, my first fast and testimony meeting, in which- I had to bear my poor testimony in Spanish haha, and last, but not least, my first family accepting my invitation to be baptized, So I felt I had a quite eventful week, I have tried to be much more accepting of people, and starting up conversations with everyone i meet. and turns out that Elder Sanabria and I make a pretty dang good team. i think it is mostly because I am a gringo and people are way more reluctant to listen to thethings that I say, but are anxious to hear a little spoken English at the same time. most of the people i pass by say "hello" or "hi ","how are you?", and then I respond with a little bit of English. and thenI try to start the conversation. in which later, Elder Sanabria jumps in and either translates for me or continues the conversation. So this week Elder Harris told me that we had a tremendous week. that on average to have 7 people with fechas (or baptsimal dates) was good. and 2-3 in sacrament meeting is goodalso. wel,l we put up 19 people with fechas and had 7 people in sacrament meeting. haha. So, we did really good. Elder Harris sounded quite suprised with our numbers and our success. So that was super nice to hear. Secondly, my spanish is becoming better and better. And what i have come to learn is this mission is souley based on your attitude, along with the rest of your life. This week I found that God works in very mysterious ways, and uses our afflictions to help us. This week i think i came down with some type of flu that basically knocked me off my feet, and made me wish i could take a nap., But Elder Sanabria demanded we push forward. and reluctantly, and kind of spitefully, I did. for the first two hours, I kept telling elder sanabria that my insides were exploding, and my legs were going to fall off, and that I was pretty sure I was dying. But every investigator or person we were about to pass, I would put on a smile (that was fake), But, I always feel like a smile to these people is rare. we continued to knock doors with little success, and i continued to murmur. Then i decided to have a little change of heart as i remembered- thanks to Elder Sanabria- that Jesus Christ's atonement was not easy either and this, right now, is my own personal atonement. So the next hours we proceeded with smiles, the whole time,and much less murmuring on my part. we then had much more success... in which we had what we cal,l "miracles" (which is when we find the parents are baptized and tthe children are of age, and are willing to be baptized. And then also, because of my aching legs, we saw a bus that would take us home., and normally we would run to catch it but for some reason I felt like we shouldn't i dont know if that was my legs, or the spirit talking- haha. but we didn't then, on the next bus- which took somewhere around 15 min. and it was getting close to the time we were supposed to be back- almost regretting not taking the other bus another bus showed, and the man who takes the money got talking to us and sai,d that he met elders a long time ago and has not seen them since. But, he is willing and ready to take the lessons, and wants to be baptized. Therefore, it is proven- like it says in alma 26- I believe that if we bear our afflictions with patience, and with good attitude, we will be blessed. Entonces (so) always, always, remember that sometimes our life isn't easy and will not be easy because the Savior's life was not easy either, and His atonement is crazy, powerful, and is a great example of patience and endurance. I love the idea of aunt kaci and Raleigh on starting at Mosiah, because that means that you arrive to the alma chapters that much quicker. They are the next best answer of enduring with patience, and with all hope in mind. They were as alma says:
put through their own hell and they were in the depths of despair ,but afterwards, they bore all manner of afflictions with patience., and by their examples they baptized "miles" of people as it says.
Love you all. stay true to the gospel. i know it is the only thing that brings me true happiness right now, except of course-the occasional ice cream sandwich, and Inka kola which always brings a little longer pleasure in life down here. Remember patience, and that Elder Hyde believes you can be strong, and with the Savior, even stronger than you can imagine.
Espero que ustedes tengan una buena semana
con mucho amor,
Elder Hyde
No comments:
Post a Comment