Living below our privilege

Large Plates 

It was the craziest week of my entire life and this time I actually mean it. 

Wow, ok. I don't even know where to begin. This entire week felt like the best dream ever. It was so incredible that it literally doesn't feel real. 

Pday was a blast. We played football all morning, which was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Then we got all cleaned up and went over to Disney Springs. A nice member bought us all slushies from the coca cola store. I also found a pillow like the ones at Grandma & Grandpas house!

We started off the week with some much needed changes. We changed the way we do District Council, and we got a new vacuum!!! The combination of the two really started us off on the right foot for the week. We finally had clean carpet and we had a clean mindset! We definitely hit the ground running.

I'm not even going to bother writing about the middle of the week because WOW this weekend was wild. Basically Facebook finding was super successful this week so we constantly had a huge pile of DMs to respond to and we never had the time to do it. We were working through a bunch of them Friday afternoon, while simultaneously soaking up some sun, when we got a call from an unknown number. We answered it and it was this lady whose uncle passed away this week. Apparently he was a member in our ward but he was completely inactive and even the Bishop, who has been in this ward since he was a kid, didn't know who he was. She told us she wanted us to come over to her house and teach her and her entire extended family about the Plan of Salvation. She's Catholic. So is her whole family. We had no idea what to expect going into it, but we agreed to go over the next day. More on that later ;)

We caught up on our messages (for about 1 minute before they started filling up again), grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed out to meet our friends Rocio & Victoria for a lesson! They love going on walks so they asked us if we could go on a walk with them instead of coming over to have a sit-down lesson. Obviously we agreed. I love walks (shoutout to Shay-my walking buddy .

We met them at a local park to go for a walk and it was so much fun! The trail we were on goes past a bunch of lakes and jungly forests. Rocio was reasonably scared an alligator would come chase us haha. She and I got to talking about what we've been teaching her and her daughter Victoria and we had the sweetest conversation ever. They prayed about the Book of Mormon this week and they received an answer to their prayers. They never knew you could ask God a question in your prayers! She was so excited to keep seeking personal revelation and getting more in tune with the spirit. I told her prayer is what led us to knock on her door a couple months ago! 

I love Rocio and Victoria so much. They feel like family to me. I can't wait to help them continue to progress. They have so much potential. 

The walk didn't end there either. The sun was setting as a storm rolled in and the vibes were absolutely immaculate. There was tons of lightning in the distance and the wind was blowing like crazy and then it started raining. So, there I was: in a flowy yellow dress (yes mom. The package arrived this week. Thank you!!!) and my Keens, running with my companion and the people we are teaching, through a forest and past the alligator-infested lake, in a lightning storm. I've never been happier. 

So yeah, that was Friday. Saturday was equally, or perhaps more, chaotic.

We started off the day at a Salvation Army volunteer breakfast. Basically it was just an event to thank all of the volunteer groups who help with the Salvation Army projects. They had a choir of middle aged women singing love songs between the announcements of awards haha. The event was actually so good!! The Church was given a few awards which might not sound very exciting but it was! Even just a few years ago the Salvation Army in Orlando wouldn't work with church members or missionaries, and now they recognize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as one of their partners! It's been really great to work with the Salvation Army for the last 6 months and do our best to shine a good light on the Church. 

Then we came home, did as much of our studies and planning as we could, between sessions of helping our neighbor move out. 

Up next we had that funeral/Plan of Salvation lesson thing! We still had no idea what to expect going into it but you guys. It was so awesome. We went over and got to know their family. There were about 10 family members there and they were all so nice! We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and they had the most amazing questions and we had such a fun and uplifting conversation. They were so grateful that we came over and they told us they love us and they gave us yummy food (which is actually another form of saying I love you). They insisted that we come back after they get back from their trip to Miami. They sent us home with an avocado and some yummy sauce as a token of their gratitude. I adore all of them. And! They all came to church yesterday and they loved it! I definitely have a lot of hope for them in the future. 

We ended our Saturday off with a bang. We went over to a member's house for a birthday party! In case you haven't picked up on the culture of Hispanics in Orlando yet: a birthday party is just a rave with a bunch of food. We got to their house and there was a DJ and a fog machine and loud music and they moved their furniture to make a dance floor. And of course, there was more food than you can imagine. It was so fun and our ward mission leader and his wife taught us how to dance haha. Also the food was excellent. 

The highlight of my Sunday, besides the sacrament, of course, was actually our English class! Victoria helped us teach it. And by "helped" I mean she stood on a chair at the front of the class and drew pictures of all of the vocabulary words on the chalkboard. It was iconic. Sacrament meeting was also so good, and dinner at Bishop's house is always one of my favorite parts of the week. I love Bishop's family with all my heart. 

That's just a snippet of the fun I had this week. But you guys. I'm so so happy. The spirit was so present and miracles were just pouring down all around us. Life is so good. 

Small Plates

Living below our privilege 

This week we learned a little something about living below our privileges. By that I mean we finally got a new vacuum and it changed our lives. 

As dramatic as that sounds, I mean it. I've lived in this same apartment for over 6 months and when I got here I was told "the vacuum doesn't work very well." And then we left it at that. 

But new vacuums exist! All it took was us asking the right person if we could have one and boom. We had one the next day. 

All this time I've been living below my privileges because I've never bothered to hope for something better. 

Rocio and I actually talked about this on our walk on Friday night. They go walking at this park all the time, but they never took the trail that leads you past the lake and through the forest because they never bothered to hope for something better. But then we came along and introduced them to something new! They loved it too. It completely opened their eyes to the possibilities that they had been missing out on.

We also talked about prayer, and all of the possibilities that come along with it. She had been taught all her life that there is one specific way to pray and basically if you said anything else it didn't count. Or God didn't hear you. 

Is that not so sad?

She had been living below her privileges for so long! 

We taught her and Victoria a little while back about how to pray. We explained to them that God loves us so much and He wants to hear from us. We can tell Him our thoughts, worries, gratitude, anger, needs, wants, questions, or whatever it may be. He loves us like a good father does. Because that is exactly what He is. He is a Good, Good Father. He is the Perfect Father. And because He is a perfect Father, He wants to make us happy. That's what makes Him happy. So that's what He does. 

Asking Heavenly Father a question in prayer was something totally new for her and she was so pleasantly surprised by the spirit that touched her heart after she prayed about the Book Of Mormon. She was so excited to keep praying this way, without repetitions and feeling free to say or ask about what's on her mind!

She had lived so long without ever bothering to hope for something better.

I think we can all learn something from that. I definitely needed to learn something about learning below my privileges. Last week we were kind of in robot mode. Our missionary work wasn't as inspired as we wished it was. But that was us living below our privileges.

All we had to do was go to our Father in Heaven and ask for something better. Ask for what He wanted to give us all along. We asked Him to guide us to the people who needed to hear this message and He did just that. 

I don't even have words to describe how many miracles we saw this week. I wish I could write all of them down, but there just aren't words to describe it all.

The crazy thing is all we had to do was ask. 

Hope for something better.

Seek and expect miracles, just as our dear prophet has instructed. 

And then wait. They'll come.