Hola Familia y Amigos! Como Esta!!
Things in Peru are going well. This week was a lot better than last week. We are teaching some great people and little by little they are making progress. My mission is teaching me a lot about patience. For example....
We have been teaching this women named Zoryda for over a month now, and she has been listening to the missionaries for 7 months. She is more active than half of our ward, comes to church every Sunday, loves the lessons, but refuses to pray and to read her scriptures. Every week we go, we teach lessons and we try and try to strike some kind of desire in her. She likes to talk about faith, but she lacks the faith to act. Yesterday I had just about had it. In companionship study we were planning for what to teach her and I told Hermana Lema that honestly we were wasting our time (not my best moment I'll admit) I vented for about 5 minutes about how nothing we have done is working and nothing we could do would. Then Hermana Lema, like the angel that she is, just gently reminded me that God loves Zoryda, and he would never give up on her. So I got down on my knees and prayed with everything, honesty everything I had, to love her enough and to have patience with her. I begged the Lord to help me to know what she needed, and I promised I would do whatever it took and take however long it would take to help her. I prayed for her for honestly 15 to 20 minutes. I have never in my life prayed that hard for someone else. I ended my prayer and still had no idea what we needed to teach her but I knew that I would when the time came.
In the lesson we taught her about the importance of prayer and scripture study, well Hermana Lema did, I didn't talk much in this part, other than sharing my testimony, and then all of the sudden I knew what I needed to say. I told her the honest truth, I told her that God loved her and wanted her to follow the example of his son and be baptized so that she could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and have the comforter with her always. Then I told her that today I prayed for her, and only her, that I begged the lord to help me know what to teach her, I told her that Heavenly Father had the answers to every question she has. He wrote them in his scriptures and it was up to her to read them and find her answers. After I finished talking Zoryda cried, and told us that she has been wanting to read and pray, and tonight she would do that. Then Hermana Lema invited her to prepare for baptism on Feb 25th, and she accepted! (Now a lot can change in that time. I know that as well as anyone else. And she still has a lot of progress that needs to be made.) But this experience for me, what a tender mercy, and answer to a sincere prayer. I know that Lord has been preparing her heart and yesterday she was finally ready to receive what we have been teaching her this whole time.
Yesterday I learned that the Lord loves us all, and that he would never give up on any of us. He is always there, always. For me this was a humbling experience. I need to have more patience and I need to love everyone as much as I loved Zoryda the moment I prayed for her. Because over all, love was the thing that was lacking in our lessons, and when we taught with love Zoryda felt it. Love made all the difference. So for me that was a really great learning experience.
On a lighter note, this Saturday was Hermana Lemas birthday. I wanted to make it special, but it's kind of hard to surprise someone who is by your side 24 seven. I was able to obtain some balloons and colored paper and while she was in the shower I made a birthday banner for her. In my house ever for every Birthday there is always a birthday banner, so it just seemed right. Then that night we did a Noche De Hogar at one of the boom member families in our ward. They gave her cake and a present! It was super cute. But I have to say the best moment of her birthday was when I SMASHED an egg on her head. In Peru for peoples birthday, it's just what you do. At lunch she went to the bathroom and I was able to sneak an egg from my pensioniest. That night after we said our last prayer I looked at her said Feliz Cumpleaños and then BAM! Egg right on the head ha-ha. She got me back good though, she picked the inners up and got them all in my face ha-ha. All in all it was a good time.
So basically this week was a good week. I am learning a lot and I still have so much to learn if I am going to really be a good missionary, but I am thankful for this opportunity.
I love you all!!
Hermana Sadie Taggart
No comments:
Post a Comment