THIS WEEK WAS SO CRAZY! I guess I will talk about my birthday first since that was probably the biggest event :) I AM 20 YEARS OLD. No longer a teenager, but still not an adult, so I don't really even know what I am anymore haha but I promise you I still feel like a baby. No one I told believed me when I said I was 20, people kept telling me I looked 15.... so there's that. BUT I will tell you about everything that happened because it was crazy!
So first of all haha my district leader called at 6:30 exactly to wish me a happy birthday, and they both sang to me- such a nice wake up call haha then we had zone meeting, and President showed up, and there was food and cupcakes and candy everywhere. Plus I learned some AMAZING lessons that I will talk about in a minute. People were SOOO nice!! I got muffins and cupcakes from some elders in my zone, then a massive candy card/poster thing from Sister Mulivai, and Hermana Perez had made me breakfast, and the ZLs brought lunch and cupcakes for everyone, and then our old ZLs brought me ice cream, and I got a couple other phone calls and bday wishes. Then at dinner, the member (Hermana Oviedo) made me some balloon flowers, and afterwards we went to the Serranos house and they threw me a party-- Hermana Perez shoved my face in a cake so that was exciting. And they bought me flowers and it was just an overall reallly really nice day! :) Then Sunday we celebrated again at the Lopez family's house, and they'd bought me a cake and invited the Elders over too-- it was insane. But enough about me! haha
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! I loved the drawings on the balloons and the notes and the Mexican Hot Chocolate (I havent tried the one you gave me, but we have people that make us hot chocolate with cinnamon sticks all the time and its SO good), I NEEDED THE WARM CLOTHES SO I APPRECIATE THOSE, I loved the drawings from TJ and Janaea :), the headband was a great choice Cassie!!, The CD is awesome I have heard from other people its great ha we havent put it on yet but it looks great haha, then the nutrimeal and moms little sticky note reminding me to eat healthy was awesome too! I loved everything thank you so much!! :)
So there were a couple of other really awesome things that happened this week-- I went on another exchange to an english area and the Sister I went with was even "greener" than me!!! She came out the transfer after me, and is burning up with greenie fire so when the two of us got put together, we went crazy haha we decided to blitz (I Think thats what its called) the area-- just go knocking all day. We set our goals, prayed and felt good about them, and then the next day we bundled up and went to work. She is in a biking area, so it was FREEZING, and we biked over to a neighborhood, and knocked for 2 hours without a single person letting us say more than 10 words without making us leave. It was UNREAL. Ive been out for almost 4 months and hadn't experienced that rejection before. I got very discouraged very fast, and the enthusiasm I had that morning left me. But Sister Mulivai still had it. She kept asking me if I felt like we needed to go somewhere else, so we prayed about it, and I have no idea even how to describe what happened next haha EVERYTHING just fell into place. I don't even know where we went or how we knew where to go, but we would just be biking along, then both of us would slow down and know we had to turn-- its hard to explain, but it was amazing. We met sooo many people that I know we needed to meet. We ended up reaching our goal of other lessons, and found people that I know weren't coincidences. One guy even told us, "I think you guys are a sign that I needed today to keep my faith- its been a really hard day, but then yall came and talked to me". It just felt like such a miraculous day!! The most miraculous by far was the one lesson we had scheduled. Her name is Jaylee, she is a 9 year old girl that has been being taught for a few months now. She lives with her grandma, who doesnt speak very much english, but Jaylee understands english and spanish-- So Sister Mulivai told me she wanted me to teach her in spanish.
We went over there, and I was feeling pretty nervous because Sister Mulivai doesnt know spanish at all, and she expected me to be able to teach a whole lesson to this girl and her grandma and carry out the conversations and everything... IT WAS SO AMAZING. Jaylee is this bubbly little angel girl, and the spirit was there while we were talking- We talked about Jesus Christ, and then I ASKED HER TO BE BAPTIZED AND SHE SAID YES. The grandma was more hesitant, but I talked to her in spanish and she opened up a lot and told me that whatever Jaylee decides, she will be able to do. Jaylee prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for ltting me come and asked Him for me to be able to go back. It was powerful, and I know I received so much help. Sister Mulivai cried and said even though she didn't understand, she felt the Spirit stronger than she had there before and knew that a spanish speaking missionary was what they needed in order to open up. She said Jaylee had said no she wouldnt be baptized in the past, but that I was the miracle she needed-- I dont mean for this to sound like I am high and mighty or anything, but it was a really powerful experience for me.
I wont be able to go back and teach her, but I hope that they are able to find what she needs in order for her to be baptized Dec 7th.
Hermana Perez was still sick this week, so we went to the doctor on Tuesday, she got shots and medicine and got put on house arrest by Sister Drake-- so i was able to leave Wednesday for exchanges, then was back at home all day Thursday, then left again Friday.
OKAY Real quick!! The lesson from Zone Meeting!!! It was about FEAR. I have been studying this so much lately, so when I heard about it at zone conference, it really hit home. I don't have time to describe all of it, but I will try to remember to describe it next week- One cool thing that Elder Brewer (our other Zone Leader) talked about, was that the way to overcome our fears is to look them in the face. Like the children of israel with the serpent-- once they were bitten, all they had to do was look at the serpent on the pole and be healed. But why a serpent?? Why not something pleasant?? Because they had to face their fears- He talked about how the pole that the serpent was on was representative of the cross, and our requirement to be healed is to place our fears "on the cross". To give them to the Savior and covenant with Him that we will face them- TRUST HIM and INCREASE YOUR FAITH and LEAVE YOUR DOUBTS AND FEARS BEHIND.
We have started doing a fear lesson with our investigators. We have them write on a piece of paper all their fears, and then we rip it up. We read with them Matthew 14 where Peter walks on the water, and testify of the power of faith in Jesus Christ.
One cool experience I had with that lesson (every time I learn something different) but we were teaching a Recent Convert that just moved into our boundaries. His name is Jaime and he told us when he first got here that he would be deciding this week whether he would stay in the church or leave.... that freaked me out. The next lesson we did with him was the fear lesson, and his biggest fear was losing his faith-- he feels like now that he is a new convert he has entered a whole new world and no one understands him. He doesn't feel like he knows enough to help anyone else, etc. When we did the fear lesson, I felt like I should share my experience at the MTC... haha I cried a lot when I was telling it, but I talked about how much the story of Peter helped me when I was struggling. Afterwards, he told me that it helped him so much to have hope and that the experience I said changed him and he would remember it forever. It was cool for me to see that even my weaknesses and doubts will still be able to bless the lives of other people as I learn to overcome my fears and rely on the Lord.
This week was so awesome. I felt so much love for other people and from other people! Thank you again for the package, tell Janaea happy birthday!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! Have a great week! :)
Love, Hermana Rogers
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