Hey kiddos!
How was your week?! Good? Good? All good, everybody good? Perfect, that`s good.
I`ll just cut to the chase and explain the reason for my subject line choice, and why it is related to changes.
Ladies and gents, we have received changes and yours truly is headed tooooooooooooooooooooooooo
BACK TO RIVERA!!!!!!!!
Not. Even. Kidding. I am going back to the land of my birth! Well not EXACTLY, I`m not going to the ward Misiones (obviously). But I am going to Rivera Central Uno! According to President, it is one of the strongest wards in the mission and an awesome bishop. My companion will be Hermana Barrios from Argentina. She is also fresh out of training, so I will be another person`s second companion. I am so excited! I am going back to straight Portuñal. Rock and ROLL!
Okay so on to this week:
So I think I had mentioned briefly before this fireside that we were going to be doing. I know that a fireside kind of sounds like literally any old thing to us from the States, and especially to us folks from Utah ("the factory" as people here call it), but it`s actually something that had NEVER been done before in Uruguay. Especially something this big. we played some Mormon Messages, had some SUPER rocking testimonies from recent converts and people who were less active who have started to come back to church, about 8 musical numbers from us missionaries that we`ve been practicing 3 times a week for the past month, AND of course President Smith came and spoke. It`s something new that President Smith wants to start doing in every zone every six months. In a couple other zones they had just done it recently, but here in Artigas it was our first time, and then we also got to go to Salto on Sunday to do it with their Zone.
You guys.....I wish I could explain to you in words how unbelievably and indescribably amazing and life changing this thing was. I mean seriously.....amazing. It was amazing for us missionaries, but it was even more amazing to see the way that the words of all the messages, as well as the power of the music, were able to bring the Spirit in a way that it could touch so many people`s hearts that night. We watched people leave afterwards with faces stained with tears of joy. We all felt like the words we were singing weren`t our words.
And amazingly, we got to experience it ALL over again in Salto the very next day and watch how it was able to help people in a truly struggling stake. The people, they woke up.
We drove to Salto immediately after the fireside in Artigas on Saturday, so we got to go to the church in Salto on Sunday. The Elders there managed to get a woman in their ward to feed lunch to 7 of us Hermanas. Her name was Monica, and she sat down at lunch and told us her life story. And you guys, it is amazing! And so tragic, but the amazing part was her incredible faith and the way she has relied on the Atonement to let it heal her and has trusted in the will of God. The 7 of us said it was the "most inspired lunch ever" haha. You learn something from somebody every single day, as unexpected as it is. I wish everybody could meet monica, because she is seriously one of the most phenomenal people I have ever met!
One of the musical numbers we did was a special arrangement of Joseph Smith`s First Prayer. During the third verse, we just hummed it while one of the Elders stepped forwarded and recited the First Vision, as the first vision from the movie The Restoration played behind him. as we sang the last line, the words in spanish of "for he saw the living God", i felt it. I have always felt it and known it, but it was just this conviction that filled my being and wanted to jump from my bones. I know that Joseph Smith saw God, and he saw the Son. I think of those moments just before the pillar of light descended, in those moments as Joseph Smith and the Lord`s Gospel were both fighting together to be freed, once and for all, from the darkness. And now, the earth will never again fall into darkness. Because this is the dispensation that will not fail. I know it, and i feel it.
Us Hermanas also sang a version of I Know That My Redeemer Lives. I want you all to know that i know that He does. He lives, He lives who once was dead. He lives, my ever living Head.
My time in Artigas was way too short, but I know that everything has it`s purpose. I am thankful for my time here. It was really hard. I passed through everything. But the Lord molded me into a better missionary and a better person, and here I was able to come to learn to rely more on Him and do exactly what us missionaries teach people to do: endure in spite of difficulties, and push through. I am so thankful for the every so special friends that I have met here. They are eternal. I can`t believe it`s time for goodbyes again already, but I guess that`s just the mish. We will all see each other again someday, that I know for sure.
So I`m back to the homefront! Next weeks email from Rivera!
I love you, i love you, I love you!
Hermana Dolan
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