January 16th, 2016
One of the
things that has been a struggle for me is that I've gotten so used to people
rejecting us that it's hard to be motivated to talk to them, 'cause it's like
"They're just going to say no, so what's the point?" But I know that
the Lord will put those prepared people in our path, and whether the people we talk
to want to accept the truth or not is up to them, but whether they will be
invited to come closer to Christ is up to me.
This week we had
a zone dinner (with all the missionaries) with one of the members of the stake
presidency, Brother Bxxx. He talked about how Elder Clayton mentioned during
stake conference that we need to love people "fiercely." That's such
an intense choice of words. Brother Bxxx talked about how we need to plant
seeds in people and have the faith that they are out there. He spoke so powerfully,
and even though I feel like I've heard all of that before, it was just a super
great reminder and the Spirit really touched me.
One night when
it was really cold, we knocked on a door of a former investigators house, and
the lady who answered was just like, "Come in!" She didn't even ask
who we were or anything, so that was a shock. Like, I literally didn't know
what to do now that someone had actually let us into their home. We talked to
her daughter and granddaughter, who seemed OK with us going back, so we're
going to try to see them again soon.
We just heard
that the boyfriend of our investigator just left her and her son. They were
living together. That came as such a shock since he seemed like such a nice,
solid guy. We're going to stop by to see her tonight and I truly hope
we can help her understand the Atonement and apply it to her life.
This week we
were talking to this 18-year-old member who doesn't plan on serving a mission.
We decided to talk about scripture study with him, and how the scriptures have
helped us with any questions or trials that we have. I talked with him about
how serving a mission was never in my plans, and how when I got the prompting
that I should go on a mission, I was really scared and didn't think that I
could do it. But one day I read Isaiah 41:10 "Fear thou not; for I am with
thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness." That scripture gave me the confidence that I could do
anything that God asked me to, since He's always going to be there with me. I
don't even know how much we were able to help this kid out, but I'm glad that I
was able to share my experience with him, and even remind myself of the trust I
have in God.
So Hna Maya and
I have this game of word association, where we just will randomly shout out
these words that have to do with our experiences that are inside jokes.
Sometimes we'll do it in front of members, and they have no idea what we're
talking about. There's one member, Hno Rxxx, who is super hilarious, and he
was watching us say words back and forth, and even though he didn't understand
what we were doing, he wanted to play too! So he started saying
"Cowboy" and "Buzz Lightyear" to us, randomly. It was so
funny! He's probably my favorite person to visit, since he's always so sweet
and gives us any food that he has.
Do you remember
that book, You are Special about the puppets who judge each other? I
was thinking about that book, and how when the puppet met his creator Eli, Eli
tells him "You are perfect because I created you. And I don't make mistakes." I remembered that
yesterday and it just hit me so hard because that's how God sees us.
Love you,
Hermana Aburto
