So this was a pretty great week. One might say, an epic week. We had some epic battles between good and evil, we had zone training, mission conference, used tons of miles, and put some peeps on date to be baptized, plus had an amazing Sunday!
Warning: this will be a long email. So I'm saving the best for the end (you'll be rolling in the floor laughing) so you have to read it :)
So I might as well start at the beginning, on Wednesday we went to zone training (if you don't know what zone training is, ask a return missionary, or ask me someday...basically it's a meeting). So to understand this story we need to flash back to last week when I wrote you all about being positive and such. Well I wrote about that same topic to President Fenn(we write our mission president an email every week). Okay with that in mind, flash forward to zone training, first speaker. President Fenn of course, he starts by saying, "recently a great missionary in this zone wrote me a brilliant email about the power of a positive attitude, and that's what I want to talk to you about today"...yes, best moment of my mission, president Fenn quoting things from me! But he talked all about being positive, and not giving into negativism and deciding that it doesn't matter what the past has been, the future is going to be better. It was a really good meeting. We learned a lot. Also, in case there was confusion, I wrote that brilliant email! It was pretty cool.
Okay, so Thursday we went to a city in our sé llama Freeport, it's about 45mins away. We go there about once a week. There will be pictures to tell you about this day.
Friday was mission conference. I will send lots of pictures :) I got to see all my past companions :) I love hem all so much. They have all taught me so much and helped me become the missionary I am. I wouldn't be who I am without each one of them. Anyway, this zone conference was dedicated to the Book of Mormon because Sunday was the anniversary of the Joseph Smith receiving the Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni. Basically a pretty big deal. So we talked all about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. And in case there was any doubt, I want to let you know that I love the Book of Mormon so much. I have read it a lot of times since being on my mission and every time I read it I know I have come closer to my Heavenly Father and my savior Jesus Christ. Without the Book of Mormon we would not know of the covenants we must make with God in order to be saved. I am so grateful for this book. I encourage all of you to read it everyday. Anyway it was a pretty awesome meeting. I love president Fenn so much. He is a great mission president. The best mission president.
Then we had such a good Sunday. I have to preface Sunday by saying, I have been feeling kind of burnt out lately because I feel like I am trying to move mountains like I am trying to do the impossible. I feel like I work so hard to love people and get them to accept the gospel and they don't. They just throw it away. I know that the mission has changed me and been an immense and external blessing in my life, but I'm not here for me, what about them? What about the people I am here to help? They're not changing. They're not coming unto Christ through the waters of baptism. So these are the things that have been running through my head lately. And on Sunday during sacrament meeting I was just thinking more about this, especially because we have two member families we are helping and we have experienced some major disappointments with them and keeping the commandments lately. So I was just sitting there thinking, How do we help our members understand the need to repent? Understand that there is nothing more important then to keep the commandments and persevere to the end. They will end up in a lake of fire and brimstone if they don't choose to follow Christ in this life, right now, while they have the time! It really breaks my heart because I love them, and they just don't get it, and I don't know how to make them get it. How do I spark their testimony? What words could I possibly say that they haven't heard before, but that are going to make a difference? How can I make sure they really feel my love, and by feeling this, open themselves up to feel God's love. To recognize that He is real! There is nothing more important then to repent and come into him. Anyway, then we went to classes, and all of these members were at church which was great. Both classes were just so exactly perfect for their needs. I mean they brought down the hammer on repentance and keeping the commandments no matter what. They talked about obeying every word that God says. So in relief society a member named Hna Brito taught. She is one of those members that is active and then less active, and then active and on and on. So in order to understand this story we need to flash back to about two weeks ago.
Hermana Miller and I were headed somewhere when instead we decided to stop and visit Hermana Brito because we hadn't been able to see her since I have been here. At this point I hadn't met her. Anyway, she ended up being there and let us in. This was an unplanned activity, so we didn't have a lesson prepared or anything. We started by just talking about the normal, seeing how she was doing and such. My companion asked her how her reading and praying was going and she said, 'not as well as it should be' (it's always weird to quote people because they speak Spanish and I am quoting it into English. Haha) but anyway, so we kind of talked about this for a minute, and my dear, sweet companion opened up to a scripture she was going to read, but during this same time I felt a little thought come into my head that I knew I needed to act on. So I stopped my companion(it wasn't rude, and she wasn't offended) and then I said to Hermana Brito, (also in Spanish) and said "Hermana you know all the things we are talking about already. You have heard all of this a million times, so why aren't you living them? What is stopping you?" And in that moment the whole mood of the lesson changed. She had been kind of like yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear it about everything we had been saying, but in this moment, we all knew that hit her heart. She just stopped and she started to open up to us and tell us all about what was going on, and it was so cool. We were able to have a really powerful lesson with her after that, and my companion shared her scripture and it touched her heart. Then at the end she prayed and it was so powerful. She just sobbed for a few minutes before she could get words out, and it was one of those moments where I had to offer a silent prayer of gratitude that The Lord has blessed me with a testimony of prayer that I had never doubted because of my parents, and that he has allowed me to be an instrument in His hand as we sat there and felt this women coming closer to him because of a question. Anyway, super cool experience.
