¡Estamos temprano con nuestras cartas por qué hoy, vimos al templo! But this week...this was something else. We started the week off amazingly and ended it with a beautiful sealing, overall I'd say it was pretty great!!
Monday we had a lesson with a less active sister's kids. She's got three. The girls haven't been baptized and the mom wanted them to be so she invited us to go teach them. We showed up Monday and the kids just loved us! After getting to know them a bit they came and sat right in front of us and said, "so you guys are the teachers!" We explained why we were there and went over everything about baptism with them, then we invited the girls to be baptized. They were super excited about it and asked when. We talked with their mom and proposed the 26th of June (just before they get ready to leave for a month long trip in Mexico) and they accepted! The girls were super excited to learn about the church and asked when we were going to come back, we scheduled for Thursday:) We had to get home so we taught them how to pray as we closed the lesson en were off to catch the bus!
We looked over some weekly goals after we got home and decided we wanted to try and stretch a little bit further this week. So far we have been very successful. It's another testimony to me that when we plan something out with the Spirit and ask the Lord to help us in accomplishing what we have set out to do, then work our butts off to get it done, He helps us do more than we could do on our own (*cough cough* enabling power of the Atonement!!) and stuff gets done!! We have the potential to teach seven lessons today and tomorrow alone (that has not happened in Dyker...ever), assuming people exercise their agency correctly haha:)
Tuesday we had our first district meeting as Dyker Chino-Spanish. It was good, Elder Brenkman is our unofficial-official district leader haha, but he did a good job. He's doing his best with what we have all been thrown into and I'm thankful for that. After district meeting we taught the first temple prep lesson on the plan of salvation. That was awesome.
After we taught that lesson we headed to another sister's for dinner and a lesson. She had a massive migraine when we got there but had prepared food and wanted a message. We ate quickly and quietly, then left her with a quick message before running out. Right after we walked onto the street, we literally had been outside two seconds, a man walking by in the crowd said "hi sisters", then just kept walking by. We were like, "wait what...?" We didn't even have time to think about it or chase him down to talk to him cause right after that was said a big tough-looking tattoo-clad man five feet away or so said, "are you guys Mormons?" We fished through the crowd to him and were like, "yeah we are!!" He asked where the nearest chapel was and after we told him he said he'd go look it up. Interesting. So that was a fun time haha! So after a few unexpected seeds, we headed to English
class. We have a few new students so that's awesome!
Wednesday we had service, which is always great. They were worried we'd get rained out so we tried to work fast. But, the job they had for us we did too quickly I guess cause the rain wasn't coming and we finished with an hour to go... So, they put us to weeding --we are really good weeders haha! We're all scattered in this field weeding around these new trees when an elder calls out, "hey...what do we do with baby bunnies?" We all ran over and sure enough, five baby bunnies are chillin under some weeds! The ranger people took care of it and right about then the rain began. And oh did it begin. Sopping wet, to the point that we were wringing out our hair and shirts, we returned home to change and get to work for the rest of the day. We did some finding and met up with a less active. She has two kids, a son whose nine (not baptized) and a special needs girl whose four. This was our first time meeting her, so we got to talk with her and get to know her a little bit. We will be going back to teach her next week same time.
(Also found out at service that one of the sisters was in the army for four years before the mish and played professional soccer for Brazil for four years before that!! Can you say cool?? I was like dude, this girl is so much cooler than all of us 😂😂 ) We also talked a bit with Sister Provard and Sister Seay while waiting for our trains. This was more of a just me kinda thing that made me feel a little better haha cause they were all surprised when they realized I was still training and it made me feel like maybe I don't look like as much of a mess as I feel like hahaha 😂😂)
Thursday we had our lesson with the twins and that was awesome! It's kinda awkward how the lessons go though cause the kids básicamente don't speak Spanish. They understand it but can't read it or speak it really at all. No problem, you say. Teach them in English, you say. Whelp, their mom doesn't speak English! So, we just teach them in English and their mom throws in a little bit here and there as we translate bits and pieces for her. But anyway, the lesson was on the restoration and the kids loved it. They had tons of questions but said they understood it all in the end. We left them a chapter in the children's Book of Mormon to read as their tarea and those kids were so excited they started right then!! We're going to walk with them to church tomorrow and teach them afterwards as well. This family is awesome.
We met up with Sister Fouts and Sister Taylor for lunch before zone training meeting. We got our Chinese food to go and ate at the church until everyone came. Training was good, as always. It was just really odd with so many people missing. Our zone is now only two districts. I mean, we only lost three people recently, but we lost a lot more at transfers it feels like than we got in. I guess it's just the people missing now we're big people in more ways than one, so it felt kinda empty at training. Just a little not right... But it was good.
Today we went to the temple!!! Yay!! We got there around 8:30 for the sealing at nine and it was beautiful. The family is simply amazing. They have a daughter who's passed away. It made seeing them be sealed even more special. It was awesome. Just being in the temple alone was a great feeling, but then the fact that we were there for the sealing of the Andrade family made it even better. Aaaaaahhh. It was amazing. We are over here still just smiling!! 😊😊
We waited in the church side of the building for them to come out and guess who I saw? Elder Hunt from my zone at the CCM! He's serving in New Jersey. They were there with a person they baptized a month or so ago for her to do baptisms. We talked for a bit and then the family came out. It was great to see a familiar face! We took some pictures outside then all headed back together. It was funny to see this big herd of people (it wasn't really that many people tho) all dressed up going through the subways. We got our share of stares for sure haha!
Y estamos aquí. We've got a few people set for finding tonight, so hopefully that can go as planned! Man. Missionary work is awesome. I have forgotten what it's like to not put on a skirt and a tag
everyday. Every thought we have is dedicated towards someone else and how we can help or serve them. It's amazing. It makes me think of how the Savior lived. He was the perfect missionary and we are doing our best to try and follow what He did and taught through His example. When you try to live like the Savior I think you come to understand Him better. As I'm coming to understand how He lived my love and appreciation for Him has grown. It's crazy how much I've learned in the last few months. About everything.
Pero, eso es, y quiero compartir una escritura con ustedes. Mosiah 24:15 "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." I love this scripture. I know it is true, and I know when we seek help in times of difficulty we can ask for the Lord to change us. Thus, we become agents unto ourselves to act rather than objects to be acted upon. Through trials we can be changed. And that's what we want, right?:) Change. Or conversion. Changing constantly as we improve --continually becoming more converted into the Lord-- until the day we become perfect as our Father. I love that we have the hope that this is possible because of this gospel. Church is so cool, guys. Don't be ashamed of it. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God". I love this gospel and I love serving in New York. Sorry for gettin all preachy on y'all haha. I hope everyone has a fabulous week!
Love you lots!!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley
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| Waiting for the train on Sunday. I swear we spend 50% of our day waiting for public transportation. Ugh. |
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