Tuesday, May 6, 2014

March 24, 2014 - ¡Oh, está todo bien!

There are some weeks in the mission where things seem to go smoothly...investigadores progress, keep their compromisos, people remember their appointments, miracles come right and left, and baptisms happen as planned....
This, was not one of those weeks.
We started out as normal, and then on Tuesday we had intercambios with the hermanas de Trapiche. I stayed in Dorrego with Hna. Sanford, and Hermana Enos went to Trapiche. I was super excited to have her come here, to show her the area and all of the amazing people that we´ve been teaching.
*We went to Raquel. It had been a while since we´d seen her, and her sister told her she´d tell her we were coming. No one knows where she went. (a few days later, she finally answered my phone call, and she told me she´d moved out of our area!!! Out of nowhere! The phone call cut out, and she texted saying ¨Here´s my new address, Come over and I´ll tell you the story.¨) 
*Silena. Her ¨step dad¨ who's not her step dad yet decided that she has to wait till September to be baptized with her little sister. So we haven´t been able to see them, and she didn´t get baptized this weekend. 
*Claudia. They´re still waiting on the divorce (it´s already been 3 years), but they´ve started to get busy again and we can{t ever see her.
*Pablo y Yamila. Both have faced A LOT of oposición from their MA familias, and got scared and for now they decided they don´t want to take the lessons anymore. 
*Elsy. We went by to see her, and she was in rare form.... turns out she´s got some mental needs. nothing serious.. but she doesn´t have money for medications or anything and so it makes things a little more difficult. She´s thinking of moving, because she{s not here legally, and she´s worried they might deport her. So we set up an appointment for the next day to take her to talk to the bishop. 

¨welcome to Dorrego??¨ 
así que, it felt like in a matter of just a few hours everything we´ve been working so hard for the last several weeks (months really) fell apart. Leaving me to wonder what it was that the Lord wanted me to learn.
I was happy to welcome Hna. Enos back, so that we could get to work on figuring out where to go. 
We´ve worked REALLY hard this transfer. We´ve hit the highest of highs. and then some of the lowest of lows. We set our sights and our goals high...and even though we haven´t been able to quite reach them all, we´ve grown a TON, seen a lot of miracles, and learned so much about what the Lord has in store for this area, these people, and for us. 

We went to pick up Elsy for her interview, and the lady she lives with told us she´d already left. We ran to the church, and she was there in the interview.We didn´t even get to warn bishop....
While we were waiting, I was practicing piano, learning the hymns, and everyone kept turning to ¨Oh, está todo bien.¨ (all is well??) telling me to play it. But I didn´t really feel like all was well.
After, bishop came out looking like ¨Not really sure what we´re going to do!¨, and we convinced Elsy to stay for the Actividad de la Sociedad de Socorro. 
One of the hermanas said we should sing hymn número 17 ¨Oh, está todo bien¨. 
So we did, and it hit me hard. Then for the spiritual thought Hermana Marina shared 3 Nefi 22:4-10... mostly 7 y 8 is what got me. Elsy was crying, the hermanas were crying, and I was crying. It was one of those moments where the Lord comes in and there´s that voice again ¨Did you really doubt that I love you? and that I´ve got this?¨

A few more days... and the lack of investigadores and sudden decline in our teaching pool made for a lot of finding, knocking, and lots of walking. 
Then weekly planning. It was tough to look at our numbers, and realize that this week was going to be quite a blow. especially comparada to the crazy highs we´ve been having.
The icing on the cake was in our weekly leadership reunión. We got up and didn´t have any baptisms to report, no fechas, and the majority of our awesome progressions had dropped off the face of the earth. The faces of the elderes mirrored how we felt inside.¨Oh, hermanas. Yikes. what a week.¨ But ultimately, we had to all step back and just realize that ¨Some weeks are better than others.¨ we all have them. 

Justo después, we had estudios. We were in chapter 4 of 2 Nefi. the both of us. I´ve always loved this chapter, but it came in a much-needed moment. I love verses 20, 26-28. and then going all back to verse 19. ¨I know in whom I have trusted.¨
I thought a lot about that. 
This week I´ve been really focusing on the atributos de Cristo. In Predicad Mi Evangelio under Patience, it says: 

¨Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God´s will and accept his timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. Patience is related to hope and faith--You must wait for the Lord´s promised blessings to be fulfilled.¨

I thought a lot about what patience really is...and with all that´s happened this week, I realized that it´s obviously something que me falta...I say I trust in the Lord, but that means working hard, and knowing when to put it all in His hands. and even, and especially when things don´t go as I think they should, trusting in Him completely sin ser ansiosa, frustrada. Putting my WHOLE faith in Him, doing my all, and then having the hope that he will make up the rest. 

Sometimes he makes you wait a little longer than is comfortable... but I´ve come to realize that he never lets you crash and burn completely...
* Nicolas y Roxana showed up to sacramental! all on their own.I haven´t seen them for over a month. Roxana told me that they´ve been ¨living in sin by putting other priorities above learning about the gospel¨. and they asked us to have a cita next Sunday.
* última cosa last night... we had a lesson with Mauricio e Ivana. After an awesome lesson on the true meaning of faith, and the life of Christ, Ivana said happily ¨We prayed... I´m going to sacar un turno (register to get married?) on Tuesday!!! We want the wedding to be the 25 of April!!!¨  SOOOO happy for them! 
* my oils continue to be faithful... I think we´re well on the way to getting rid of my parasite friend... I´m sleeping a little better, no more fever, and I´m feeling less zombie/sluggish. 

All in all we learned a LOT this week. We have a hard area, we knew that coming in and we see it every day. Each person we meet has a serious hurdle, commandments are hard here, and sometimes the process is slower than slow.
But we´re finding people that I have no doubt will one day, one day, be faithful, strong members of the church. 
Our ¨goals¨and ¨numbers¨ might not be met in the time frame we would like, or even while we´re here...But that´s not really what it´s about...
It´s about loving them, inviting them to come unto Christ, teaching them what they need to know to be able to make the decision, and then, and this is often the trial, when you´ve done all you can, putting your faith in the Lord, His way, His timing, knowing He´s capable of making it all come together. 

¡Oh, está todo bien! 

Les AMO!! 
xoxox Your Hermana C

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