Well Hello Folks,
Here we are at another Monday before transfers, and you guessed it, I am getting yet another companion. Hermana Miller is going to open an area with Hermana Jacobson my trainer! :) they're going to have the best time. Adventures for days. Who will be my new companion you ask? Well one does not simply know who their trainee is until transfers..... :) that's right, I'll be training this transfer! Crazy talk right? I am actually really excited and though I feel a lot of responsibility, I don't feel nervous, I just feel really peaceful and calm about it. And what a lucky trainee, she's coming to Rockford, the promised land! Hermana Miller and I joked that she was going to write a note to the new missionary that says this scripture "Nevertheless, [Hermana _________,] [Hermana Simmons's] firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain" and then tell her good luck since she got me as a trainer. Haha but we decided we better not. But I am excited. I will tell you all about her next week. I think this will help me grow a lot as well. I will miss Hermana Miller a lot. She is an amazing missionary. Plus we talk about Harry Potter together a lot at night.....so that's always a plus.
As for the rest of the week. Well it was quite a week. On Tuesday we spent most of the day in the hospital with our member in Freeport because she can't speak English, so I got to translate for her. Learned some new medical words. She is going to be okay. She has so much faith. She asked us to find someone to give her a blessing, and the only people nearby that were available only speak English (which she can't understand at all) and she said it didn't matter, she didn't need to understand, that wasn't what mattered. It was really awesome. It was a cool blessing too. I translated it for her afterwards.
Then best day of the week, Thursday, Elder Gay of the seventy came and visited the mission. He is amazing. Everything he said just hit my soul. Plus it was zone conference so we were with my old zone and that means I get to see people I love so much like Hermana Santos, and Hermana Jacobson, and Hermana Lewis, and Hermana Figueroa, and lots of other great missionaries. And I was able to find out about all my old investigators :) love them sooooo much! Amazing baptisms coming up in my old areas! :) but back to Elder Gay, here are some highlights from the notes I took:
-Christ always deals with the individual- the most important thing for these people to hear is exactly what God wants them to hear.
Hermana Miller and I have been focusing so much on that this week. Only saying what we know, by the Spirit, that God wants these people to hear. We have seen miracles. People that we had no idea what to do with, or people that didn't want to let us in but did, or less actives who felt the fire start again. It was amazing. They only need to hear what God wants them to hear.
-I need to get out of my own way. Anything that stands in the way of Gods will is an enemy to God. Are we standing in our own way? We need to submit completely to the will of God and get out of our own way. He taught this principle using the story found in Matthew 16. Specifically v.23 which is when Jesus tells Peter "get thee behind me satan". He said anything that gets in Gods way is Satanic.
Sidenote: hearing Elder Gay talk was awesome because he is such a good teacher. He opens the scriptures in ways I never would have imagined and uses stories to teach everything and he teaches with power and authority. It's awesome.
Okay anyway.
-Listen to people. Really listen, seek to understand them and teach them the things of their soul from a place of understanding. Teach them what they need to hear. How we teach matters as much as what we teach.
-Heavenly Father has sent us as missionaries to answer people's prayers. We are their deliverers. We don't show up on their doorstep by accident. We share with them the gospel of deliverance that allows them to access the enabling power of the atonement.
-He taught a really cool lesson as well, he told this story of a blind man he knows who was the first blind man to ever climb Mount Everest. And he has now climbed most of the prominent mountains in the world. He now teaches other blind people to climb mountains. One day Elder Gay was talking with him and this man told Elder Gay that 90% of accidents happen on the way down from the top of the mountain. When people relax, and get casual. Elder Gay then used this to show us that our goal is not to reach the top of the mountain (baptism this person, finish our mission, get married, or whatever else) our goal is to return home safely. Home to our Father in Heaven. We get home by continuing to be anxiously engaged, continuously repenting, and pressing forward. It's not about not making mistakes, it's about continuing onward and getting back up. It was a really cool illustration.
-Examine yourself: the spirit will tell you who you are, everything you are, what you're doing right, and what you still lack.
At the end he just told us to accomplish the mission the Lord sent each of us individually here to preform so that the Lord doesn't have to send someone else. Don't go home not knowing what the Lord sent us here to accomplish and having accomplished it.
Elder Gay was really inspiring. I just felt so enlighten and ready to work. I learned so much that will help me be a better missionary.
I love being a missionary. This is the greatest thing I could be doing with my time. I am learning things that are sinking deep into my soul and I know are going to change the rest of my life. I want to get back home to my Father in Heaven and that is settled in my heart. I'm willing to pay whatever price is required to become who the Lord wants me to become and fulfill the purpose the Lord has for me in the mission and in my life. I hope you will too. It starts with excepting my Book of Mormon challenge. I have heard back from some people who are going to do it. What about the rest of you? Let me know!!
Well I can never express adequately how much I love you. But I love you. Fight the good fight. Please.
Love,
Hermana Simmons
No comments:
Post a Comment