Now flash forward to Sunday:
Hna Brito is teaching the lesson in relief society. The lesson is on obey every word of God. And to start she shares with them the story of us coming to her house a few weeks ago and how when she opened the door she was like 'oh greats the hermanas, just who I don't want to see' and then she tells the story I just shared with you, and talks about how Hermana miller was about to share a scripture with her, and in her head she was like 'great, I'm sure j haven't heard this before' and then she says, her companion (me) must have noticed, I am sure she noticed because she steps her companion and then she asked me a very powerful question, and she quoted me when I asked her why she wasn't living the things she knew she should. And she told all about how it impacted her so much. The fact that it impacted her so much is a tender mercy to me. Because all during sacrament meeting I was thinking about what I could possibly say or do that would be any different then everything these members have already heard. But I did say something that touched her heart. The fact is we can make a difference. Through the Holy Ghost. For example in church we never learn anything different. Just like the lesson Hna Brito taught was saying, God doesn't say anything different very often. But sometimes it hits us differently and more fuerte and that changes our lives. Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers and send tender mercies our way. He brings things to our memory. He lets us know he is listening. That he cares about us and loves us. That I can make a difference. I just loved that so much and it helped me so much.
Anyway, now to finish with one last story. My companion wrote this to her frail explaining our battle against evil.
Caution: if you aren't sitting, SIT DOWN. also, use the bathroom before you continue reading or you will pee your pants. Remember my companion wrote this, so when she says 'I' it's Hermana Miller talking.
We have had some crazy adventures together. One of which happened the other
night.
We were finishing up planning for the next day. Hna. Simmons went to
grab something off the table and then she screamed. I bolted up. I
look to the AC and I see this GIGANTIC spider! I mean HUGE! It was
brown and it had long thin legs and those disgusting big pincher teeth
and eight black beady eyes. And there it was, staring at us, right
next to my desk. Naturally we drop everything and devote all our time
and attention to the killing of this spider.
Like I said it was massive, so we really didn't want to go folding up
a thin piece of toilet paper and try to snatch it up. Plus Hna.
Simmons said it was a jumping spider and I just had visions of it
jumping to my arm, then to my face and then sucking out all my blood
and killing me. You know, it should be illegal for spiders to be able
to jump. How fair is that? They are already freaky, try having one
come flying at your face.
We decided to try to vacuum it up. We struggled with that for a
little bit, mostly struggling with who was going to do it because we
were both freaked out. Finally I took the vacuum and sucked up all
the cobwebs, but then I realized that it wasn't even sucking, so we
messed with that for a little bit. I'm pretty sure that demon spider
was watching us thinking to himself, "what are those idiot humans
trying to do?" Because we were struggling. We couldn't tell if we
sucked it up after a while so Hna. Simmons yanked out her flashlight
and shone it at the AC. We couldn't see it. "No wonder we haven't
gotten any baptisms! Satan has been watching us!" She said as she
shined it deeper into the AC. Then she says, "Hna, I seriously think that spider
came from hell." I agree. It popped out again and then we both jumped
back screaming, hugging each other.
I've decided that I'm condemning all spiders to the telestial
kingdom. I just can't believe that our loving Heavenly Father would
create such a horrible creature. Then we discussed the idea of
spiders being good before the fall and Satan changing them to be evil.
We left the AC alone but after we calmed down, the demon spider
reared his ugly head. Then a few other spiders crawled out of he AC.
Apparently the demon spider had offspring. Great. Hna. Simmons turned
to me, "do you think 'get thee hence satan' will work?" We tried to
suck him up as we said that, again no luck. By now it was like 10:45pm
but we felt like this was an acceptable excuse to break our curfew.
