You might say that we choose our problems, but there are a lot of things that are unpredictable. But every decision that we make can be for our good if we continually rely on God. We can make a sour decision but God can take that decision and make it into something sweet. We have to be wise in our decisions but we also have to choose to accept the decisions that we've made. There´s always light at the end of the tunnel...every cloud has as silver lining. The trials that we have help prepare us for greater things.
Now for this week's update:
Monday-It was a typical P-day where we did everything that we needed to do. In the evening we paid a visit to Hermana O., (the young women's counselor). When we first got there it was just us, her, and the young women's president....but later the young women came and it was a success. From what I understand, there was a miscommunication and somehow she came to believe that the young women don´t love her....but because the young women came to visit her she came to understand that this lie wasn't true. The next day she held a young women's activity in her house. So the visit was a success! She has found new motivation and drive for the church. She wasn't able to go to church on Sunday because of work, but we´re excited about her future involvement in the ward.
Tuesday- We did some tracting in the afternoon. We´re trying to find new investigators since our current investigators aren't progressing. We've had to discontinue teaching quite a few..we´re really sad about that...but I´m happy to see that we´re helping the ward...active, less active, and inactive members. Later in the day we had more lessons.
Wednesday-After lunch we helped the primary presidency prepare for the primary program on Sunday. We made little flowers for the girls' hair and made a sign that in the end said, "I am a Child of God"...in Spanish of course.
This day we had our district meeting in the morning. The bishop was waiting outside with his car. He called me and my companion over and told us that he has a friend that he wants to visit with us and asked if we could. So we rearranged our schedule a bit to be able to go with him. Beause of that we were able to work with him for basically the whole day. It was a wonderful experience and it strengthened our confidence in him as the leader of the ward and it strengthened his confidence in us as missionaries in the ward. I´m very grateful for him and all that he´s done to help us, our investigators, and the members of the ward.
Thursday- We had our first lesson with a new investigator. It went really well and we learned his needs and how we can help him. When we left he went to give a kiss on the cheek to my companion and she didn't know what to do so she just went along with it. So when he did the same to me I didn't do anything. It´s something that´s just polite here and it can be offensive to pull away...but next time we´re going to talk to him about it and explain why that's not okay for us.
Afterwards we went to visit some less active members. And one of them came to church on Sunday!!
Friday- We had our weekly planning in the morning. Later, we went really far away to have a lesson that didn't work out. So we ended up tracting to find new people. As we left to go to the bus stop, a crazy young-looking guy ran over to us. It was pouringgg so he asked if he could walk with us to the bus stop. He didn't wait for an answer. He ran under my umbrella and walked with me all the way down the street. I felt super uncomfortable the whole time and had no idea what to do...ohhh awkward moments in the mission. In the evening we had a lesson with a less-active family and....they all came to church on Sunday!!
Saturday- We had our second lesson with A. He lives in a really dangerous area that we can´t visit without a priesthood holder. So we taught him in the street. This was the second lesson that we´ve had with him in the street. He told us that he wants to get baptized. So we set a date for the last Sunday of the month. He knows a lot and he´s really positive...but he didn't go to church on Sunday so his baptismal date might not be set in stone.
In the evening, we had a lesson with a less-active family and...they went to church on Sunday! They gave us fish, rice, and beans. They laughed about how I had no idea how to eat the fish...it was really thin and it had lots of bones...and I didn't eat fish before the mission...so the hermana gave me a nice big chunk of fish meat that didn't have bones in it...and told us about their family member that's four that can eat fish all by himself. I felt kind of ridiculous haha.
Then at 7 we helped with a baptism. We sang a special number and helped serve the dessert.
Sunday- Success with the less-active members! I was super happy about that. After church we had some super lessons...the last of which was with an inactive member...and...she said that she´ll come to church next week! Her mom is a less-active member and she has told us that when her daughter says that she´ll go to church she does...so we´re pretty sure that she´ll come next week.
At night we had dinner with some amazing members and they told us that President Ward is the new temple president here in Panama. He was my mission president. We´re going to the temple tomorrow. It will be really weird to see him there. I´m not really sure how this will affect all of the missionaries here. It seems like it would have a negative affect on the missionaries that miss him...but every calling is inspired of God so it has to be for the best.
Lots of love,
Hermana Hannah
No comments:
Post a Comment