This week I woke up to this simple truth: I am absolutely in love
with my mission.
I'm in love with these people. During the week, I wanted to just take
every single person by the shoulders, shake them and yell, "I LOVE YOU!!!!"
Instead I had to settle for fake-punches and fake face-slaps every now and then
with appropriate sound effects. Strangely, I think this love language translates
here in the feild better than it did in the CTM.
This week started out super slow and by Thursday our numbers were so
bad that I passed the point of tears and into the zone of hysterical laughter.
The District and Zone Leaders had no words of advice or of comfort to give us.
Then Sister Mártir and I said, "That DOES it! Let's just through tact out the
window and go crazy. We've got nothing to lose." So that's what we did. We just
ran around asking everyone to get baptised and then found ourselves on Friday
night with good numbers and a group of super awesome investigators, 6 of whome
we are preparing for baptism next week! Sweet! After two weeks of praying and
working really hard with little to show for it, the Lord really blessed us this
past weekend. Pray for this 6 people! Especially Paulo and José. Paulo is the
grandson of two members who have been praying for him for several years to take
an interest in the church and José is the father of another member who has also
been praying for him for several years. Pray that they will finally be pricked
in their hearts and go for it.
I love the mission! I had one of those moments yesterday where my
companion wanted to hear my life story and I got to reflect on all the events
that led to my being here in Bahia doing what I'm doing. Wow, the Lord really
loves me. This is the coolest thing EVER that I get to be a part of! Thank you
once again to all of you friends and family who helped me to be here. I'm so
grateful for all that I'm learning. I hope I'm becoming a better person than I
was before, too.
BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT! Happy Birthday Rebecca Hasler and Rachel
Whitaker! I wish you all the good things of life with much chocolate thrown in
:D
Guess what? A Igraja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias é
verdadeira!
I KNOW that Jesus Christ lives and that He LOVES us. I know this
because I have felt Him by my side and He has spoken through me to people He
knows and loves better than I do. This past week I was talking to a recent
convert who had slipped up and made some mistakes. He felt like he was unworthy
to go to church and he wept and wept and begged us to leave him alone in his
misery. I felt an overwhelming flood of love for this man and the Spirit truly
took over and spoke through me. I was able to be the mouthpiece that told him
it's never too late and that no one is ever unworthy of repentance. I was able
to testify of the love that the Savior has for him. When he shook his head and
said he didn't believe it, I said, "Why do you think we're here?! He sent us to
you because He loves you!" It was one of the most powerful testimonies I've had
the priviledge of bearing on the mission. And I know it's true for every single
person. The Savior loves us all so much that He paid the price for ALL of our
sins, pains, and weaknesses, even knowing that many would reject His offering.
Please accept His offerring. You'll be so happy! :)
I love you all!
-Sister Whitaker
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