muchas gracias to betsy, jacob, rachel, sam, jmag and ma for your emails and photos! reading emails from home is my favorite part of p-day. and thanks to ma for the birthday packages (small box and big evelope) and to aunt lynn for the package! (not sure if it´s for my birthday, but i´m waiting until then to open it.) can´t wait!
answer to last week´s trivia question: everyone uses a WEED WHACKER to "mow the lawn." (sorry ma. your guess was a good one.) *editor's note: Lisa's ma guessed they used a machete. there is a big plaza/park/playing field in front of our apartment building and with all the rain, the grass/weeds/vegetation got pretty out of control. it took several men two days to cut everything.
trivia question for this week: most commonly used spice (used in EVERYTHING) and condiment (put on EVERYTHING)?
had a really good zone conference this week. pres. levrino and his wife spoke, along with our stake president, and the zone leaders did some training on getting referencias (referrals). all the missionaries in the zone were asked to come prepared with a 5 min talk on alma 38 (like sac meeting in the mtc--the speakers to be announced on the spot). my district leader and i were asked to speak--glad i was prepared with notes! last week i was feeling pretty crummy (congestion/cough/achy) and that day i basically had no voice. but i´m feeling better now. president levrino´s counsel was very good--he talked a lot about the miracle of jesus feeding the five thousand. the disciples had to act in faith as they distributed the loaves and fishes--the food wasn´t multiplied until after the savior blessed it and it was distributed to the crowd. we often pray to have increased resourses or that our efforts are magnified, but it isn´t until we bring what we have to the savior, allow him to bless our efforts, and then demonstrate faith by working really hard that we see the miracles happen. i wish i had my notes with me now to share more, but it was all good. it´s been worth serving a mission just for the training i´ve gotten. good stuff!
this sunday was kind of exciting--the handle of the door to the relief society room broke, and no one could open the door to enter or leave. the meeting was just starting, so hardly anyone was in class, including the rsp. the poor counselor was in a tizzy--the teacher and the president were in the hallway and she didn´t know what to do. the windows have metal bars on the outside, so we couldn´t escape that way. someone gathered some priesthood brothers and they removed some ceiling tiles in the hallway, climbed up into the ceiling, and then removed some ceiling tiles in the classroom and lowered themselves in and used a little tool to open the door. pretty exciting.
i am gaining a testimony that satan really is opposed to the progression of god´s kingdom. helena, our golden investigator, has become sluggish in her progression. she´s getting a ton of opposition from her family and the catholic church because she´s going to be baptized. she can´t cut back on her cigarettes. she slept through church. dah! nicolas had another drug relapse (after fighting the urge to consume last week) and natalia says she´ll leave him for good. monica had an excellent experience at church last week (was super emotional as she described "this feeling she had that was super strong, and she can´t really describe, but was overwhelmingly good"), but we found out in our last lesson with her family that she and her husband alejandro aren´t married. alejandro doesn´t like that there are restrictions to being baptized--he doesn´t like the idea that he has to give up smoking or get married to be baptized. DISCOURAGING!
but, i also know that the stone cut out of the mountain without hands won´t be stopped from filling the whole earth! and missionary work has it´s good moments too--like when we stopped by to visit a super innactive older lady to read the book of mormon with her, and she told us thanks for not forgetting about her. and like when we were at church, and the kids of an innactive mom (they all attend church on their own without her) ran up to tell us how excited they are for the fhe we´ll have with their family tonight. (i planned the lesson/activity: parables of the lost sheep/coin and then we´ll play boolah-boolah. straight-up fhe of my childhood.) and we have a baptism for this saturday--juana. yay! it feels good to help people change their lives.
the church is true!
hermana magnusson
No comments:
Post a Comment