Week 37 - Woodland

We had a busy week this week! First off we got transfer news and Hermana Dorny and I are staying together!!!! And that is so so exciting she's the greatest and I'm excited to be able to have fun with her and learn from her for another transfer! She's the best.

Well we have one every week but it was a good week. Tuesday was a very very good day! We had our last district meeting of the transfer and were able to talk about the importance of church. We watched a video about when Christ had the last supper and began the sacrament.

WOW. It was so awesome the sacrament is such a special blessing that we have! Every week we get an opportunity to be washed clean again as we repent and partake of the bread and the water. And then we receive the beautiful promise that if we continue living right we can have the spirit to be with us ALWAYS!

One thing really hit me, we have such an opportunity to receive revelation during the sacrament. Christ wants to bless us with what we need during the specific time we have to remember him.  When we don't receive that revelation it's because there is something we are doing to block it.

A member did give us money this week for dinner and told us to get tacos from jack in the box. Fun fact you can get 26 tacos for 17 dollars. The cashier definitely gave us a weird look.

We were able to visit with Patty and Thomas again and we had such a spiritual lesson with them! We talked about The Plan of Salvation and Thomas asked us many a questions. Let me tell you a six year old with questions very much tests your knowledge about things, he stumped us on quite a few. For example he asked us what spirits were and how we got bones. But after a while he started playing and we were able to talk with Patty. He actually started eating hot Cheetos and finished the bag and poured the rest of the crumbs in a bowl and started eating them with a spoon. Genius.

But the lesson was so awesome. The Plan of Salvation is such a special part of our church that can bring so much joy to people and their families, being able to tell someone that they can be with their family forever is one of the greatest things ever.

Patty was so excited to learn about everything and you could see on her face the happiness she had for this plan our Heavenly Father made for us. The spirit was very strong during the lesson and Patty opened up about how she has seen Christ in her life and it was amazing!

We also had a chance to meet with Maria! And we got to have another very spiritual lesson with her! We talked about her struggles and the goals that she has. The spirit was able to come in and open up the conversation, we were able to discuss so many things. The spirit also guided Hermana Dorny and I both to the things that Maria needed to hear, what a blessing the spirit is, there really isn't any missionary work without it! The spirit is essential in everything! She has such a desire to change her life around and seeing the spirit work within her was something amazing as was feeling the presence of the spirit in that lesson. We have such an immense love for both these families!! :)

We had dinner with a family and the husband asked me to say the closing prayer and after I said it he told me he liked me because I was a small thing but had a backbone. Ok... That's another strange thing to add to the list of things I've been told on my mission.

Also, as we were walking around a cute 8 year old lookin dude rode up on his scooter and said "excuse me ma’am’s would you like to buy some candy for a dollar." And he had one of those fundraiser boxes they have for school things and it was the cutest thing ever so of course I bought some Gobstopers from him and he was so happy it was super great!

Some pictures of the Spanish Squad

I read this article this week and really really liked it! It's makes this email a little long but if you have time you should read it! I hope you all had an awesome awesome week!

Sitting in the Space of Not Knowing

By Ariel Szuch9 de Septiembre de 2016,

Seeing the pain in my friend’s eyes made my heart ache. In her situation, she struggles to feel like her life has purpose and direction in the context of the restored gospel.

My challenges are not the same as hers, but I, like many others, have also struggled with the same underlying questions: Where do I fit in? Is God’s plan of happiness possible for me? I’ve experienced times where the situation at hand feels at odds with God’s direction or His promises, making it impossible to see how they could ever be fulfilled.

Like when I felt prompted to enter a relationship, believing it would work out, and it didn’t after all. Or when my mother, as she battled cancer, was promised in a priesthood blessing that she would be healed, but she passed away a short time later.

I think we as humans crave certainty and control. When we encounter complex issues and situations—more general ones like polygamy or priesthood restrictions, or intensely personal ones like having same-sex attraction or dealing with a devastating divorce or death—we want to make sense of them. We want to know why it’s happening and how everything is going to work out.

In the absence of a clear explanation, we or others may invent one. The truth is, sometimes we have to grapple with ambiguity. As much as we want Him to, God does not always give us neat explanations that tie up in a bow. He is His own interpreter; He reveals Himself in His own way and in His own time, line upon line.

There are a few insights that have come as I’ve navigated times of uncertainty.

1.  What I do know helps me have the patience to grapple with what I don’t. Since my mom passed away, I’ve often reflected on Nephi’s exchange with the angel when the angel asks, “Knowest thou the condescension of God?”

After what I imagine was a moment of profound reflection, Nephi responds, “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:16–17).  This knowledge—that God loves His children—does not take away the pain of our uncertainty or make everything all right.

Instead, this knowledge gives us the courage to be uncomfortable enough long enough to feel our way through the sometimes long and painful process of coming to understanding.

2.  I can’t go around the uncertainty to get to understanding; I have to go through. Dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty is hard. It can be painful and messy, but there’s no way around it. We have to go through it to gain peace and understanding.

I sat in my room and stared out the window. Despite my best efforts, my recent relationship had ended. Why did I have to go through that? I had tried so hard. I felt like it was right and that I needed to move forward. And while I had learned some important lessons, I wondered if the pain I caused myself and others in the process was necessary.

Somehow I should have known better than to try in the first place, I thought. And then this thought: I couldn’t. I couldn’t have known better. It is because of the process I went through that I gained the understanding I had. As uncomfortable as it is, the process has power, and it is faith in God’s promises that helps us make it through.

3.  God will come through in the end. In moments of intense struggle, sometimes I look up and cry out, “God, I don’t know. I don’t know how my life is going to work out. But you do. Help me keep going. Help me have patience until I can understand.”

I have realized that God will not deny any of us the opportunity to have a personal experience with Jesus Christ. Life gets real. But the Atonement is real too. In crucibles of doubt and uncertainty, we have the opportunity to seek the Savior the most earnestly, the most sincerely, and come to know on a profound level how the Atonement applies to us personally.

When we come unto Christ, He will come to us. In Isaiah 49:23, God is speaking to His covenant people about the time when His promises will be fulfilled. The Lord tells them, “And thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” In times of ambiguity and uncertainty, I will keep my covenants and wait for Him. He will come. His promises will be fulfilled. I will see Him and know Him “even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). And I will not be ashamed that I waited for Him.