Oh, man. This week. I feel like I am a completely different
person than the person who wrote last week. It's been crazy, and miraculous,
and wonderful, and just great. I just have to figure out where to start...
So, once upon a time, it's been a really rough two transfers
or so, and the Lord has given me a lot of chances to learn. It's a long,
complicated story that no one really wants to hear, but the fact was that I was
not adjusting well, I had unrealistic expectations of what I should be doing as
a missionary, and the depression and anxiety that were once under control went
haywire. On Tuesday night I got a chance to talk to some of the mission
leadership about what was going on, and they said that if I didn't get things
under control, I would have to go home.
Oh.
That had never even crossed my radar before that moment. I
was on exchanges with the Conroe Sisters Wednesday and had a lot of time to
think about that idea. By the end of the day, though, I realized that there was
nowhere else on the planet that I'd rather be right now, and that I want
nothing more than to be a missionary. It was a really hard day, but it gave me
so much more commitment to my calling. Unless I hear otherwise from the Lord or
President Pingree, I will not be coming home until February 25, 2015 - no matter what.
On Thursday, we got to talk to Raymundo and check on his
progress. He was eager to tell us that he had been praying every day, but
wasn't so excited to tell us that he hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon. We
talked to him, we tried to make him realize how important it was, and nothing
worked. We somehow got onto the topic of Sister Quist's boyfriend who
served his mission in the Dominican Republic, where Raymundo grew up. He asked
is he could talk to Michael, and all of the sudden I heard Sister Quist say,
"Sure! I have his number memorized - let me put it in for you."
Okay... So, we called Michael. She told me later on that it just came out of
her mouth, and she had no idea where it came from. Raymundo starts talking to
Michael, and I told him that Raymundo was having struggles with reading the
Book of Mormon. They started talking (in Spanish, so I really don't know what
they said,) and then he took the phone into the office to talk. When he
came out 15 minutes or so later, he told us that he'd read every day. Michael
is a miracle worker.
So, I am probably the whitest person...ever. I don't
speak Spanish - at all. When I do, it's horrific, and I have no accent - it's
bad. However, the Spirit thought it would be a really great idea to have me
tell Raymundo that I would bear my testimony to him in Spanish if he'd promise
to dedicate time to the Book of Mormon every day. Yeah. He agreed, I cried
a little inside, and we got help from the Hermanas so I could do it
at our next lesson.
Friday - that was a really good day. It started off with
a Zone Meeting. Zone Meetings are usually pretty great, don't get me
wrong, but they're not usually a big deal. I haven't been in very many meetings
that were as powerful as that was. We talked about finding - about the faith
involved in knowing that there actually people prepared to listen to you, about
having the courage to talk to people, and different ways to use your time
productively. It changed my idea on a lot of things, and gave me so much more
hope and confidence.
Now Saturday - Saturday was one of the best days of my
mission so far. We started it off with Frisbee, which is always a joy. However,
when we arrived, we were the only ones there. A while later the College
Park Elders showed up, but that was it. We were about to turn around and go
home when we saw an ASL walk going on in the parking lot and decided to see if
we could help. They put us to work. We handed out T Shirts for most of the day,
and I got to talk to Elder Christensen, who has been having a lot of success in
his area. He gave us some really excellent ideas to improve our finding and
involve members, and - they just felt good. He then told me about his companion
(who was on exchanges,) whom he's training. This Elder keeps trying
to tell Elder Christensen what to do, and that the things he's doing aren't
productive enough. I was listening to him...and I realized that it sounded a
lot like me. It was really humbling to realize how prideful I'd been and how
convinced I was that I knew more than my companion who's been out much longer
than I have.
While we were there, I found Sam! She's the girl that I got
to know at the food fair last week, and we randomly ran into each other while
we were helping out. Coincidence? I think not.
Later on that day, we decided to contact some referrals that
the Hermanas had given us. We asked one of the ward members, Sister Adams, if
she'd come with us, and things fell into place so that she could. We got to the
end of our list, and then found Ashlee. She just had a baby about 3 months
ago, is not married to her boyfriend and is having problems with him, and has
some post-partum depression going on. We talked, she told us what was going on,
and we told her about how the gospel has helped us, and Sister Adams lent some
of her experiences and testimony that we could not have come up with. We
have a return appointment on Tuesday. Do you know what that means? We have a
NEW INVESTIGATOR for the first time since I've been out. AGH! So.
Cool. That night we decided to walk around for a little bit and found
another potential investigator. Miracles. All over the place.
Then, it was Sunday. We woke up, we ate food, and were about
to start studying when I remembered that we hadn't plugged the phone in the
night before. I pulled it out, and there was a message from our Zone Leader. It
had some reminders, and then at the end it said, "Remember that daylight
savings ends tomorrow, so enjoy your extra hour of sleep!" I was reading
it out loud, and paused between those last four words. It wasn't even 7 o'clock
yet. We had woken up at 5:30. Sister Quist jumps up, grabs her blanket, yells,
"Are you freaking kidding me?" and stomps back to bed. I couldn't
fall asleep, and thus did not get to partake of the daylight savings. Great is
my sadness.
Then, we went to church. We were sitting in fast and
testimony meeting when all of the sudden, I felt like I needed to get up and
bear my testimony in Spanish. The Spanish that I was not intending on using
until Tuesday and that I really hadn't studied all that much. I started
shaking, and my stomach was all in knots - I haven't been that scared to speak
since I was a wee kid. It wasn't going away, and I was kind of oblivious to the
world at that point, so I stood up and marched up to the stand. After waiting
through 2 agonizing testimonies, I stood up with no idea what I was going to
say. I babbled something about Saturday for a little bit, and then said that I
had a promise to keep... and spoke Spanish. Pathetic, simple, broken Spanish
saying that I knew the church was true and that Christ is our Savior, and then
closed in Spanish. I can honestly say that I don't know if I've ever been more
nervous in my entire life. My legs were shaking to the point that I collapsed
onto my chair when I got back and my hands shook for a good 20 minutes
afterwards.
Raymundo was so excited, though - and he has been reading.
YES. I found out later on that it had affected more than one person. Sister
Farnsworth told me that she was sitting by a lady that didn't speak much
English and was grumpy the entire time, but that she smiled when I spoke, and
that it touched her heart. I'm glad she understood, because that wasn't me at
all. I couldn't have done that without the Spirit. Just, so cool.
Things are just great, guys. We have more appointments, the
members are getting excited, and it's FINALLY cooled off. I'm so grateful to be
here - I love being a missionary! The Atonement is real and Christ lives, and
that's all you really need. Things do get better, and there is sunshine after
the rain - I promise. Keep doing good things, keep writing letters, (or repent
if you haven't,) and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Liljenquist
No comments:
Post a Comment