It has been such an amazing week!!! So many great things have happened and I have learned so much.
This
week the elders introduced us to this AMAZING girl! I will call her
May. She has met with the elders a couple of times now and she has loved
learning about the gospel! We started meeting with her and I am blown
away by her! She has been searching for the gospel and it touches me so
much to see how the gospel touches and changes people's lives. We taught
her the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong. We were all
almost near tears multiple times. One thing I've been realizing is how a
knowledge of the gospel increases our understanding of who we are. Our
understanding of our self worth multiplies by 10 with a knowledge of the
plan of salvation. It is a beautiful things to see. May says that she
first time she saw the elders from on top of her balcony (she lives in a
complex on the 2nd floor) they looked like angles in their bright white
shirts so she waved them over and started talking to them. Honestly,
everything about this has just been a miracle. She will be getting
baptized in July :) it makes me SOOO HAPPY!!!!
May
also came to church this Sunday! Church was amazing yesterday. Someone
said something in sacrament meeting that really struck me. He said "if
you don't like me, that's not my fault." I had never thought about that
before. It hit me so hard. As children of God, we are incredible to Him
even though we make mistakes. On my mission I've realized that I tend to
beat myself up a lot. But mentally abusing myself is not something God
ever intended. We will make mistakes, we are imperfect, but God will
never give up on us. In gospel principles we had a lesson on Charity. As
part of the lesson we talked about the ways to obtain charity. One of
the first ways to obtain it, is to love ourselves. Because Christ said
to "love thy neighbor as ye love thyself" How are you supposed to love
your neighbor if you hate yourself? One thing I've tried to do is think
about how I talk to myself and then ask the question "would you ever say
that to someone else?" If it's too awful to tell another human being,
then it's probably not the best thing to say to myself.
On Sunday
after church we were in a neighborhood knocking doors. The 2nd door we
knocked was a man who doesn't believe in God and spent 30 minutes trying
to convince us He doesn't exist. After we left my blood was boiling.
And as the scriptures say the spirit of contention is of the devil, so
feeling angry is never from God. Sister Yraguen and I walked for a
couple of minutes passing multiple houses without knocking on their
door. Finally I decided that I'm not going to let a negative emotion
control me. As human beings we experience negative emotions. But we are
also given moral agency, the ability to act and not be acted upon. I
wasn't about to let that angry man control my actions. So without
thinking we just turned and started walking up a random drive way.
Honestly, I was expecting them to not be interested. Especially by the
initial response we got when they opened the door. But then they invited
us in and asked a ton of questions and we taught some of the
restoration. They are some of the coolest people ever! We're going to
see them again next Sunday
and they're coming to church! It also turns out they have a lot of
family who are a part of the church! It was such a tender mercy. If we
had just continued in the spirit of contention that man left with us, we
wouldn't have found them.
Wow so many cool
things have happened this week. About a week ago we met this girl. Our
only interaction with her was about a 2 minute conversation on the
doorstep. She was on the phone and all she said was "come back later."
We walked away and didn't even write down her address. But every day I
just couldn't stop thinking about her. A couple of days ago we decided
to go back and miraculously we found her house. Her and her fiance
opened the door and were really happy to see us. They said they like to
have long debates about Christianity and have a lot of questions. So
we'll be seeing them again later tonight! It was such a miracle! The spirit was so strong.
One
thing I know is that God really is there and He wants to make Himself
known to us! Because He is there I know that I will hold on to the
gospel with everything I have. Life isn't always going to be easy, but
we knew that before we decided to come here. One of the lyrics to one of
my favorite EFY songs says "when He is with you that's a holy place." I
know that when we stand firm in the gospel, even in hard times,
wherever we are will become a holy place. Our hardest times are
sanctified by Him.
I hope you all have a great week!
Sister Bloomfield