What a full, busy, happy, yummy, crazy week!
I just asked Sis Smith what I should write
about in this email, and she said, "you can write about how hilarious I
am!". She is hilarious! Hahaha! I absolutely love love love being
companions with her; she is an incredible missionary. Just being around her
makes me want to be a better person and missionary.
This week We were super hungry for
some good beef (they don't eat a ton of that here), but it's expensive, so
we found a restaurant that looked not too pricy, and each bought a plate of
meat. The restaurant was pretty full, so the only tables they had left were
ones for 10 people. They asked us if we minded, and we said no- because we're
missionaries and we love talking to people, and also, everyone in the place is
staring at us anyway. Perks of being a white girl. I think I will miss having
people tell me I'm beautiful all the time in America. It always is interesting
to me that I can be dripping sweat in a country full of gorgeous Asian people
and still have them tell me how beautiful I am. Anyway, a lady and two guys sat
down at the table with us and we struck up a conversation while eating our meat
(and sweating bullets because it ended up being mega spicy). We kept
talking to them and it turns out that one of them has a Book of Mormon and had been
to our church 15 years ago or something- we got his number and are meeting
with him this week.
This past Saturday we had 5 Recent Convert/Less active member lessons back
to back- and the theme of the day seemed to be that when a person is truly
converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing else matters. Each of the those
that we visited who no longer come to church still has a testimony of the gospel. One is inactive because she
works nights, and thus sleeps during the day, and they live with her mother in
law, who is very opposed to the church and criticizes them heavily for
attending. Another is inactive because she joined the church hoping it would
help her daughter, and now her daughter doesn't want to go anymore due to some
insensitive comments made by another member. The third is not active because
she has some personal questions and concerns.
These lessons were a stark contrast to the
lesson we had with L and W, our recent converts. We watched the video with them
about Chris Williams forgiving the driver of the car who killed his wife and
children. As Sister Smith and I discussed afterward how to help these people
who believe in the gospel return to full activity, we came to the conclusion
that it's really not about the mother-in-law, the needing to work, being
offended, the daughter, or the personal concerns. It's really all about
conversion. If there were true conversion, none of those things would take
precedence over the blessings of the kingdom of God. Then we started to realize
how directly that relates to us. We decided that most members of the church- or
even Christians in general- would say that their goal is to go to the celestial
kingdom. But is it really? If that is the desire of our
heart, we don't justify listening to a song with "just one bad part", for example.
It's been a real wake-up call to me to reexamine the desires of my heart. And
the best part about it is that if we discover that our desires are a little
misplaced, God can change the desires of our heart- and it's all through Jesus
Christ. This is the way I want to live. It's the kingdom of God or nothing. I
feel like I have come to understand so much more about the reality and veracity
of the Atonement these past few weeks. I have been reading my Patriarchal
blessing every day and trying to understand who the woman described there is-
because that woman is me, it is my spirit. And she is incredible.
Love you!
Sis Murri
No comments:
Post a Comment