Thursday, May 8, 2014

05.08.2014 Email

hola familia y amigos!

So this week was especially great because I witnessed an awesome miracle on myself. So, I have been  fairly good at brushing my teeth I think. Like every night, most mornings when I have time. But, i still got a cavity! and my tooth hurt SO bad. I could only chew on one side of my mouth and even when I wasn't chewing, just closing my mouth hurt so bad. And every single day it just got worse and worse, my whole jaw was throbbing with pain. So i was so scared because, heck no i am not about to let some people in Mexico do anything to my mouth! So i was thinking, okay, I'll just wait until I get back to the states. But i was scared because it kept getting worse. And i was scared that I would have to get a root canal or something because i would let it go for so long when it already hurt so bad! then one night in my prayers I was just praying that it would go away so that I could concentrate or at least until I get to Arizona. AND the next day it was gone! Completely gone. I still haven't felt any pain since then. So brother and sisters, the church is true.


So our lessons are going ehh mas o menos.
-- With Eduardo they are like on a scale of 0 to 100 like 75% good. We have some awesome lessons and then some lessons we really struggle with. He's really far along though, he's committed to baptism and we have already taught him about half of lesson 4. It was really funny, when we were teaching him one time, I was trying to tell him that coffee is not good for us and he asked, "so are you a doctor?" and Hermana Dodge, before I could say anything, is like yeah! and starts flipping through her scriptures. I just sat there like uhh what.. and he was really confused too. It was super funny I guess she thought he asked if we had doctrine to back it up. Hahah.
-- Adrian, we've only had two lessons with him so far and neither of them have gone that great. Our last lesson with him we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and before we could even start teaching he asked us how we know that our church has the correct priesthood on the Earth and why he should be re baptized. We both sat there like deer in the headlights because clearly our brains were not working right.
--Abraham, is by far my favorite one to teach. We always do so good with him. Our last lesson we planned on teaching a couple of the commandments and when we got in there he just looked really sad so we started talking with him and found out he lost his job. I gave the prayer to start the lesson and it was seriously the best prayer in spanish that I have ever given. The spirit was already there so strong, when we sat up Abraham had tears in his eyes! it was awesome. So we asked if he was still reading his scriptures and praying though. and he said he was then he lost his job so he stopped because obviously it wasn't doing anything for him. Which good point. BUT we talked to him the whole time and the spirit was there SO strong. seriously best lesson we have ever taught, and we didn't even teach our planned lesson. We just shared personal experiences about how the scriptures and praying has gotten us through difficult times in our lives and how its important to not stop doing that stuff. And we were all getting choked up at one point, even our teacher(Abraham). Then after the lesson our teacher said how we did such an awesome job, we were able to bring the spirit and help him with his problems, he even said that he received personal revelation for himself during our lesson! It was really great. 

I guess I really do give awesome prayers in español though because they called me up on the spot again in sacrament meeting to give the prayer! Like really are you serious?!?  But it was a really good meeting. It was fast sunday so it was fast and testimony meeting, I was going to get up and bear my testimony but I was super nervous the whole time because it has to be in español and then we ran out of time.. so i feel bad about that, that i didn't just get up and bear it. Our devotional that day was by Elder Holland. So of course it was good. it actually was one of the best devotionals I have ever heard in my life. he talked about how this is the chosen dispensation and how this is the dispensation that will not fail. He said "We have to be the best missionaries the church has ever had." Also something else he said that I liked was, "No other church would put the future of their church in the hands of 18/19 year olds hands, except for the church of the true and living God."

Our tuesday devotional was also by Elder Holland. How exciting! And i think it was the best devotional I have ever heard. Holland is just a great speaker because he teaches with such power and he even started crying during this devotional when he was telling us how important it is to come home from our missions and to not ever fall away from the church. It was funny, he was saying how if we do fall away from the church when we get home, we would not want to meet him in a dark alley alone. He said he will do everything to us that the Lord will allow him to do. Haha and he also said how missionary work is REAL LIFE and there's no joking around, and if we aren't taking it seriously, then he will hunt us down and come scratching on our windows. But he said A LOT of good stuff too. He said, A disciple of Christ is some one who walks where he walks. He talked a lot about Preach my Gospel. He said how it is meant to convert the missionary and THEN convert the investigator. We have to be converted ourselves first before we can convert other people. This mission is going to be hard, but he said that this mission will make us be everything that we have ever wanted to be in this life. I really liked that. My favorite thing he said though was: "Why is missionary work so hard? Because it was never, ever, EVER easy for the living son, every step of his life was difficult." i just like that because it is such a great reminder. Elder Anderson.. i think? said something a lot like that once too. He said "Whenever you may ask yourself why this work is so hard remember that the salvation of man has never been easy." idk which one i like more. they're both great.

So yeah, not too much has really happened this week. Last night we were supposed to have TRC but again, no one showed up, so we taught each other. We kind of did splits with the other Hermanas in our district and just taught each other. And after that, me and my companion realized how much we like teaching with each other. Very humbling experience. 

It's weird, i love church music now! Not the hymns church music, but like people singing awesome songs church music. I don't know why but i just feel the spirit so much when I listen to them! Our district is singing in the devotional the last week we are here "Come Unto Christ" but not me because, hi, i can't sing to save my life. But it's a really pretty song I love it so much. also btw mom, i can't figure out how to get my ipod an speakers to work. Do i have a charger for either of them? It's super confusing. and I've never had an ipod shuffle so i don't even know how to tell if it's on. ahh. so frustrating. 

Yesterday in class we talked about how to teach people with the spirit and why it is important. I learned that we have to go spiritually where the investigator is before we can expect them to come spiritually where we are. I think a lot of times I forget that because i just think that one lesson and they will have a testimony, but it's important to keep that in mind, that you have to start at the bottom! Also, that teaching with the spirit means teaching with understanding. Which seriously is so true guys. I especially learned this when we taught that lesson with Abraham. Because we were able to understand him and his needs, even though we didn't teach the lesson we had planned, we understood him and were still able to teach him by our testimonies and just having the spirit there with us. We also need to see people with spiritual eyes. At first i was like, what does that mean? But then i was thinking about it and it means that we have to see people for who they are and not for how the world portrays them. We have to see them as children of God and as our siblings. That will help us be a lot better teachers!

 Some days are harder than others and some days go really well, but i found this quote thing in one of my books, "One of the lessons of a lifetime is that God knows far better what to do with us than we do, and to the extent that we yield our hearts unto him (Helaman 3:35, D&C 88:67-68) We realize our full potential in life and find great satisfaction and fulfillment in doing so."

My spanish is going alright, its kind of really confusing sometimes though.. apparently spanish has 3 past tenses... so awesome!!!  (not really)  But yeah, i realized that I know how to speak a lot about the gospel and nothing about everyday conversations.  So much to learn!!!


But I have this quote book that I read every night. There are SO many quotes that I am in love with, but the one that I am going to share with you is one of my faves.
"You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations as to what you cannot do. Don't think you cannot, think you can."
So Yeah, just thought I'd leave you all with that inspirational thought:)
Love you all!
Hermana Johnson 

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