Can you say STRUGGLE MOMENTSSS?! Freak. Satan truly knows where to attack and WHEN. It´s not like Hermana Cox and I struggled ALL the time, but we definitely had our moments. Lucky for me, I didn´t do too bad. A couple times, for sure. Sometimes you just do NOT have ANY clue as to what you´re doing or why you´re standing in the middle of some dead street, in the middle of the siesta. But I have SUCH a testimony of the saying,
"Forget yourself and go to work."
So that´s exactly what we did.
Appointments fall through? No big. Knock their neighbor´s door. Your investigator drops YOU? No importa. Find a someone else who is willing and ready to hear the gospel. Investigators don´t show up to church? Well...That does suck. And it makes us as missionaries look bad, BUT...What can ya do, no? Keep working.
So we wake up Saturday morning, and it´s kind of a struggle morning. But we choose to forget ourselves and get to work. We go clean the capilla and study and then head to our bishop´s house. We share a simple spiritual thought, and I choose to ask him what HE thinks we can do better as missionaries, to gain the trust of members, etc. And he sits there. Kind of stumped. All he says, "Hermanas, ustedes son trabajadoras. Los miembros las ven y ven su trabajo. Sigan trabajar. Eso es todo lo que puedo decir."
It was just what we needed. To feel like your work isn´t all in vain. That we ARE accomplishing things here in San Juan Centro...THEN...We had a recorrido at the capilla. A church tour. With a Menos Activo. She´s been a member for 40 years, went inactive 25 years ago for some ugly things that went down with members in the church. It´s bad, and her experiences are hard. But OH how she misses the church. We visited her on Friday and mentioned we could do a tour, and we ask her when she´d like to do it. She thinks for about 5 seconds then says with a burst of excitment, "MAÑANA." Oh! :D Okay! Haha. And wow...It was glorious. It´ll take her a little bit to come back to church, but she´ll come back. We walked around the chapel and then just sat in the sacrament meeting room. Peaceful silence. She closed her eyes and began to cry silently. "ÉSTA...Ésta es la que estoy buscando. Esta paz." I love her to death.
We then decided to go to the familia Ibaseta, just to see if they would be coming to church the next day. They´re a tough family, but we visited them earlier this week, and WHOA. Hermana Cox and I had an Alma and Amulek teaching experience. We mustered up all the boldness and faith we had in us and testified and promised blessings like nobody´s business...The entire family of 11, and then some, were sitting there listening and captured in what we were saying. We layed it all out on the table, and we asked him to say a very specific prayer, and we left...We show up Saturday, and we ask if they want us to come by Sunday morning. All Raul says, with so much determination, "Me voy a ir. No sé quien más quiere ir, pero YO me voy a ir."
FAHHH. I was blown away, but SO stoked. SO! Lo and behold, him, and 3 of his daughters came with us to church. (: Two gals went to primary, one went to Young Women´s, and Raul went to Priesthood. They stayed for all the meetings. The members invited them all to all sorts of activities, and to bring their siblings. One of the members set up to have a Family Night with their whole family...WHOA. It was incredible. This family...Gah! I love them. (:
Anywho!! This week has been nuts. And we normally would know by now where we´re going for the next transfer (transfers this week!!!), buuut the mission is going NUTS. It´s so sweet, because I got to see the missions in the states going nuts with loads of new missionaries, and now it´s just starting with our mission here! 35 new missionaries this week, and because of that, we won´t know until later this week when/if we´re being transferred!! FAH. Hermana Cox and I have been kind of hoping to serve just ONE more transfer together, because her and I both are "those hermanas" who have never had one companion for longer than one transfer haha. BUT...All we know for now is that one of us is training, most likely here in San Juan Centro, and the other is opening a new area! FREAKKK. Whatever comes, we´re stoked. (: We´re casi positive that we will be serving together as companions later on in the mission. But only time will tell. (:
That´s all for now, folks! **Pig chuckle from Looney Tunes**
-Hermana Lybbert
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