Christmas, my birthday, and the first week of the Spanish Zone!
This week was another crazy one. I genuinely feel like I don't remember half of the stuff that happened haha. But, here's the best summary I can give you:
Last Monday we decided as a district to celebrate Christmas pday. What does that entail? Well, for starters, we went to Ihop and ate so many pancakes. Then, we all changed into our Christmas pajamas, or the best version of Christmas pajamas that we could come up with. We all met up at the church in our pajamas and did a gift exchange(in which I gave 15 pounds of yams and received a tiny bible), talent show(in which I threw ice cream in a church gym and heard my zone leader rap about everyone in the district) and tron disk battle(the glow in the dark version). All in all, it was easily the best pday of my entire mission. I didn't take a lot of pictures but I do have some hilarious videos so if anyone wants to see them let me know and I'll send then your way.
The reason we celebrated so much on Monday is because Tuesday was transfer day! My companion, Sister Rowell, went to a different area (7 minutes away) and I got a new companion, Sister Peterson! I was sad to leave Sister Rowell after only having served with her for 1 transfer, but she's close by, so it's okay. And Sister Peterson is great! She's a hard worker and we have pretty similar personalities.
We are also now in an all Spanish district! We did District Council in Spanish this week and it was really great because we got to practice our skills and counsel together about more specific things that we are working on as Spanish missionaries. It's really exciting, I feel like a pioneer.
My 2 favorite lessons this week were with Alejandra, and Mayra and Sofia. Alejandra had been taught before, so when we met her we asked her what she remembered about what she had been taught previously. She then proceeded to teach us everything we teach as missionaries, it was awesome! She's honestly so elect and so prepared. The only struggle is that she works on Sundays, so she can't come to church. So please please everyone pray that she can get Sundays off and start coming to church!!
Mayra and Sofia are a cute family we met last week! Last week they let us right into their home and I got to teach them about the BOM (I taught them alone because I was on exchange with a missionary that didn't speak Spanish) and Sofia, the daughter, looked at me the whole time like I was a Disney princess haha. Then, when we came back on Saturday, Sofia had read 16 chapters of 1 Nephi!! We has another lesson and at the end they made really yummy hot cocoa and we ate Venezuelan cookies and they sang Feliz cumpleaños because it was my birthday and it was awesome.
The last miracle I want to share is about our friend German! I think I've already mentioned that a member in the ward gave him a job. Well, this week I found out that he not only gave him a job. He gave him his very job! The member literally retired so German could work. That member and his wife (brother and sister Bori) are both incredible people and it was good to get to know them better this week!
Small Plates
Diligence and Patience
With all of these changes going on in the mission, I have found it very easy to get overwhelmed, I'll be honest. And there has been a lot of change in my area too, and a lot of things are out of my control. Those of you who know me well know I prefer to have things under control.
So, what I've been trying to do to combat the stress is focus on 2 Christlike attributes: Diligence and Patience.
I'm quite the perfectionist, so at times it can be really hard for me to see how hard I work and not see any of the fruits of my labors. As I've pondered a bit on this problem I've been facing, my first instinct was "I just need to work harder."
That may be true. To an extent. But there is a limit on how hard any given missionary can work. No matter how hard I try, there are still only 24 hours in a day.
So rather than running faster than I have strength (or faster than I have time), the better option is to be diligent with the time I do have.
One of the missionaries I admire most is going home soon. But when I talked to him about it the last time I saw him, he didn't say, "I'm almost there!" He didn't say, "I only have x days left!" No. What he said is that he is so happy to have had the time here that he did, and that he's determined to keep working until the end. That's diligence.
That's how I feel about my mission, too. Or at the very least, that's how I want to feel. There's definitely ups and downs in that aspect. I've been here a while, and sometimes I catch myself thinking about what I'm going to do as soon as I'm done. But then I remember how grateful I am to be here. I only have 18 months to do this. And I want to make the most of it. I want to work diligently every minute of every day until they make me leave this place I call home.
But, even the most diligent missionary doesn't go their whole mission without a hard day, or without getting frustrated. That's where patience comes in.
I know there are a lot of things I can do to improve. And I'm determined to continue to do so. But that doesn't eliminate the fact that not everyone wants to hear my message. As unfortunate as that may be, it's just true. Or, it may be that there are people who do want to hear the message, but it's going to take them some time to grasp it, internalize it, and be converted by it.
That's why a patient missionary is a good missionary.
A patient missionary recognizes that God is in control of His work. I've said it before and I'll say it again for the rest of my life. God is in control of His work.
So, if He's in control, that means we are not. Does that mean we just sit back and wait for Him to do it all? No. A patient missionary does what they can and then sees the miracles.
He called me to work. He called me to labor in His vineyard. And I will be diligent in fulfilling that calling. Because I know that whom the Lord calls, he qualifies.
My companion and I are serving in a calling that at times I feel inadequate to hold. Sometimes I feel inadequate to even be a missionary at all. But then I remember that the reason I'm here is because I'm trying to be like my Savior. I feel like the best way I can articulate what that means to me is through a few simple words that have been coming to my mind constantly, almost relentlessly, this week:
"Here am I,
Send me."
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