On the Lord's Errand

Friday – Hermana Christensen left us and went to Immigration. It is very sad because she is not with us anymore, but she will be great in the field. We still had fun though. We got to take a nap and then we washed our clothes. We went to La Tienda and bought some treats, had lunch and played volleyball – we got to play on sand! I’ve missed volleyball so much! The courts are sooo nice here! Then we had dinner and lessons about the Book of Mormon. We had a cool lesson on how to be like Nephi. I am feeling better about understanding the language and everything is going good.

Saturday we taught Jose again. The lesson was really good and we taught about covenants and having the Holy Ghost with us all the time. I was able to bear my testimony about how much the Holy Ghost has helped me as I am trying to learn Spanish. The Spirit was really strong and it was a good lesson.  And then I asked him if he wants to be baptized. He was hesitant and I kind of didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, my awesome companion jumped in and saved the day. And then he was like “Ok, I will be baptized.” I know it isn’t real, but it feels real and the Spirit is really there when we teach. It is awesome to know that we are teaching with the power of God while we are missionaries. And it’s also cool to learn how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and understand all of that better. Then we played volleyball. All of our 6 weekers leave tomorrow, 123 people are leaving the CCM. Crazy!

Sunday – We had a normal Sacrament meeting. We have all been preparing talks because we may have to speak every week. I was super stressed about it but my poor companion Herman Harvey, who bore her testimony last week, had to speak, play the music for our musical number, and lead the music too! She’s such a good sport. We sang a song in Spanish, Nearer my God to Thee. It was good. We watched a couple of devotionals. Elder Bednar talked about being more Christ like and focusing on the outward instead of the inward when things get rough. He shared a story about a lady who called him regarding 3 girls in their ward who had been in a car accident. She asked him to come to the hospital to help identify the bodies. He did not know that this sister was also on the phone – at the same time – with the hospital who said one of the girls that passed away was her daughter.  She was continuing to serve and help others even when things are bad. It just made me want to focus less on myself and really be a good missionary that looks to the needs of others. Elder Holland’s talk was super legit too. He spoke more about falling away after your mission. His theme was “Peter, if ye love me, feed my sheep”. He was saying like, “we are going to ask you to work hard! And we are going to ask you to study and pray, and we aren’t going to feel bad about it!  You are helping the children of God find Salvation. Why would we apologize about that?” He’s just so awesome! It totally pumped me up. I keep forgetting I am on a mission and it is so cool to be able to look down at my name tag and know that I am on the Lord’s errand. To be able to grow as a person and know my Spanish is getting better. Sundays are just awesome at the CCM and I love it all so much!