El es la Dadiva! (He is the GIft)
This week has also had it´s ups and downs but that just seems to be the story of my mission :) Let me tell you a little about it.
Monday: I bought some pretty sweet shoes! Other than that not much really happened. Just a normal P-day.
Tuesday: ALso a normal day.
Wednesday: We had weekly planning. I put on Some Josh Groban Christmas music and while we were planning the song "I´ll be home for Christmas" Where the soldiers in Iraq send Christmas greetings to their families. I just looked up at my companion and said "Hermana, It´s Christmas time!" And I started crying for joy. SHe started to tear up too. IT was such a special moment and we were filled with the Christmas Spirit. So we made some plans to spread The Christmas Spirit. I was inspired with Buddy the Elf´s Statement "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is by singing loud for all to hear." SO we finished planning and went out to work with the Spirit of Christmas burning in our hearts. We visited a less-active member and he gave us 3 referrals. We were really pumped to put our CHristmas plans in action.
Thursday: WE had Zone meeting and it was GREAT! WE talked about the importance of working with the members and how to find people to teach through the members (Because as Gordon B. Hinckley said it´s the most effective way to do missionary work). THen we talked about the new iniciative that the Church is doing this Christmas. It´s Called "He is the Gift" ANd it´s really awesome! Check out Christmas.mormon.org. There is a video there. CHare it with EVERYONE YOU KNOW! The first time I saw it was struggling not to cry (I´m about to shed a tear or two right now thinking about it.) ANd we got 250 pass-along cards to use to invite people to come unto CHrist and learn more about Him. SO WE FINISHED THE MEETING REAlly excited. THen we went back to the house to make lunch and start our Christmas plans. WE were going to make brownies and go around to the members and carol to them and help them to invite their friends to hear the message. So I start on the brownie mix and my companion starts on our lunch (hamburgers) While I´m at the table in the living room mixing the brownie mix I heard my companion yell "FIRE! FIRE!" So I run into the kitchen and she´s holding the pan with the hamburger with a huge flame. SHe looks at me and starts yelling "What do i do?!?" So I start yelling, " TAKE ITOUTSIDE!" THen all of the sudden the flame goes out and she just stands there looking at me and asked me to finish the hamburgers. We laughed so much! SO then we stink the brownies in the oven. The ovens here are not as nice as the ones at home. It had a flame at the bottom so as the brownies cooked the bottom cooked way faster than the top did. SO we left it in a b it longer, but the bottom was BURNED, but bad. We could hardly get the brownies out.SO we get what we can out and wrap them in tinfoil and head out with our hymnals and our santa hats ready to spread some Christmas sheer. Just to let you know, Caroling or anything of the sort is NOT common around here but the members enjoyed it and even though the brownies weren´t very good they were grateful for the thought. And i think they took some pity on us because they gave us a lot of referrals!
Friday: Friday was a really short day. Friday morning they cut off the water at 5 am because they had to change the water tank in the building. Luckily they let us know beforehand so we showered THursday night. We had lunch a little far away so we had to travel and it took up a bit of time. BUt is saw so yummy! BUt when we got back we only had a few hours to work because that afternoon we had an activity where the returned missionaries show off the stuff from their missions. While i LOVE SAn Fernando, planning and announcing activities is NOT their strong point. IT was supposed to start at 7 and we were suposed to have corelation meeting before. SO we showed up at 6 and Nobody had set up anthing. So we set up some tables. THe WML showed up at 7 and a few other people and set up their stuff. We were supposed to sing a christmas song with the elders and they were supposed to get there early to practice but showed up SUPER late. ANd then we had to sing and run home to get home on time. It was a pretty stressful day.
SAturday: ALso a stressful day. THe water didn´t come back till 11 in the afternoon so we had to change our study schedule a bit to be able to shower. As for missinoary work, Even though we had recieved and contacted a lot of referrals we hadn´t found any promising people. SO we were super stressed trying to find people to go to church. COntacted more referrals but nothing. The ELders had a baptism that night but we decided it would be better to work than go. We found some possible future investigators but nobody to go to church. THat night people were literally running away from us.
Sunday: We went by to see if we could convince some of the people we had met to come to church but they literally slammed the door in our faces. SO we went to church. We had nobody and it was sad. THe elders had 2 confirmations and i was happy for them but it was also hard because we have been working so hard and nothing. I was a bit down but one sister in the ward shared her testimony about the importance of navidad. She talked about all that christ did for us and asked us what we would do for HIM this Christmas. I teared up a bit and was filled with gratitude that I have the oportunity to give my all to CHrist this Christmas and share this wonderful message. That evening we visited more members and caroled some more, We watched the video "He is the Gift" For the first time with a part-member family and it was a struggle not to cry. It´s so beautiful. And we recieved more referrals. THat night we counted up our numbers for the week and we were astonished at the number of referrals contacted. 2 weeks ago we contacted 8. Last week we contaced 2. This week we contaced 20! And they were almost all from members. WE met our goal for lessons with member. WE had really worked hard and we felt better.
WE are really giving our all and doing the best we can and I know that if we keep working diligently the Lord will bless us. EVen through the hard times I know that the Lord is pleased with what I am doing. This is HIS work. This is HIS Gospel. This is HIS true Church. He came, he lives, and will come again. JUst like those who waited for the first coming of Christ, his brith, we are waiting for his second coming. (Alma 7:7)
I love each one of you and hope you can feel the Spirit of Christmas and share it with everyone you know!
Hermana Allison Scarlett
Hermana Allison Scarlett
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