"Hi! I'm sister Ogden, we're the missionaries from the church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a message about Jesus Christ that
blesses families and brings us closer to our Heavenly Father."
"Oh sure, please come in!"
"Great."
*walks in*
"Wow you're house is beautiful! I'm sister Ogden.... Oh awkward we
already did that. Awkward. Anyways!"
I'm learning to just roll with it.
We had a great week. I love Sister Orchard as much as Sister Orchard
loves fuzzy socks. Also as much as sick girl loves DayQuil. Or as much
as a missionary loves hand warmers. Something like that.
So during my mission there have always been trailer parks and I
decided early on in my mission life that I wasn't going to be a
trailer park missionary, just cause in the areas I've served there
have been missionaries that work those things to the ground. But this
week we courageously followed the impression to go and knock some
doors in the trailer park. And we found the Espinoza family. They are
the most sincere people. We began to teach them and they brought up
all kinds of doubts and questions. But then the spirit took over and
at the end they accepted the invitation to be baptized. Sometimes I
wish I could have the experience of being an investigator because the
spirit does some amazing things to change their hearts and bring peace
about the message and shows them that this is something God wants for
them so badly. The countenance of this family changed over the course
of the lesson and it was so beautiful.
We prepared our second lesson so well with them. We had some miracles
happen and we found the perfect fellowship and were so pumped. They
weren't home. That day was a harder one, it didn't feel like we were
accomplishing very much at all. It was pretty rough. Sunday rolled
around and someone read the scripture from Mosiah 24 that I've read a
ton, but found new meaning and comfort in it.
12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord
their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the
thoughts of their hearts.
13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in
their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort,
for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will
covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders,
that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in
bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me
hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do
visit my people in their afflictions.
15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma
and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them
that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit
cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.
Diligence doesn't mean perfection. It means loving God so much that
you keep going trusting Him and giving your all to His cause.
We found the Espinozas again yesterday and taught about the Book of
Mormon-- another amazing lesson. Lalle had a headache when we got
there and so we were gonna keep it short but when we started to leave
she said her headache was gone and so we finished the lesson! She told
us she is really excited to come to church and loves praying because
she knows God listens and answers her.
On Sunday we helped out the primary again with sharing time. Hermana
Pineda was doing an activity about Lehi's dream of the tree of life.
It was so beautiful! Our job was to tempt the kids to leave behind the
iron rod. It was the most incredible thing, every kid looked at us,
heard what we said, and kept right on going towards the tree of life.
That's the kind of faith and diligence we need in this life. I've been
studying faith a lot this week. President Allred told me that I need
to increase my personal faith in Christ and I've been doing everything
I can to learn how and do it. We can't see God near, we can't see
Christ's hands lifting us and leading us along, but we can have faith
and press on. God won't let us walk in the dark though, He sends
tender mercies and miracles to light the way and assure us that we are
on the right path and although it is hard it will be infinitely worth
it.
I feel really silly typing this, but Cesar and Bricia are having a lot
of trials again. For all of you that have been reading you know I've
written about them a lot and that every week is something different
with them. I can't seem to give up on them though. That family means
the world to me, I love them so much and that hurts when they have to
go through hard things. I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and Gods
plan, but for them I'm willing to believe it so much more fully. I can
believe that there is mercy, there is healing, there is eternal life
with our families in the presence of our Good God -- because I want
that for this family. Please pray for them if you have the chance.
Anyways my point is that faith means we can't see the point sometimes.
Sometimes those mists of darkness make it hard to see the tree of
life, sometimes the voices of the world are way louder than the one of
our Master and Savior- but we can have that bright light of faith
within us to help us keep on keeping on.
Us missionaries had a good time putting the sharing time up and
helping out. After church we went out and took pictures and had a
snowball fight. There is bastante snow outside yuck. But Sister
Orchard threw a snowball at Elder Torres and he turned around at the
last second, caught the snowball, and launched it back at Sister
Orchard. We try not to tell Elder Torres that he's cool, but that was
pretty incredible. Oops.
This week was filled with tender mercies and it was cool cause we
started it off with a lesson with Hermana Garcia, a returning less
active member. We read 1 Nephi 1 with her and had a long talk about
tender mercies. The word in Spanish is one that shows a lot of love
and kindness, of being taken care of, of deep connection. And that's
what it feels to recognize a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. I
think we have those little miracles all the time, but to recognize
them is the part that depends on us.
Saturday Sister Orchard had a baptism in Hyrum that I was excited to
go to because I would get to see Sister Anderson but the ZLs told me
that I needed to stay in the area. I was bummed but knew it was right
so I set about finding a split. I called probably about 38 people from
the ward and elsewhere and every single person was in salt lake or
just generally "busy". I would be in a call and Sister Orchard would
say a name (Spanish speaking or not) and I'd say- good I'll probably
call her next! (Lack of faith I know but it was funny...) and finally
Sister Wilder answered and said yes! We found a few beautiful
families. Obedience brings miracles.
We got to make dinner for a lady who just had a baby. That was a sweet
tender mercy because we got to spend time with the Craguns (the family
we live with) and it was so good to do that little nice thing for
someone.
Our boots were soaking wet one day. A lady we met saw it and ran to
her closet and gave us both a new pair of boots. It was so kind. The
next day there was so much snow on the ground, it was so good to have
those boots. We also got to jump in the puddles. We were parked next
to a curb and when we got back to the car there was a lake on my side.
I asked Sister Orchard to pull forward so I could get in and she comes
and looks and asks me, "where is the water?" "Right here." And I ran
splashing the water everywhere and just got into the car. It was great
xD
I met a very grumpy cat this week! Precious.
13 And now I give unto you a word concerning Zion. Zion shall be
redeemed, although she is chastened for a little season.
Love y'all <3 sin fin y para siempre
Hermana Ogden