Hola mi familia!!!
Hey, so this email might be relatively short,
because I have to send a whole bunch of pictures to someone for our departing
slide show...:( haha but I have a lot to tell you so sorry if it's a little
jumbled!
First of all, CHRIS! Chris is our new investigator
who is amazing. He speaks both spanish and english perfectly. He was a hand off from the sisters in a family ward, and he
actually ended up being a former we have in our area book! He has been taught
before and they oymed him on the way to an appt and he said he had been taught before
and he was supposed to be baptized. We had two lessons with him this past week. We taught him the Restoration and we had a church tour with him. We also put
him on date to be baptized for the 7th of February. He is so awesome and really
open and willing to change. His issue is that he is struggling to forgive
himself for the things he has done in the past, and he feels like he isn't
worthy of forgiveness from God. From that, he also said that he feels like
every time he tries to get close to God, everything in his life goes wrong and
he just feels angry and frustrated. I honestly think that comes from his
inability to forgive himself and his feelings of unworthiness because he wants
God, he wants light and truth in his life but he doesn't feel like he deserves it because of his past. Which isn't true at all. We are going to focus on
repentance and the Atonement with him a lot. That being said, he didn't
come to church yesterday and he hasn't contacted us today at all, despite our
texts and calls. A ver...
Also! TIM CAME TO CHURCH!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!! He
started his new job and he came to all three hours and he loved it! He is also
going to FHE tonight so hopefully we see a lot of progress from his efforts to
be involved:) He is awesome.
ALSO. We had a miracle in the branch this past
week. The elders were knocking doors on their way over to dinner (which was in
our area) and they came across one of the sweetest ladies ever. Her name is
Beatriz and she loved what the elders taught her so she came to church yesterday
and LOVED it. We are going to go by this week and start teaching her! MILAGROS.
The last thing I want to tell you about is the
revelation I received this morning. In the past few weeks I've been doing a lot
of reflecting (obviously). I've been striving to avoid trunkiness and thoughts
of going home, but sometimes they still come. Something that has been difficult
for me the past few weeks is having the fear of losing all I've become when I get home. I just have these little freak outs that not being a missionary
anymore, not having the mantle, not having the schedule or a companion, or
worrying about the salvation of my investigators is going to lead me to losing
all that I've gained on my mission. I've become a very different person in the
last year and a half. A much happier, more obedient, more spiritually and
emotionally sound person who has a real and strong relationship with her Savior
and with her Heavenly Father. I am far from perfect still, but I am really
scared that I'll lose all that I've become. I want to continue to progress
instead of reverting to the same person I was before. Does that make sense?
So anyways, I've had this fear in the back of my
mind for the past little bit and this morning we were reading some of "The
Fourth Missionary" in comp study and we read a part that hit my heart
hard. It says
"If you want light, intelligence, strength,
capacity, peace, contentment, grace, knowledge, power, happiness, mercy, joy
and every other good thing, then you may have those too. It is up to you.
Whatever you want. You cannot be spiritually changed against your will.
It is contrary to agency. It is also contrary to the nature of things. It just
can't happen". Hearing that took a great burden off of my shoulders. I can
CHOOSE to progress. I can CHOOSE to continue to apply the things I've learned
on my mission to continue to become the person God wants me to be. Becoming who
I was before cannot happen against my will. So empowering.
Anyways, that was a big eye-opener for me.
HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK, FAMILIA!!! I love you so so
so much!
Hermana Lattin
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