October 13, 2014
Hola familia and friends....
Wow.... What a week! I look back to the last monday and it's crazy to see how much has happened. It was a little nuts that's for sure! I think that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to be okay with last minute changes, and not having a panic attack when things don't go as planned... haha
At the beginning of the week we had plans to go to Roatan again for divisions. We would have been their from wednesday to friday. We had planned out our whole transfer just perfectly with divisions because we only have 4 weeks to do them this time. On tuesday we went to the doctor with one of our sisters who has been having knee pain and we were brainstorming with President Klein on what we could do to help her and had thought of several options, but the conclusión was to say lots of prayers and sleep on it. That night while we were planning for the next day we felt uneasy about going to Roatan. After praying about it we decided that it would be best if we didn't go even though we didn't know why. Oh how inspired that was!
Reason #1 why we shouldn't have gone to Roatan: The next morning we received a phone call saying that they were going to be pulling the other sister missionaries out of our area and putting in elders, within the next 2 days! Which meant chaos!! Okay is wasn't that bad... Just meant that the next couples of days were full of house-hunting for the elders, packing, cleaning, and moving. We also moved out of our apartment and into the apartment of the sisters which has a little bit more room so we had to pack up and deep clean. It was definitely out of the normal missionary routine.
Reason #2: On Wednesday morning the sisters from Roatan called us to ask if we had arrived yet and if everything was okay. Turns out there was a huge tropical storm and we would have been caught in it on the yacht over, or even worse possibly stuck on roatan for longer than expected!
Reason #3 (the best of them all): One of our investigators got baptized! Hooray!! D, who has been visiting with the missionaries for almost 8 months now, finally made the decisión to be baptized. It was so amazing. He'd been really scared because he was afraid of falling after getting baptized, but he has been attending church regularly (even in a white shirt and tie) and went to early morning seminary for the entire year! On wednesday night we had a super spiritual spur of the moment lesson about the atonement and how we don't need to be perfect to get baptized and how baptism is just the "first fruits of repentance" (Moroni 8:25). There was a peace in the lesson and then all of a sudden he said, "okay. call the elders. Tell them I'm getting baptized and I want my interview, NOW." And so it was! It was super late so we were afraid they weren't going to be able to come and they weren't answering their phone. Every now and then he would say, "no no mejor otro dia..." (no no better another day) and then he would shake his head and with determination say, "NO! I have to do this today!" haha so we said a prayer together that they would be able to come and that they would call us back and right before we said amen, the phone starting ringing and it was them :) Tender mercies :) So they came, had the interview, gave the green light, and on Saturday he was baptized :) He was so excited and happy.
Afterwards he bore his testimony about just how much this góspel has changed his life. He was confirmed on Sunday and the whole ward gave their sustaining sign and he was all smiles all day. He is almost a completely different person and he has a light about him. I love seeing this góspel change lives :) That night he showed up during our meeting with our ward misión leader with two of his buddies wanting to share the góspel with them. Pilas! I can't imagine what would have happened if we had gone to roatan and missed the lesson we had on wednesday!
Super grateful for the Gift of the Spirit that we have to guide our everyday lives. It was a huge testimony to me of just how important it is to follow even the subtlest of spiritual impressions. It wasn't like the spirit was yelling at us and telling us not to go, it was actually very subtle. But how grateful we are that we listened!
Loved the Relief Society lesson we had this week about living in the world but not of the world by Joseph Fielding Smith. There was a part that REALLY stuck out to me. It was under the section, "the promised blessings to the faithful are far greater than the temporal pleasures of the world" It talks about how sometimes many members fo the church may wonder why we, who are striving to live the góspel (keep the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, pay our tithing, keep the sabbath day holy etc etc), always seem to have trials, whereas those who embrace the world's standards and disregard all morals, values and commandments, seem to prosper. I LOVED the answer... I'll copy and paste it because it's so much better with his words:
I love you all! Somebody please see, "Meet the Mormons" for me. I'm dying to see it... I hope you all have a great week and are enjoying the changing colors of fall!
"The answer is a simple thing. If I sometimes, and once in a while I do, go to a football game or a baseball game or some other place of amusement, invariably I will be surrounded by men and women who are puffing on cigarettes or cigars or
dirty pipes. It gets very annoying, and I get a little disturbed. I will turn to Sister Smith, and I will say something to her, and
she will say, “Well, now, you know what you have taught me. You are in their world. This is their world.” And that sort of brings me back to my senses. Yes, we are in their world, but we do not have to be of it. So, as this is their world we are living in, they prosper, but, my good brethren and sisters, their world is coming to its end.…The day will come when we will not have this world. It will be changed. We will get a better world. We will get one that is righteous, because when Christ comes, he will cleanse the earth."
I love that! My companion showed me a scripture this morning in D&C88:25-26 that says the same this. This temporal world is going to die, God is going to cleanse it, and the righteous will inherit a better, eternal world instead :) It's a good reminder to keep an eternal perspective!
Until Next Week,
Hermana Bennnett
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