Hey
everybody! I hope everybody had a great week! I know I sure did!
So the
first really great part was on Tuesday. President Smith has made a HUGE
emphasis on us always making sure we are working with members. Our mission even
has it`s own Key Indicator in addition to all the rest, which are "Hours
with Members." He`s not just interested in how many lessons with have with
investigators with a member. He also wants to know how much time we`re actually
with them contacting, visiting less active members, etc. So anyway, the week
before in district meeting we talked about also making sure that we`re working
with the leaders in our ward. The bishop, the ward mission leader, heads of the
organizations, and the ward missionaries. So we decided we were going to do
better with that last week.
We
started out going out with one of the ward missionaries who we had never gone
out with before, Mirta Cal. She first went with us to Vovo, which was really
good because Mirta is also an older lady who has been a member for a long time.
Vovo spilled a lot of really deep questions about the eternities and things
like that that she had never talked about before because she didn`t want to
"scare our young minds" haha, but she told all of them with Mirta
there. One of the best parts was when the subject came around to temples. Mirta
told her "you need to go to the temple and seal yourself with your
husband!¨ (Vovo´s husband passed away awhile ago). And so Vovo goes "Yeah,
here`s the thing. I don`t want to.¨ And Mirta said ¨why is that¨and Vovo yells
¨Because eternity is TOOO long to be with a man!¨ Hahaha we all seriously died
laughing. Haha I know it`s kind of sad what she said, but so hilarious. I love
that crazy old woman.
We
invited both Mirta and Carmen Cascallares, the other ward missionary, to a
lesson with Norma, Maribel`s mom. We started teaching about the Book of Mormon.
It ended up being a longer lesson because both Carmen and Mirta like to talk
haha, but it was I N C R E D I B L E. The Spirit was so strong, and we just
knew that Norma felt it. Carmen and Mirta testified over and over again about
the Book of Mormon. I heard Carmen say at least 3 times ¨this is a book that
changes lives.¨And it is SO true. I can`t imagine that lesson without the two
of them there. They were perfectly comprehending but also direct with Norma.
Norma`s husband passed away a long time ago, when he was only 29, and she never
got remarried. Mirta brought up the opportunity to be an eternal family, and
how she needed to be able to go to the temple to be with her husband and with
Maribel. Maribel was relatively quiet during the lesson, but then towards the
end said "I just wanted to thank the four of you for saying to my mom what
I`ve felt the past two weeks I`ve needed to come and be direct and say to
her--that I need her. I need her with me at church, and I need her and dad with
me in the eternities.¨ Carmen also siad ¨You know i have always tried to
fulfill my calling and I pray every day for the Lord to help me find missionary
opportunities. And I never understood until today why the past few weeks, I
kept seeing Maribel`s face.¨ She cried. We cried. Norma cried. And she
said she would pray about a date for baptism. I seriously love them so much. I
feel the truth and power of the Book of Mormon, and I especially have a
testimony of the importance of the members and missionaries working together.
The members have SO much power, because they see things that us missionaries
just can`t see. These Uruguayos have so much faith. More faith than I ever saw
in my whole life. And the ones here in Rivera have such a fire and desire to
share the Gospel.
Also,
so we live in a pension behind a member`s house. She rents out 4 or 5 little
places there in the back and we live in one of them. The other day as we were
leaving, she stopped us and told us she had talked to one of the people who
lives back there, and that she wants to listen to us. So we set up an
appointment for last night, and it was amazing! We taught the Restoration of
the Gospel, and she was just so open and receptive and hungry to learn. She
said she had always seen us talking to Luz Cal (the member) and we looked
friendly and that`s why she had been given the desire to listen to us. She
really seems so prepared. Her name is Annie. And the best part? I saw in the
directory last night that her name is Annie R. Yeah, shout out to my best
friend who gets home from her mish next week! Your mission lives on here in
Uruguay haha. So please pray for Annie!
The
Lord is teaching me so much every day. It`s amazing what a rollercoaster even
every day in the mission is. I constantly feel more and more how much more I am
learning from the people here than what I am teaching them. And how much the
Lord is teaching me. About the people, about the Gospel, about the Spirit, and
about myself. I love this Gospel, I love the Savior, and I know He lives. This
is HIS Gospel, it is HIS work, and I know that it is true. and I am so glad I
still have more precious time to learn even more about Him in this special
little corner of the universe. I am more and more determined to use every day
to do so. I`ve still got a heck of a lot to learn!
I love
you, I love you, I love you!
Hermana
Dolan
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