Besides, I don't think either of us could get any sleep without first
killing The satan spider. Besides, it seemed to like the dark, so I
really didn't want to think about it crawling around the house in the
middle of the night. I just feel like it would magically end up on my
face and then I would cry and be scarred for life.
We decided to turn on the AC, because we just barely started getting a
lot of giant spiders crawling around. So we turned on the AC and
waited. Then we heard this horrific crunching sound and I'm not sure what
exactly went through our heads, but I think it had something to do
with our imminent death, because we ended up shrieking again and
flying back ten feet, hugging each other. Man I wish we would have
recorded this. I feel like it would be hilarious to watch. My
night.
We were finishing up planning for the next day. Hna. Simmons went to
grab something off the table and then she screamed. I bolted up. I
look to the AC and I see this GIGANTIC spider! I mean HUGE! It was
brown and it had long thin legs and those disgusting big pincher teeth
and eight black beady eyes. And there it was, staring at us, right
next to my desk. Naturally we drop everything and devote all our time
and attention to the killing of this spider.
Like I said it was massive, so we really didn't want to go folding up
a thin piece of toilet paper and try to snatch it up. Plus Hna.
Simmons said it was a jumping spider and I just had visions of it
jumping to my arm, then to my face and then sucking out all my blood
and killing me. You know, it should be illegal for spiders to be able
to jump. How fair is that? They are already freaky, try having one
come flying at your face.
We decided to try to vacuum it up. We struggled with that for a
little bit, mostly struggling with who was going to do it because we
were both freaked out. Finally I took the vacuum and sucked up all
the cobwebs, but then I realized that it wasn't even sucking, so we
messed with that for a little bit. I'm pretty sure that demon spider
was watching us thinking to himself, "what are those idiot humans
trying to do?" Because we were struggling. We couldn't tell if we
sucked it up after a while so Hna. Simmons yanked out her flashlight
and shone it at the AC. We couldn't see it. "No wonder we haven't
gotten any baptisms! Satan has been watching us!" She said as she
shined it deeper into the AC. Then she says, "Hna, I seriously think that spider
came from hell." I agree. It popped out again and then we both jumped
back screaming, hugging each other.
I've decided that I'm condemning all spiders to the telestial
kingdom. I just can't believe that our loving Heavenly Father would
create such a horrible creature. Then we discussed the idea of
spiders being good before the fall and Satan changing them to be evil.
We left the AC alone but after we calmed down, the demon spider
reared his ugly head. Then a few other spiders crawled out of he AC.
Apparently the demon spider had offspring. Great. Hna. Simmons turned
to me, "do you think 'get thee hence satan' will work?" We tried to
suck him up as we said that, again no luck. By now it was like 10:45pm
but we felt like this was an acceptable excuse to break our curfew.
Besides, I don't think either of us could get any sleep without first
killing The satan spider. Besides, it seemed to like the dark, so I
really didn't want to think about it crawling around the house in the
middle of the night. I just feel like it would magically end up on my
face and then I would cry and be scarred for life.
We decided to turn on the AC, because we just barely started getting a
lot of giant spiders crawling around. So we turned on the AC and
waited. Then we heard this horrific crunching sound and I'm not sure what
exactly went through our heads, but I think it had something to do
with our imminent death, because we ended up shrieking again and
flying back ten feet, hugging each other. Man I wish we would have
recorded this. I feel like it would be hilarious to watch. My
maybe it doesn't sound funny, but it was.
"I'm sorry Hna." Hna Simmons said after a minute of calming down, "I
just heard that crunching sound and I was just like, "well crap we're
dead.'" We went over to the AC and waited. We're pretty sure the
crunching noise was satan. We sent him back from whence he came.
I still think it's hilarious how freaked out we got when we heard
the crunching noise. It's like we were expecting the demon spider to
come launching himself at us like a screaming banshee.
So that was our epic battle.
"I'm sorry Hna." Hna Simmons said after a minute of calming down, "I
just heard that crunching sound and I was just like, "well crap we're
dead.'" We went over to the AC and waited. We're pretty sure the
crunching noise was satan. We sent him back from whence he came.
I still think it's hilarious how freaked out we got when we heard
the crunching noise. It's like we were expecting the demon spider to
come launching himself at us like a screaming banshee.
So that was our epic battle.
(Also earlier that day I had seen the spider webs and assured Hermana miller that they were just cob webs...man was I wrong)
Well I love you all so much. Fight the good fight!
Love,
Hna Simmons❤️
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