So today is the first day of new transfers! Sister Moura and I are staying here, and our Sister leaders are staying as well! We're excited for more fun divisions with them in the future!
This week was pretty hard, I won't lie. I think Friday and Saturday were some of the worst days so far on my mission--not that it's a bad thing, I was able to learn an important lesson! On both of these days, it was raining basically all day, and no one wanted to hear our message. Friday was the day we were planning to focus on contacts, people we had talked to before on the street and they accepted our invitation to hear the gospel. But as we went from house to house, no one was answering. so we kept walking and kept knocking. One sister was so sweet, she invited us halfway through our search for people to her house for some Christmas cake and kind conversation. It was definitely a spiritual and sugar boost, one that I sorely needed. We talked to one older women for a long time, but because I was feeling discouraged it was difficult for me to understand what she was saying. Even though we were not having too much success, we were excited for an appointment that night with a nine year old boy, Filipe, that wanted to be baptized on Sunday. We needed to teach him several more things before his baptismal interview, so we were planning on teaching him Friday night and Saturday night at the chapel. But last minute his mom called and canceled our teaching appointment. We were worried that Filipe wouldn't feel prepared to be baptized, so we spent the night trying to sleep with this heavy burden of worry. Saturday was harder because of the lack of success from the day before and on Saturday. It was really hard on Sister Moura, and she was able to open up to me how she was feeling. As she spoke, I realized something. We live in a beautiful apartment. We have umbrellas to keep our heads dry and shoes to keep our feet dry. We both have families that love us so much and are supporting us from home. We have an awesome ward with people that are so amazing. So why were we focusing on the bad things when we had so much good in our lives? This was an important lesson for me because yeah, those days were hard and yeah, sometimes I thought that people using their agency to reject our message was my fault, but we can still have joy when things are hard. Just because someone didn't want to listen to our message doesn't mean that our message disappeared from off the face of the earth. It's still there, and I can still receive comfort and strength from this gospel. I've been reading the Liahona a lot lately, and one phrase that struck me in my heart of hearts was "He doesn't want you to try harder, He wants you to turn to Him sooner". What a beautiful thing to remember! Why would we try harder to improve ourselves in our own strength when we can turn to the Lord for help and improve 10 times faster, 10 times easier, 10 times more lasting? I'm grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and that I'm able to see His hand in my life, during and after the fact.
 |
| Here´s a picture of the family! His older brother Nycollos was able to baptize Filipe! |
Plus, this week ended on a spiritual high! Filipe was baptized on Sunday, and it was an emotional, tender experience. He has two older brothers, one currently serving and the other preparing to serve, and a mother that has been prepared for baptism for ages, but her husband doesn't want to get married. When we've taught him, he's been very shy and I was worried that he was being baptized because it was what other people wanted; but when Filipe came out of the waters of baptism, his smile was bright and genuine, and I knew that he truly accepted this wonderful ordinance and he understood it's significance. I'm grateful and humbled to have been a part of such a wonderful and personal event for him, and I know that when we invite people to hear this message and they accept and are baptized, there is no greater joy. Not only that but after baptism, the temple is opened and new, spiritual opportunities can available to them. I know that this gospel is of Jesus Christ, and His church has been restored and that we have a living prophet that receives direct revelation from God. He loves us all, and we can all feel this exalted love when we turn to His son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and follow his example of charity and gratitude. In His name, Jesus Christ, amen.
Sister Carlson
No comments:
Post a Comment