So this week has been pretty much the same as last week. In fact I have kind of been racking my brain as to what to write, so I don't bore you with the same things over and over. Weeks we have the car seem to just fly by. I am just it's Monday already?
So things in this zone have been kind of rough. No one has been have much success. We have zone conference on Friday. I am anticipating a lot of discussion on how we can step up. Hermana Jacobson and I had a long nightly planning last night where we just brainstormed a lot about how we can be better. How we can do more. How we can be more Christlike, and how we can teach better. So I'm kind of excited to start putting them in play and see how they work. We are missionaries.
We represent Jesus Christ. We can call down the powers of Heaven. So we are going to try a little more earnestly to do that. We are going to change the world.....okay maybe not. But we are going to try and change this area. Some struggles though.....working in a Spanish ward. Unless you have worked in a Spanish ward before, there is just no way to explain how different they are. White people wards are so much easier. Hispanics are not generally pumped for missionary work. I mean as in all wards we have our people who are just solid. But mostly they don't really see the vision. And there is SO much drama. I mean
Hispanic drama is wow. And it's hard when as missionaries, the revelation you think you are getting for people conflicts with what those(bishop) is actually doing. But that being said. I really love these people and things are actually starting to turn around. We feel like we are rebuilding the foundation in which to start adding new people to. We fasted and prayed a lot for our less actives and we have actually been having a lot of success with them. The chapel is starting to actually fill up. I mean given it starts to fill up 20ish minutes after we start, but ya know, what're you going to do? The whole Mormon standard time, yeah here it's Mexican standard time, and that's at least 15minutes later. Love them. Haha they have their little quirks. It's kind of funny. You just roll your eyes. Things like you show up to a dinner appointment and they have all the food prepared....for you to cook for yourselves....food that takes like
2hrs to cook. All dinner appointments are suppose to be like an hour. Yeah here, Good luck with that. It will be closer to 2. Or that awkward moment when you are late to a meeting because someone is telling you their BORDER CROSSING STORY, and you can't really cut them off. Seriously that should be on a meme. Or they says things like "cada ocho dias" (every eight days). Like I'm sorry what? There isn't
8 days in a week? No wonder they are always late, they don't know what day it is. Haha or they always say, "Dios primero" (God first) which in theory is great, except the say it to everything. Like "okay, see you tomorrow at church" and they respond with that, your like "okay?"
Haha Mexicans are seriously some of the strangest and greatest people I know. Usually everyone lets you in and offers you water, but the don't want to hear your message. But when it's cold outside, ya know, I'll come in a drink your 'abuelita'. They are so hospitable. Almost to a fault. You will be in the middle of teaching them and they'll just walk away for like 10minutes (which in a lesson is forever) and they just leave you alone..and then they reappear with food or drinks or something they just made. And your left there like remember when you walked away right after I asked you something. Haha they also tell you every single detail of their lives even the ones you don't want to hear. They are really good at that, going off on tangents. They either talk way to much or they just say "Si". But they are really good people here. They have good hearts and they're kind to us. I love them. I love these people. I am really glad to be serving among these people. I am glad to be learning Spanish. It is coming slowly but surely. Sometimes with some people it feels like I have almost got it. And then sometimes I am just like, "what is Spanish?" or "this isn't the language they taught me in the MTC".
Long story the mission is great, even when you get bad news and feel like you are one minute from walking in front of a bus (just kidding, but side note, in training you take this stress test and it asks you if you're feeling suicidal....like um no? So now we make jokes about that...probably shouldn't, but sometimes we have to work with what we got, we don't live super comical lives). But really it's interesting how on your mission, every thing feels more dramatic. Like bad things are bad. Good things are great. It's strange. But good cause it makes the highs that much higher.
Miracle of the week: yesterday at church, we are standing at the doors, greeting the members and in walks this investigator we use to teach. Just randomly. She was someone who we committed to a baptismal date and then couldn't get Sundays off and then she just dropped off the face off the earth and we couldn't get in contact with her. That was like my first couple weeks here. So anyway, yesterday she just randomly showed up to church and stayed the whole 3 hours, and then asked us to come teach her on Tuesday. Like seriously wow. It was awesome. I love her a lot. She is a really kind person and she always just gave us bags of food (sometimes we donated it). Her name is Ligia she is the one that said she had a vision about Joseph Smith and knew it was true. Don't know I told you about that. But yeah it was super awesome.
I love this work. It is changing my heart, my nature, it is stretching me, and making me grow, it is turning me into the person God wanted me to become. This church is true. The only true church. This church is the same church Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth. Restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. Because of this prophet of God, we have the authority to preform saving ordinances that enable us to return to live with God again, and be with our families forever, after death. If you really love your family how could you not want that? I could never be okay with until death. Then what? It seems so hopeless. I was there in the temple sealed to my mom and dad and it was inexplicable. There is nothing so beautiful. The blessing of the temple are real.
That is why I am here. That is why I 'sacrificed' a year and a half of my life, school, work, being away from the people most important to me, my family. This is why even when things are hard and I want to give up, I don't. Because this is literally eternal salvation. This cause is great, there is none more important. There is no sacrifice too great. This message is true, and it changes lives. It blesses your lives eternally. Those of you who aren't members I encourage you to
ponder and pray about my words. Even if you already have your opinions. What if what I'm saying is true. What if this is right, wouldn't you want to know. God will tell you, if you ask with a sincere desire to know. No one obligating you. Just a desire to know why a 20yr old (almost 21...March 18th) would give up her life to come to this freezing place and knock on doors of people she doesn't know. It's not because I had to. In fact, I already came home. I could have
just stayed home. It would have been a lot easier. I could have gone to school. I didn't. I choose to come, because this is true. I more than believe it, I know it. It has changed who I am, changed my heart. Many of you have known me through my darkest of days. I am different BECAUSE of this gospel. Ask yourselves why? Ask God why? Those of you who are members, I encourage you to share the gospel, that is how we show how grateful we are for these blessings in our lives. It is the responsibility of all of us to share.
I was reading a talk this week, I would like to share it with you, it's called 'The Atonement and the value of one soul' by Elder M. Russell Ballard. In it he says, "Brothers and sisters, I believe that if we could truly understand the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, we would realize how precious is one son or daughter of God. I believe our Heavenly Father’s everlasting purpose for His children is generally achieved by the small and simple things we do for one another. At the heart of the English word atonement is the word one. If all mankind understood this, there would never be anyone with whom we would not be concerned, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, or social or economic standing. We would strive to emulate the Savior and would never be unkind, indifferent, disrespectful, or insensitive to others. If we truly understood the Atonement and the eternal value of each soul, we would seek out the wayward boy and girl and every other wayward child of God. We would help them to know of the love Christ has for them. We would do all that we can to help prepare them to receive the saving ordinances of the gospel....We do not want God to weep because we did not do all we could to share with His children the revealed truths of the gospel." I know this is true. I encourage you all to read this talk it's awesome!
Anyway, sorry this ended up being so long. I start writing and I realize I have a lot to say. But side note I ate cow stomach this week....wanted to cut out my own stomach. Haha
I love you a lot. Your prayers are much appreciated. I am praying for you all. You're the best. Stay awesome. Fight the good fight.
Hermana Simmons
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