Monday, February 3, 2025 10:05pm
Hey, happy February! As my companion says, "I have fear." He goes home in April, so if time continues to move this quickly, I understand what he means. I know President Nelson said the Lord is hastening His work, but that's not what I had in mind.
So, uh... we've got a knew president... I didn't think I'd talk about that as a missionary, but it has caused us some problems. Fewer and fewer people are opening their doors, because for some unimaginable reason, a gringo in a suit scares them. Especially when he's got a latino companion or 'interpreter.' 😔
One of our friends actually... was sent back to his own country. We aren't sure what happened, I've heard that he asked to go home?? Yeah. Well, he was the only nonmember that was consistently attending church, even if he lived outside our area and was really hard to contact. That was unfortunate.
So basically, everyone is a little paranoid right now, but hopefully it's the humbling that everyone needed. That's what I'm praying for.
We did have 4 nonmembers at church this week, though, God knows what He's doing. One of them was primarily hard to contact because he's terrified of being deported, but when we were finally able talk to him, he was willing to come; after we assured him that it was safe.
Had a cool expirience where my companion and I were both prompted to knock the door of a friend we hadn't been able to contact since she came to church in December. She answered the door! Woo hoo! We scheduled a lesson for the next day because it was late.
We came by, and I was excited; things were going really well until she suddenly fell into a different dimension... So we started talking to her about her expirience at church two months ago, since we didn't get the chance before. She told us she felt weird at church, and she wouldn't be coming back. We were unable to change her mind, so we ended up inviting her to pray about it and left.
I was, of course, discouraged, sad, and don't know why we felt prompted to knock her door. But I do know that God has a plan that's not meant to exclude anyone from returning to live in His presence. But God plays the long game, so whether it's soon, or perhaps years later, God will do everything He can to prepare her to receive the fullness of the Gospel.
I wanna share a scripture about a topic that is very important to me: Alma 32:15 says,
"Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed—yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty."
(A lot of the people we meet are super prideful despite their exceeding poverty!)
Our mission president's wife asked me a week or two ago what my favorite Christlike attribute was. If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be humility. As I've worked harder become and to understand what it means to be truly humble, I've been able to see that pride is often hard to spot in one's self. But pride is stubborn, unyielding, unwilling to listen or to change, and is what often starts contention between friends.
But Jesus Christ the greatest of all? He was meek, lowly, and humble. He did the will of the Father from the beginning. He is a resolver of conflict, truly the prince of peace.
If we are to truly follow our Savior, we must root out our natural desires and tendencies and become as He is. I know that the Lord will help us to do this, and that if we sincerely desire to change, we will be filled with a love for others so deep we couldn't dream of being contentious.
Love you guys bunches!
I wonder who it's from
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