There is never a dull moment or day on a mission! Especially here in TENERIFE! Or at least that is how it seems right now! Before coming on a mission I wondered if days would seem tedious or same old everyday.. and so far it has not been that way at ALL. Wow, every day is like a whole new adventure! It is SO crazy at the end of the night thinking about everything that happened. It really is a new crazy adventure everyday! I hope it will always be like this. Whether it be being dragged around by Ursula´s autistic dogs (the things we do to serve our investigators... ), talking to an awesome hippie mom for an hour, seeing an old man walk around in tight leather booty shorts, getting proposed to by a "satanist" (..??) and MANY other weird things... HAHA there isn´t a day that goes by without something weird or exciting. I love being on this Island.. It is so fun!
This week was good! I am learning so much. A mission really is your MOST TWO YEARS (1.5 for sisters) It takes alllll of your energy in everyway possible. It takes all of your strength emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I am so grateful for this once in a life time experience that I have right now to GROW! The Lord always STRETCHES us enough for us to grow and there is NOTHING that He gives us that we cannot overcome. We are not alone in this work. The Lord is with us in every little step! We just need to press forward and lean on Him. I am constantly reminding myself that this work isn´t about me! How lucky am I to have this short time in my life to completely break away from everything, forget about me, and lose myself? I am trying to cherish the most of this time that I have here. Although it seems hard and never ending (haha) right now... This work is SO important and so real.. and I do not want to ever have any regrets of not wokring my hardest. I love being a missionary! It is way cool to be set apart as a representative of Christ.
This week I had the COOLEST EXPERIENCE thus far on this mission. I finanlly was reminded of the GOAL and reward of missionary work. Anyways it was increíble. TUESDAY NIGHT! We were just leaving a noche de hogar (FHE) when the Elders called us. They wanted us to come with them to an appointment... which was weird. We don´t do that very often! But for some reason they really felt like we needed to come. We were visiting a less active family who also had friends over that were not members. This house was full of like 8 girls! Anyways they had come to church on Sunday which was a MIRACLE in the first place. (the elders were thinking about dropping them because they really weren´t progressing.. but then they randomly showed up to church! talk about a miracle) Anyways to teach to the needs of the investigator.. we decided to teach about families and the importance of them AND the power we have with TEMPLE WORK! What was cool was that we totally followed the spirit! Wow it was a m a z i n g. Though I still can´t understand Spanish haha... I understood the spirit with them. Ah:) I can´t even describe how amazing it was. It was literally an experience sent from heaven! It was was amazing. It felt like one of those amazing district videos when someone accepts the baptismal invitation and then music starts playing to add to the effect but there was no music and it felt amazing. It was just real. I completely forgot about myself and my flaws and just felt the spirit work a miracle as ALL of these 8 girls were changing right before our eyes! These girls were so worldly. sooo worldly is was sad! But something happened tuesday night and the spirit worked a milagro. It may have been even one of the strongest spiritual moments that I have ever had! It is really hard to describe what even happened! Anways, so we taught about families and temple work and how we have this incredible power to open the door of eternal life for members of our family who are no longer living. We can OPEN their door! We can open the door for them to return to their Heavenly Father. The door of baptism. And how crucial it is! And while we do have this incredible power.. we need to first do it for ourselves. We need to open the door for ourselves and then for our family and then for others! They were so receptive!! They were blown away by the idea that they could be baptized for people who have died and SAVE them. We finally got into the hearts of these girls. The spirit was SO STRONG! When the spirit was at its peak we asked them how they were feeling. We then told them that that is the SPIRIT and love of God. Then pure and good Elder Malan invited them to be baptized. (totally not part of the plan... but the spirit changed hearts that night and we followed.) Although he stumbled over the words in spanish.. he was just GLOWING with the spirit. And when he asked. If they would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized... they said yes:) We were so excited! They spirit was SO strong. We couldn´t stop smiling! It is was incredible! At that moment I knew how real this whole thing is. How important baptism is. How everyone needs this! At that moment I knew what kind of missionary I want to be! What kind of missionary I am going to be. Any extremly heavy burdens and discouraging things in my life were lifted off of my shoulders. wow. They just completely left! I wasn´t worrying about myself and I just felt so strongly my Savior´s love for me and for the people that I was with. Wow. It was a celestial moment. Missionary work is the coolest. It is the hardest. It is hard! It is so dang hard. But the moments like we had tuesday night with Jaynish and Adriana was what we work for! We work soooo hard so that we can save others and bring them to Christ through the waters of baptism. We work our hardest with exact obedience and prayerful hearts so that we can have celetial moments like these. Because this is what life is all about. Family, gospel, and saving others. There are hard times but when you endure and give it your all with an eye single to the glory of God.. you will overcome. The highs will always eventually outweigh the lows. That night was a high! I had never felt more alive in my life! I will always work my hardest. This work is God´s work! Not mine. The quote, "The Lord pushed you lower so that He can lift you HIGHER" is SO true. Wow, it is soooo true. Without struggles and desafios... we cannot grow. And why are we here on this earth?? To grow. I want to give everyone this knowledge and this incredible spirit that we all felt that night! I want to have more of these moments. And I have the faith that I can.. as I work my hardest and forget about myself and lose myself in the work.. I can!
Find Joy in the JOURNEY!
Love you SO much,
Hermana 'no entiendo español' Nydegger
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