Hello! How are you doing?! How was your week? I hope you are all doing well! This week was a really interesting week. I would like to thank you all for your emails asking about Cecilio and him baptism. Unfortunately it did not happen. I went on Exchanges on Tuesday afternoon and I left the area, while I was gone they went to see Cecilio and Bertha, his caretaker, and she was really not interesting in learning more. She doesn't like our church any more and says that it is too strict and that we ask too much of people. She doesn't want to have to be perfect. They tried explaining that we don't have to be perfect but she did not want to listen. When we stopped by on Wednesday evening Cecilio said that he will not be baptized until Bertha is baptized and I am not sure if that will ever happen. We were so sad about that. I was annoyed because when I went on Wednesday Bertha was acting super interested and like she was the perfect investigator. However, whenever we stop by without a member she is really rude to us. So, in the end we decided to give them a break. We will stop by in a couple weeks or so but hopefully they can feel the difference of the spirit that we bring and notice what it feels like when it isn't there. We are still praying for them.
On the up side... we got a new investigator!!! She called us last Sunday and asked us to stop by. She had gone to an English ward even though she didn't speak English and wanted to learn more. The missionaries gave her our number and we stopped by on Monday. She is amazing. I feel like I say that every time but this time it is true. She is reading the Book of Mormon, praying about what we teach, trying to come to church, and even re-reading the pamphlets that we give her! She says she wants to get baptized and after we explained that we need to teach her first she got excited and asked if we could come over twice a week. Her named in Teresa. She is a little older and is a cancer survivor. We are taking it a little slow so that we don't have the same thing happen as Cecilio.
As I mentioned earlier this week I went on Exchanges! I went to Palm Springs with Sister Dalton who is brand new in the mission. She is super fun! She is 6ft tall which is a big difference from the 4ft 11in of Hermana Jimenez. We are really similar and she helped me figure out some of the things that I have been worried about recently. We had a really good lesson with one of their investigators and we taught really well together. After that we had another lesson with an ex-member who wants to come back. It was rough. He kept talking and I felt super uncomfortable. I finally decided to take charge of the lesson and it worked for a little bit until I mentioned that as he acted on the invitations that we leave he will have a desire to be baptized. He got super mad at me and said that I was just assuming that he didn't want to get baptized, that I was falsely accusing him, and how terrible I was. I was stunned. For some reason it just made me frustrated so we hurried and ended the lesson and left. Wow. It was a little bit of a struggle but the rest of everything went well. I loved the exchange and I learned a lot from Sister Dalton.
This week Hermana Jimenez and I had an epiphany. We were having Companionship Inventory when we started talking about how we both felt like terrible missionaries. That isn't because we are doing anything wrong, but because nobody has told us that we are doing a good job. We keep hearing things that we are doing wrong so the missionaries have all started judging themselves really harshly. As the conversation continued we found out the whole problem of what is lacking from the missionary work here and also the problem for just about anything in the world! it is a lack of LOVE. Now, before you all think that I am crazy and that I belong in the 70's let me explain. We realized that as we feel loved, we become less critical and then we have the power to act. If an investigator doesn't have that strong love for God, he isn't going to want to change. If a missionary doesn't feel loved they become self-critical and unhappy. When government leaders have a genuine love for the people they act out of love for what would be best for the people that they serve. When we feel loved we become happier and better! Also, as we feel loved we strive to help those around us feel that love. I don't know if I am explaining this very well. But the answer is literally always love! Didn't Dumbledore say that in Harry Potter? We focus on it so often that we forget about it. It truly is important to help others feel loved so that they have a desire to improve and don't just tear themselves down. We are working on applying this in our missionary work and with other missionaries in our mission. Just helping them feel loved!
I hope that you all had a good week. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this time that I have to be serving the Lord. This is such an amazing experience and even though the work is a little slow, I am loving it. Thank you so much for your prayers and letters. I really appreciate them!
Love,
Hermana Clarissa Morey
No comments:
Post a Comment