First transfers everrr, and where am I headed?!
Rohnert Park, California!
No joke, that was probably the LAST thing I ever expected. I just kind of assumed I'd sty put here in Novato until I got my visa, and then I'd get shipped off to Argentina. It just seemed easier that way, because let's be honest. Everyone--literally EVERYONE--figured I'd just be around for a couple weeks. Buuut...Yeah, it's been a little difficult apparently. I definitely have a LOT to learn in this upcoming transfer (I leave tomorrow! Que loco.), though. I'll be the first to admit that I am going to be sufficiently humbled. My senior companion is Hermana Wallace, and she came out WITH me. So she's got 12 in the mission, and I've got a whoppin' 13. We'll be follow-up training each other, and it is gonna be...Crazy haha. It's just been intersting this last week. I've realized that my Heavenly Father blesses me with just about EVERYTHING I ask for--Argentina, California, etc.--BUT...I think He also knows that I must learn patience very thoroughly. Because I always have to wait for these things. Had to wait to receive my reassignment, and I'm continuing to wait for Argentina. Things are always in His timing. We m ake our will to be His will by accepting His timing; erasing our timetable and allowing Him to make our's for us...
Fact: I've oddly gotten a strange attachment to...wait for it...FLOWERS. Yeah, I know, crazy, right? I'll find one that I like and just stick it in my hair, since I always wear my hair up haha. But yeah. It's fun, though. (:
I've been thinking a LOT about something lately, and I'm thinking it's going to be a mission-long/life-long thing to accomplish. Missionary and Real Person Balance...Think about it. Almost everyone hates it when some solicitor walks up to them or knocks on their door and tries to talk with them or offer service to them. Yet if just a neighbor or someone else walked up to you to help you carry your groceries in, your bond would click almost immediately. You have a deep gratitude and love for them...I'm trying to find that balance. I can't solely by Shelan Lybbert, because I'm such an imperfect human being; but I can't solely just be Hermana, because hardly anyone will want to listen and connect with me. I've got to learn how to be Hermana Lybbert. Show my little imperfections, let my investigators know I'm a real person, yet I'm also there to help and serve and teach them.
Example: Ilse. One of our investigators. She was struggling SO much with believing Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw God and Jesus Christ. We had talked about it a couple times, and by the time we left...Our spirits were down. We admitted to having little doubts. BUT...We went in search for our answers, and we FOUND them. We found these answers, and then we PRAYED. After we prayed, we felt that reassurance of love and truth. That Joseph Smith, though a young boy, saw God, the Father, and Jesus Christ. That God restored the same church and priesthood authority from times of old to our day now--through Joseph Smith...Once we explained our own fears and doubts to Ilse, she suddenly came alive. "Mande?! Tienen dudas sobre esto? Pero recibieron respuestas? Otra vez?"...We all bore testimony, and it was so powerful. Our MOST powerful testimony is nothing rote and nothing prideful. It is when we are REAL. Honest. Ourselves. Truth. Showing our true insides, showing that we are people. Ordinary people, out to share this Gospel.
OKAY! Now for some more pictures. :D
-This is a great bunch of missionaries, the San Rafael South Zone! Boom. Last district meetings. Triste.
-This is Ilse!! RIGHT after the bomb lesson I just explained. She is absolutely incredible, and her two boys are DARLINNNG. The little one? Samuel. Sammy. Samuelito. Kills me every time I say his name, because he is SO much like MY Sammer Bammer back home. (: Loves to Trista and her fam!
-Missionary car wash! Seriously, we did probably 20-25 church tours while the elders washed their cars for free. Loads of new investigators and potentials!
-Letting those on the streets about the car wash. (;
-Hermana Zurita! Honk if ya love Jesus. (;
-After the zone car wash. (:
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