March 30, 2015

 

Have you ever been so happy that you have had to cry? I have. 

 

This week was one of those weeks for me. I have been pondering alot this week about pleasure versus happiness. I have come to find out that we live in a world of counterfeits and imitations falsely labeled happiness. But I have truely found happiness. I am so grateful for this time in my life to be a missionary and to know what happiness is. eternal happiness. I can now see that before my mission I was searching for happiness in what really was just moments of pleasure. So yeah Im just plain HAPPY!!! 

So I´ll start off from the beginning of the week and work up to the HUGE miracle that we had! So we had zone conference with our mission president this week and it was a HUGE spiritual upboost for me! Except I think the president has something against me because he always chooses me to speak! I have had to talk in almost every single conference we have had! I woke up that morning and was super nervous and felt like it was going to be me who had to talk and sure enough it was! The spirit warned me ;) But it was a good opportunity. I think i have to speak everytime because there is alot that I need to learn and the spirit always teaches me when I am in front of everyone speaking. So it was a great conference. We talked alot about working with the members and the spirit was really speaking to me and I knew that we needed to work better with the members here. So I got an idea to do something fun to help the members want to work with the missionaries. So we are doing "member of the month" we made a huge poster and hung it in the church and the members can earn points for things they do for example everytime they give us a reference they earn points or if they go out with us to teach for an hour they win points. At the end of the month we are going to put the picture of the winner in the church. I think it will work! Another thing that the spirit taught me in our conference is the importance of working with goals. One of the elders who is going home this transfer got up to bear his testimony and was crying through the whole thing and he told us that if he could give us advice it would be to set a goal of what we want to achieve. Ive set goals throughout my mission, but after this I decided I needed to be more specific and work with numbers. So I went home and set a goal in my journal of what I want to achieve at the end of my mission. And that goal is now always in the back of my head when its cold or hot or Im tired or we are being rejected. I really can feel it helping me be a better missionary and its helped me work even harder. 

So that brings me to the title of my email...how your mission is, so will be your life. I realized this week that the mission really is like the MTC for my life. I am learning so many things....how to be a better member of the church, how to share my beliefs, the importance of obedience, the importance of not judging others, hard work, setting goals and working hard to achieve them, love for my savior...I could go on and on. So if my life is going to be like my mission im in for a real treat because I LOVE my mission! 

Alright so now I will get to the miracle of the week! and It was nothing short of a pure miracle. So Roberto, our investigator that is 14 didnt have permission to be baptized. We had no idea how we were going to do it, but hermana jara and I planned his baptism before we even had permission or asked him if he was ready. We just felt like we needed to put the goal to have a baptism saturday. So prayed all week. We  went to his house one day and finally found his mom there! we asked if we could talk to her and with lots of prayer and scriptures she finally said that if he really wanted to be baptized then it was his decision! we were so excited! so the next day we went to visit him, and he seemed different and said that he didnt really know if he wanted to be baptized right now because he was on a soccer team that plays soccer on sundays. We left not knowing what to say because we finally had permission but he didnt want to. So we prayed and decided to call the young mens president. We asked him to go visit Roberto thursday night and help him out. So we showed up right after the ym president left thursday night and roberto walks in and the first thing he says is "hermanas I have good news and bad news what do you want to hear first?" So he says "the bad news if Im going to quit soccer, the good news is Im going to be baptized THIS saturday! I want to be a teacher" he says with a HUGE smile on his face "I want to pass the sacrament" We were so happy we literally screamed! It was the best moment of my life! So we didnt have alot of time to plan his baptism and we had to have his interview friday night. We still didnt have his form signed by his mom so that was a huge struggle but she finally signed it. Well the day of his baptism comes and I am nervous as can be because it seems that satan likes to work harder the day of baptisms. Well roberto showed up and we thought that was the biggest of our worries. But no. Right before the baptism, his mom sends us a text and says that she doesnt want him to be baptized until his grandpa comes back so that he can do the baptism. We didnt know what to do. We were scared that if she said he had to wait he would get discouraged and not want to do it again. And he was already in his baptismal clothes! Then she calls and is super mad and wanted to talk to the bishop. So we give the phone to the bishop, and I grabbed hermana jara by the arm and said "we have to pray!!" so we went to find a room in the church and we knelt down and prayed our HEARTS out! I have never prayed with so much faith in my life! Well in the end, we had the baptism, even though I think his mom isnt too happy. But everything worked out and he was confirmed the next day! And he recieved the priesthood yesterday! it was a great day! I know that our prayers were truly answered! 

Anyways that was just one of the miracles we had this week! I am so sad that my time here in guemes is coming to an end! I never want to leave! But I think i will be getting transfered next monday! we will see! 

Well I love you! thanks for the love and support! 

hermana stewart