Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 4 / Nov. 8, 2010

Hola familia!

This week has been so crazy but really good! Norma went back to Mexico, which was sad, but she was so cute- we took pictures with her and she really wants us to visit her in Mexico. We told her that we'd send her information to the missionaries there, and she told us that even if they don't come by she's going to church on Sunday, because she already knows where it is and when it starts and has been wanting to go for a long time and just never had anyone to go with. We were also helping teach two brothers, Andres and Gilberto, but we ended up transferring them over to the elders so that they can help them better. The little brother is kind of shy when it comes to talking with girls. They were planning on getting baptized the end of October, but they will probably be baptized the end of this month. It was kind of sad turning them over, especially when they were the only people we've been working with towards baptism, but like I said last week we had that amazing miracle with Norma and then with Leavin, so it was kind of like Heavenly Father was preparing us for having to stop teaching Gilberto and Andres.

The miracles continued this week too. Sister Garza and I were about to get in our car and leave when I answered a phone call which made us stop, and while I was on the phone Sister Garza felt impressed to talk to a woman passing by with her cute little boy. Her name is Nora, and as they talked Sister Garza found out that she had just gone through some really hard depression because her husband had cheated on her and left her, and she ended up letting us in. She told us that she really wants to change her life, so we felt impressed to invite her to be baptized, and she said yes! She is so amazing, and she recognized that the hard experience she had helped her turn to God for help, and so even though it was hard it was worth it because it has changed her life and humbled her.

We also got to go to the temple this week, and it was so good! It was one of the best experiences I've had in the temple so far. I was super awake and alert, which is usually a challenge for me, and especially considering our session started at six thirty, which meant we had to be up by four thirty, but I was able to get so much out of it. I was praying and thinking in the Celestial room about what I need to do to really reach my full potential as a missionary, and I felt impressed to pick up a bible and open it up, and I opened up to Ephesians 4, and it was exactly what i needed. It talks about the importance of having charity, or Christlike love, and it made me think of Moroni 7:48, which has become my favorite scripture on the mission because it talks about praying with all of the energy of your heart to be filled with that charity, and then in the last days Jesus Christ will be able to recognize us because we will have become like him. i love it because it helps us to see the bigger picture and that goal of truly becoming more Christlike. Its not about just doing good things and doing everything you are supposed to, it is about literally changing who you are to become more like Jesus Christ, because that is what will make us the happiest in the end. I realized as i was sitting there that I had never truly prayed with all my heart to have that charity, and so I did and I felt different. I felt good, and I realized that I was missing out on what the atonement does for us, because i wasn't applying it to myself. I was teaching everyone around me how to use it and seeing them change their lives, but i wasn't changing my own, because I was still beating myself up over things and expecting myself to be perfect and trying to do everything on my own, and not really loving myself. Anyways, so that was my personal epiphany of the week. It helped me to realize how much i am learning and growing, and I just felt like finally! I'm finally getting it! I don't just understand it logically, but I'm actually feeling it in my heart, and because I was so hard and stubborn it took a lot of very difficult and humbling experiences to get me to that point. I still have a lot of things to figure out, but its finally all starting to click.

 I KNOW that the Savior loves us and that he wants us to be happy, and that he suffered for all of us so that we can overcome the challenges in our lives and eventually become like him and live with him and Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this mission and for everything I've been able to learn, and am so excited to keep working hard and enjoy all of it as much as I can.

Have a great week!

Hermana Dansie