This week was adventurous, as usual. On monday night we decided it would be a good idea to clean out our ghetto fridge. The ice from the freezer was taking over, so we left it to defrost all day. We got home from pday adventures and teaching at night and our entire apartment was a lake. I guess it should have been common sense that melted ice = lots of water. So anyway, we mopped it all up, but the freezer was still super full of ice, so i was trying to figure out what to do about it. Suddenly all these huge ice chunks kept breaking off and I felt like I was in the titanic. Our apartment was wet for days.
On Monday we had a family home evening activity with the whole ward. The bishopric put us in charge of it, and we planned a way sweet activity with our ward mission leader. It was going to be the event of the year. We had a huge turnout of investigators and members and everyone was super stoked. We were supposed to start at 8pm, but the ward mission leader was late. And then the lady who was going to bring the dvd player decided to come without it. And then people started getting all ansy. And we had absolutely nothing to do. A half an hour passed and we had nothing. I was wishing a little bit that I could call my mom because somehow she always comes up with this amazing activities on the fly. But mostly we just sat there with stupid looks on our faces and wondered what in the world we were going to do.
We finally told the guy to start the meeting with a hymn and prayer and we`d have it figured out by then. Next thing we knew he turned the time over to us to share a message. I randomly opened up to a scripture and blabbered on about some boring thing. And then some other random people shared other spiritual thoughts. And then we had to run home to be back by 9:30. It was the absolute worst activity of the century. And then the weirdest part was everyone was RAVING about it the next few days. They loved it! What the. I am still baffled by that. I thought everyone would have gone inactive after that dumb thing. Whatever. I am still convinced the only saving thing was that we brought popcorn. Lesson learned. Refreshments make or break an activity.
We spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital for exams and checkups and random things this week. The doctor thinks I have something weird happening with a disc in my back, so I had to do a KT scan the other day. It is not easy to stay still for 15 minutes. I felt like I was in a video game with all the weird beeping sounds that were happening. My back isn`t really killing me, just a mild pain. I just wanted to get it taken care of early on to make sure there`s no long-term damage.
Probably the biggest thing I learned this week is how fragile we all are...physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc. Life is so unpredictable and we are all subject to so many things that break us. We do everything we can to strengthen ourselves in every respect, but we can`t prevent everything. We don`t know what will happen tomorrow or in 10 years or in 5 minutes. Life requires so much faith and confidence that if we are doing what is right...making the small choices every day that lead us on a good path...everything will work to our benefit. God is constantly taking us exactly where we need to go. He gives us the challenges and opportunities we need to become the people he knows we can be. We can choose to accept those things and learn as much as we can and become better for it, or we can become bitter and wonder why the world is against us.
We got the call last night about changes. It`s such a weird experience to have the destiny of your next 6 weeks determined by a little phone call on a Sunday night. I don`t think I will ever get used to it. Both my companions, Hna Kendell and Hna Falls got changed to different sectors. Hna Falls is going to Machala and Hna Kendell is opening a sector with Hna Needham (my old companion) in Milagro. They are both incredible missionaries and will tear it up wherever they go. I am so lucky I got to serve with them for 6 weeks. I learned a crazy amount of things from them. I feel like I could have served with them for a lifetime and still not learn everything that they have to teach me.
So. Yet again I have another companion. And guess what. I am training again! Ha. I keep wondering why God trusts me so much. I feel like I am corrupting all the poor new sisters when I train them! I always get so nervous that I am setting the wrong tone for the beginning of their missions or that I am too much of an airhead to have all the responsibility on my shoulders.
I was thinking this week about how crazy it is that in life we usually choose our destinations (for the most part). We choose our majors and our jobs and how many kids we`ll have and who we`ll marry and where we`ll live. But in the mission all of that is left up to the Lord. He sends us where we need to go. He puts us with a companion that we need to be with. He sets everything up for us perfectly so we can learn everything we possibly can. I like that. I like that my life is fragile and unstable here. It is forcing me to trust Him. Always.
I also learned this week that as humans we are so weak. We try so hard to do all the right things and we run so fast in a thousand different directions. It is amazing to me to see so many investigators and new converts who change their lives so drastically to follow the Savior. They read. A lot. They go to church. They pray. They do everything. (well, some. not all.) And yet sometimes they still fall. They`re still human.
Andres got baptized a week ago, and in that same week some cousins came to visit. Naturally they went to know Guayaquil (I dont know how to phrase that in english. conocer guayaquil? no sé.) and that led them to a dance club. With alcohol. Andres thought he was strong enough to resist the temptations because he reads the Book of Mormon more than anyone I know. But he fell.
He lied to us for a long time about it, but we could tell something was different. But slowly he recognized how miserable he was and did everything to fix it. It was amazing to watch him pick himself up out of sin and turn to the Lord and ward leaders to repent. It was the power of the atonement at its finest.
We are so breakable. Sometimes we fall into temptation without any intention to. But for some amazing reason the Lord still loves us. He still invites us to change. He invites us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep going. Probably we will fall again, but He will still be there. He didn`t suffer in Gethsemane or on the cross for nothing. He suffered so that we can be free from the chains of sin and of misery. I was so grateful to see the humility of a broken heart and a contrite spirit relying on the healing power of the atonement this week.
Sometimes at night when I write in my journal I am so exhausted that I can`t form an understandable sentence. Here is the latest exerpt from my journal: "KTscan on my back today. Hopefully it all turns out okay. I`m sure it will. I wish I just had a magic carpet. likewoulni..." I woke up 15 minutes later and looked down at my paper and had zero recollection of writing any of that. Great. I am going clinically insane here. I apologize in advance for being so weird when I get home.
Welp. New adventures and a new companion to corrupt this change. No doubt it will be full of all kinds of wild adventures. I think she is from Panama, but I`m not sure.
Love you all more than dying easter eggs and eating 50 pounds of chocolate in one day.
Have the best week of your lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment