This has been a very interesting week. Mostly really good and with a bunch of learning experiences.
First of all, we had a meeting with President Cannon about a new initiative from the church. It's called "Because He Lives". It's obviously about Jesus Christ's resurrection and celebrating easter by sharing the message of Christ.That BECAUSE He lives, He can be with us in every moment. The video will come out this next week, on the 28th. It will be onbecausehelives.mormon.org for you to watch and share electronically. I invite you all to watch it when it comes out, then share it in some way. BUT, not just share the video, more importantly, your TESTIMONY of this event. Your TESTIMONY of the reality of Jesus Christ. Your TESTIMONY of how it has effected your own life. It doesn't come out until Saturday, but, because we're special, we got a copy of it and have been able to start getting people excited about it. We've started sharing it with people and actually shared it in our Friday sports night for our ward and it was REALLY successful. We had a few people we were teaching there and they really felt the spirit as we were bearing our testimonies. People were crying and nodding their head in agreement and even added a little to the message. It was really cool. We've already shown it to our relief society president and ward mission leader and when we did, they had family over that weren't members. It really touched their heart and she told us she even wanted to share it. That the message was really good. She is a lady who probably wouldn't have seen the video otherwise or gone out of her way to watch it, so because we showed it there and had it ready on DVD, she was able to feel the spirit of it. That was definitely a miracle. SO, when you all watch it and start to share it, PLEASE share your stories with me! :)
Also, we had Sister's Conference for our mission this week. Because we're STLs, we had a lot of things to do to plan for this meeting. It's a meeting that happens once a year that is with ALL the sister missionaries in the mission. There are currently 62. The theme was "The Road to Success is Always Under Construction." We talked about how we're all on paths to reach Heavenly Father and are trying to get there, but it's not going to be perfect. We have to keep going and use the tools we have been given. We talked about all sorts of things like that. It was well done (of course, because WE HELPED WITH IT). I also got the chance to design a logo for the bookmarks we made. It's really legit. BUT, during the meeting, Sister Cannon had her daughter and niece come and talk about what it's like to come home from a mission... That was really ironic and Hna Hernandez and I just looked at each other. She just has 3 more weeks and I have about 9... So not very much. These talks were just for us. We've had a few little experiences like that lately. There have also been a bunch of missionaries in our south stake who have come home and we even stopped by a homecoming very briefly this week. Let's just say we don't look forward to being an awkward returned missionary. hahah
So another thing that happened this week is with a man we met just a week or so ago. His name is Cezar. We went to visit him and then as we were talking, I felt like I needed to offer service. So I did but he was busy and told us that he didn't want the help. So I had a strong impression that we should just come back the next day, with service clothes and be ready to help out. So we did the next day, but no one was home, which is pretty unusual for them. So we waited just a little bit, in case they might come home, but they never did... That was hard for me because I felt strongly that we should do that... But then nothing happened. So I was just wondering about why that happens. THEN, I think I saw the reasoning. I had a conversation with Hna. Hernandez about why that happens and we talked about some things I've been thinking about lately. Then she answered some of my concerns I've had. So it was a little learning experience, even though it didn't work out how I expected. I feel like what I've learned is that if we're following the spirit, we will do what the Lord wants us to do and help SOMEONE, whether that someone may be ourselves. We may need the learning that comes with "failure" or just the confidence in following promptings more sensitively. No matter what, though, as we follow these promptings, big or little, we practice following the spirit and allow ourselves to receive more. Heavenly Father trusts us with more of His children and we're able to be better servants of Him. It may be frustrating sometimes when we don't see the results of our labors or the effects of following the spirit, but I KNOW that Heavenly Father DOES give us blessings, even if we have to wait a long time for them. We just need to keep up the faith, even if those blessings don't come 'til after this life. When we do things for the instant blessings, we may not be trusting that they'll come in His time. That's why we need to be obedient and serve others and do everything we're supposed to because we love God and not get discouraged when the blessings don't come right away. They'll come when we obey Him, we just have to trust.
I love you and hope you have an amazing week!
Con amor,
Hermana Shirley
At Sister's Conference, our family tree! (Hna Hernandez Ruiz [my companion right now], Hna Masiasamua [her "daughter"], Hna Stadler [her other "daughter"], Hna Webb [la nieta, the "granddaughter"], Hna Ekonomo [my "daughter"], me) To explain a bit: I trained Hna Ekonomo and Hna Hernandez Ruiz trained Hna Stadler. Now we're companions and our "daughters" are companions, training our "granddaughter", Hna Webb.
Yep. Mija Ekonomo.
My nails for Sister's conference. The theme was construction stuff, and we were supposed to wear yellow or orange. We thought we were pretty clever by having a hammer and NAIL on our nails. :)
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