Well, if I've done the math right I only have two of these left so, uh, enjoy this I guess? It won't last long. Not gonna lie, this week was a rough one. My mind was not having it for the first part of the week and I wasn't having a good time and then by the end of the week everything turned around and I really just could feel the love of God and see the miracles out of the little things and the clouds parted and all was well again. The mission is funny.
MILAGRITOS:
- We had a lesson with a lady that we were teaching, and her son passed by and we invited him to come listen. My man is covered in piercings and has wild hair and his nails are painted and he asks just about the most profound questions ever and I love him. He's agnostic, which means he doesn't actively believe in God but he doesn't deny the existence of a God. Well, we taught him to the best of our ability, and he is currently reading the Book of Mormon in 3 languages cause he's fluent in 5 languages but we didn't have a book of mormon in French or Italian. He said "listen, I don't even know if God exists, but you guys act so much like you really actually think that God and Jesus showed up to some kid in a forest that you're making me doubt everything I've ever thought." Keep on doubting Nacho, keep on doubting. Ahaha he's so cool and now he asks us every time when we're gonna come back. And his mom who is believes in God like A LOT is overjoyed that finally Nacho is listening to people talk about God. Woo hoo!
- We randomly stopped by the house of someone we didn't know but who had talked to the missionaries in the past, and she was going through a lot of stuff at the moment. We gave her some comfort through Christ, explained to her that God loves her, and that the Holy Ghost would be a huge help to her. We showed up not knowing her and left with her asking us to be baptized. So that was an awesome moment.
- A couple weeks ago, we met this dude in the street and he was not interested but we asked him if he knew anyone that was and he randomly pointed to a door and was like "they want to learn more". Well, we thought he was joking or lying cause dude was just walking down the street, and we were rushing so we didn't knock on the door. Well, we passed by the house this week and remembered the dude who told us to go there, and so we knocked the door. And guess who was genuinely interested and wanted to learn more? The people in that house. I still don't know if the man on the street actually knew our new friends or not, but either way, God is funny and I really do appreciate Him.
JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:
- Me and Hna Trindade having a conversation about this one lady who lived in her neighborhood as a kid who didn't have a nose. We then started to think of all the complications you would have as a human without a nose. It doesn't sound funny but we were both crying laughing.
- Introduced myself to a dude in our ward. Told him I was from Utah. Asked him where he was from, and he looked at me and in a perfect accent said "wisconsin". Well, turns out I wasnt paying attention to the fact that he does in fact have a slight gringo accent and that he is in fact very white and well it was in that moment that I found out that there's a dude living here in the middle of Uruguay and he's from wisconsin. So that's cool.
- Our good friend Nacho from the milagritos section, when he found out about Joseph Smith, he said "I dont want to judge God or anything, but He really just picked the guy with the most basic white person name in the whole world" and i was CACKLING and after he felt so bad he was like I'm so sorry thats rude and I was like no bro you're absolutely right. God did in fact do that.
SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:
If anyone can find "si Dios quiere" in the scriptures, let me know. Cause if you can find it, it'll be the most cited scripture I've heard on my mission. As I have in fact looked for it, and have yet to find it, I'm gonna boldly say that "la fe mueve montañas" (faith moves mountains) is the scripture I've heard the most times on my mission.
The
members of our church let me know that faith moves mountains, the
catholics let me know, the Jehovah's Witnesses, even (and especially)
the ones who don't have any religion but they believe in God. They all
let me know just about every day that faith moves mountains. Don't know
why they all picked the same scripture, but its chill we'll roll with
it.
And I got thinking. Most of these people here
in this country have never even seen a mountain. (They think they have
but their 200 feet above sea level hill they got going on doesnt quite
cut it for me) They would marvel at its beauty and magnitude.
When
I was 12 and I moved to Utah, I distinctly remember thinking that the
mountains looked like someone put HUGE tapestries up on the sides of all
the cities and painted them to look like mountains.
And then I climbed one and I was astounded.
In short, mountains are awesome.
So why is our faith moving them out of the way?
Honestly,
my life is more exciting with mountains in them. Does it take me like
40 minutes to get to Morgan from Kaysville instead of 10?
Yep.
But does it make me almost crash my car every two seconds because my head is half out the window gaping at the beauty?
Also yep.
Something
I learned recently is (and in fact the spirit gave me the words to say
as I taught this to one of my friends and it made me reflect a lot
afterward) is this:
If we've gone through any kind
of difficulty, trial, tribulation, struggle, heartbreak, or loss, and we
haven't come closer to our Savior because of it, it was kinda in vain.
If
we go through our difficulties and heartbreaks and trials, and by the
end of them we love our Savior more and trust in Him more and have come
closer to and more like Him, well then it becomes a spiritual moment, a
blessing, a sacred experience, an opportunity to grow our testimony.
So
maybe instead of using our faith to move our mountains out of the way,
so we go through life on flat terrain, maybe we should start our trek up
our mountain, and as we walk, ask God to move our mountain more towards
Him (kinda like those flat airport escalators that always make walking a
million times more fun for no reason). There's some pretty freakin
awesome trees on our mountains and some really pretty flowers and random
butterflies and some drop dead gorgeous views. And if we sit and pout
at the bottom of our mountain, "having the faith" to make it move, well,
that mountain might just be moving away from God, or even side to side,
yo que sé. But if we start climbing, God starts moving that mountain,
right directly to Him.
So whether you're climbing
the switchbacks right now, or you're on a steep downhill so you're
practically running, God's working too, moving that mountain, right
towards Him.
If our trials make us stop talking to
God and listening to Him, if we stop having that faith, our mountain
stops moving. And our struggling steps up the mountainside are not
really getting us anywhere.
But if our trials
knock us onto our knees, giving us a break to talk to Him, and ask Him
to keep moving our mountain towards Him, well, THATS where the miracle
comes in.
Let's start using our trials to
accelerate our mountain moving speed. And as long as we're putting one
foot in front of the other, well that's enough for God.
He will move that mountain toward Him as fast as you'll let Him.
Cause He loves you. If I haven't mentioned it a time or two.
He loves you a lot.
Life is rad. Don't forget it. God loves you, even if it's hard to feel it. I love you all!
- hermana allen
