Walk in the meekness of My Spirit

Sister Peterson, Sister Miller, Sister, Tahbo during Hurricane Nicole

 

Large Plates 

Another hurricane, zone conference, and a temple tour!

This week was a very good, very strange one. Monday afternoon we received word that another hurricane was headed our way, and that we were to head to our apartments. We heard we were going to get roommates again! Sister Tahbo was coming back, along with her new companion Sister Miller! 

I'm going to be honest, we did nothing to prepare. We didn't even go shopping that day for our normal groceries haha. It's funny, when Hurricane Ian came through, I thought to myself, "why do people live here? If hurricanes pass through every year and you have to rebuild over and over, why bother building here in the first place?" But, when news of a second Hurricane came in, I finally understood the Floridians. The hurricanes have been crazy, but they make the world stop for a day the same way big snowstorms in Logan do. I suppose you just have to pick your poison!

The Sisters got to our place Tuesday morning, but at that point we were still allowed to go out and about, so we took them knocking with us! It started pouring rain while we were out, but we didn't let that stop us! In fact, I think it made us more successful! People were willing to talk to us, for the most part, and this nice Brazilian woman gave me an umbrella & told me I could keep it! The only downside is that I did shut my finger in it and will now have a scar that will forever remind me of my friend from Brazil haha. 

Hurricane Nicole lockdown started on Wednesday. That meant that, once again, we could not leave our house. This time around, however, we were allowed to proselytize! That meant we did so. many. video calls. Between lessons, leading a zone language study, training with the sisters we cover, and a devotional, we were on video calls for like 7 hours. My head still hurts from staring at the tiny screen all day.

The next day we weren't as fortunate to have as many calls. So, we spent 4 hours inviting people to our Spanish temple tour this weekend! To keep myself energized I was doing box steps on my study chair, which lasted several hours. My legs felt like jello for the next several days. Oops. 

On Friday, we were pretty much back to normal. We did spend quite a bit of time responding to the hundreds of people we had messaged the day before, but by the end of the day we were definitely ready to get back into missionary work, full swing!

But then, we spent 10 hours of our day on Saturday in meetings! I'm not complaining though, it was such a good day. We went to the Language Zone Conference, which, contrary to what you might think, didn't include the Spanish missionaries. There's a Spanish Zone, and a Language zone (which includes Portuguese & Creole). We got to go to the Language conference because we help out with the Portuguese sisters, and they asked us to give a training and help lead out the conference! It was 7 hours long, but it was so good. 

For my whole mission, Zone Conferences have been anywhere from 3-4 hours. But, this time they switched things up and had a role-play portion of the conference! I really liked the first portion of the conference, where we were all talking & learning from each other in English, but wow the second half was so cool. All of the missionaries were doing their role plays in Portuguese or Creole, and we just gave them the instructions  & sat in to listen to their role plays. I started in some of the Portuguese groups, because I can understand Portuguese (especially when it's an American speaking it). It was fun to get the gears in my head turning & have a chance to better immerse myself in the Portuguese language. 

Later on, I decided to sit in on some of the Creole roleplays. Something very strange happened. Although I didn't understand everything they were saying, I definitely understood what was going on. I have no idea how. I know like 10 words in Creole, and I'm sure if I said them out loud, I would be saying them wrong. Yet somehow, I knew what was going on in the conversation. And more importantly, I could feel the Spirit testifying of the words those Elders were speaking. In no way am I saying I think I can understand Creole. What I'm saying is that the Spirit speaks every language! So cool. 

After Zone conference, we went to a temple tour!! Our friend Graciela came!! She really liked it. We had another miracle, too! The Elders have a friend who is on date for Baptism in December, and he really wanted to come, but he doesn't have a car and the chapel where the event was being held is 30 minutes from his house. The Elders called so many active members to see if anyone could come and bring their friend, and nothing worked. They had pretty much given up hope. But! When we were sending temple tour invites out to people during the hurricane, we invited a super inactive member, and he said he wanted to come! He said he wanted to start becoming active again. That alone was a miracle. But then, we asked him if he could bring the Elder's friend and he said yes!!! They got there late but they had a good experience and how they can hopefully start to become friends and support each other in their learning:)

Small Plates 

Walk in the meekness of My Spirit

What did I learn this week? Phew, I learned so much. But, because I already spent so much time studying and preparing for the training we did in the Language Zone Conference, I figured I ought to share what I learned. 

First of all, I don't want you all thinking that I did all of the studying, and the research, and the teaching. We did this training together with maybe the 2 best missionaries I know. They're Elder Hawk and Elder Carrick, the Zone Leaders of the Language Zone. It was so awesome to work with them on the conference and the training. They are both spiritual giants and I learned so much from what they had to say. That being said, let's jump into this:

This is going to be written more for those of you missionaries, or soon-to-be missionaries, who read my emails. We gave a little training about the power and authority of our calling, and what that means we can and should do. 

As missionaries, we have been called by God, through His prophet, to preach the gospel. That's a big deal! What does that mean for us? We all came out here with different talents, and different weaknesses too. We're all different. But your skill set isn't what makes you more or less of a missionary. You have been called by God. That means you are 100% His missionary. You are 100% a representative of Jesus Christ. Nothing more, nothing less. It isn't so much about your abilities as it is about your willingness to do His will. 

In 1 Corinthians 2, we learn a little bit about Paul's missionary journey. Paul, who previously had used all of his social skills, eloquence, and charisma, to turn the hearts of the people away from the Church of God, says the following:

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

I love this whole chapter, but for your sake and mine, I'm just going to talk about these verses. This man, Paul, had the skill set necessary to convince people by the power of his words. But what did he do? He came unto the people in weakness. Humility. Diligence. Faith. Simplicity. 

He knew the power the Spirit had in conversation because he himself was converted by that very spirit. The Spirit is Who converts people. If we want to best help the people we teach and serve to come unto Christ, we must teach by the spirit. And in order to do that, we must live by the Spirit. Live worthy of the Spirit. I could dive into what it means to live worthy of the Spirit, but I think that's better determined on a personal level.  

So for those of you reading this email, missionary or not, this is the big question: how can you live more worthy of the Spirit? How can you gain a greater level of access to Godly power? Not only must we teach with power and authority. Rather, we must live with power and authority. We are all to represent the Savior in our every action. Thats a big deal. That's a lot of trust. And a lot of responsibility. But more than that, its a marvelous opportunity. 

I'm nowhere near perfect. I'm sure you all know that. There are a lot of things that I'm not,, and a lot of things I dont know. But what I do know is that this is His work, and He wants us to be a part of it. He allows us to be a part of it. Being a part of the Lord's work is so much more enjoyable when we don't try to get in the way, when we humble ourselves enough to see His plan and do His will. As we do so, the Spirit will be with us and He will touch the hearts of the people who have been prepared to receive this gospel.