Hey
everybody! How the heck are you? I am SO good. Why? because God is SO
stinking good. Have I mentioned that before? Well, it`s because it`s
true.
Let me
just focus on the highlights of the week:
Thursday,
we had leadership council with President in Montevideo. That`s where all of the
zone leaders and hermana trainers in the mission go and we receive extra
training and information that we have to pass on to the other missionaries.
There was nothing overly exciting that happened (well I mean, nothing exciting
if your not a missionary. A lot of mission numbers and new direction for how to
do things. So for me, super exciting!) But all I can tell you is that the Lord
is COMPLETELY hastening His work, more and more every day, and especially in
this little corner of His vineyard in this part of South America! It was really
amazing. We were able to see what we`re doing well as a mission, and what we
can improve on. I went with a question. My question was "are we doing the
Lord`s will in our area?" because we`ve been working hard without a whole
lot of fruits, but I wanted to make sure He was still pleased with what we`re
doing. And I was definitely able to see where we can improve, but the Lord
showed me that we`re doing our part, and He`s happy with us. It was a sweet
tender mercy.
On
Saturday, we decided to fast. We fasted for only two things: to find new people
to teach, and a baptism. We went out with some members that day, and while we
were with one of them: Hna Lula, a capa, the lesson we had planned fell through
but she had mentioned to us before that her sister lived close by, so we asked
if we could go see her. Well her sister wasn`t home, but her nephew was. His
name is Juan and he`s 20. When we asked him if he had ever talked to
missionaries or knew much about the church, he said no and that the
missionaries always walked by and were nice and said hi, but never talked to
him. Importance of talking to everyone! So we taught a part of the first lesson
and set up to go back this week. Please pray for Juan!! But our prayer was
answered. We just wanted to find ONE person, and we did exactly during our
fast.
At the
end of the night on Saturday as we said our prayer for planning, I felt
inspired in the prayer to say "bless that there be just one investigator
at church tomorrow who is ready to accept the Gospel." But we don`t have many,
so we didn`t really know who. Gabriela is still having struggles with drinking
and we hadn`t been able to see Rene since Monday because he was gone.
But
THEN, we`re sitting there in sacrament meeting, and I look over to the other
side, and guess who I see? RENE. He came to church ALL by himself. I showed my
companion and we both just cried because we were seriously so happy. Fasting,
WORKS. He said after that he just felt like he need to go and told us to make
sure we go by. GAAAHHHH. RENE. So please pray for him. But you guys, my comp
and her old companion found him like, 3 months ago, and he`s never gone to
church. And yesterday, he just "felt" like he needed to!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
So the
past couple weeks I`ve also been pondering a question. I`ve been wondering
"even if I didn`t extend and went home next week, is my work accepted by
the Lord?" I`ve been talking to Him a lot lately with that question. Well,
today, my best friends aka Belèn and Valentina, the two young women from
Rivera, are here for the day to visit me :) And so obviously I started to
asking them about what`s been going on in my ward in Central Uno and if there`s
been baptisms and things like that.
Well,
if you go back to my emails from Rivera, you will hear a LOT, and I mean a LOT,
about NORMA, the mom of a member. With my first companion in Rivera, hna
barrios, we started teaching her, and i worked with her my whole five months
there. She made amazing progress while i was there but the baptism just didn`t
come. i was a little bummed, but told her daughter, maribel, that before I am
home in the states, her mom would be baptized.
And
today i cried and cried and cried when Belèn and Vale told me that this last
SATURDAY, TWO days ago, Norma, someone who i love so so much, entered the door
to the path of eternity as she was baptized. They told me that both her and
maribel mentioned me and hna barrios in their testimonies at the baptism, and
that it all started with us.
it
gets better! if you go back through my emails, you will also find several weeks
talking about MIRNA. She is (was) a super evangelical lady who me and my
third companion, the OTHER hna barrios, found while contacting. Mirna had an
amazing beginning. She accepted everything from the start. She felt the Spirit.
She said she saw a light the first time she prayed in the way we taught her, as
if she was joseph smith. And then the doubts started to come, and her priest in
her other church was causing interference, and we fought and prayed and studied
and dedicated SO much time to this woman! And then after i left the hermanas
left her because she stopped progressing, but then mirna went back to her own
church, and it was there that she felt it...there that she felt that she WASN`T
supposed to be there. That the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST was where she needed to
be. And so Mirna went to church, and she will be getting baptized on February
28. And i cried and cried and cried when Belèn and Valentina told me that, too.
In
those two simple ways, the lord answered my question. "yes, i accept your
work." And it is such a sweet tender thing to know that not one, but two
seeds i planted, has already been harvested. and i don`t say that to brag of
myself, because it`s just like Ammon says when he speaks of the succes he and
his brethren were able to have after so much work and sweat and tears:
I was
filled with such a sweet peace, knowing that even though i haven`t necessarily
seen as many fruits on my mission...well, i have, but of a different
kind....that doesn`t mean that i haven`t fulfilled the purpose the Lord sent me
here to fulfill. And I say that for everybody: A lot of times, we aren`t going
to know why we`re going through a trial, or why we`re in a certain place or
calling or work that the Lord has sent us to do. But we can be filled with a
surety, that even if WE never know, the Lord does, and we will be able to look
back at the end of our own harvest, and see the fruits we have reaped, and the
seeds we have planted for others to reap, and PURPOSE of the Lord which we have
fulfilled. I know the Lord lives and He loves us. He loves all of His children,
and He is SO, so patient, just like He patiently waited for Mirna and Norma`s
time to come, and just like He always will for every other child of God.
Time
is going by faster and faster, making me more and more grateful that the Lord
permitted me to extend and spend time here in this beautiful little corner of
the universe, with these beautiful people, a little while longer.
But
don`t worry, that doesn`t mean that I don`t love you! I love you! I love
you!
Hermana
Dolan
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