I feel like this last week never ended because we never had our preparation day and now we are having just this awkward day in the middle of our week where we email...it's really weird haha. Last week we had a lot that happened. We had so many tender mercies, let's see how many I can remember specifically: awesome lesson with the Crisostomos, PERFECT less active-investigator-recent convert Haitian party-lesson-dinner, new years(!), service x5000.
So because this is so fresh in my mind I need to talk about yesterday first!! Goodness, this was an awesome day. Well, first things first: we got to go and do some service! The mission has turned away from large continuous organized service activities and prefer for us to do random acts of service all the time rather than just three hours of a service project one day every week. This opportunity came up last year or the year before when the fabulous Elder Young found this guy in Bell Harbor with his companion (whoever he was, I didn't know him so forgot the name haha). This guy has this ridiculously huge Christmas display of his house and yard every year. Man, I wish I had seen this or had pictures of it, it was crazy!!! So we helped take everything down and load it all up into the semi truck. I mean, this was the real deal, they were not messing around! They had a fire truck to get things off the house, they had some fifty guys there with us helping move all these things. It was crazy. But it was a lot of fun, regardless of the rain that never ceased haha.After service we had a quick district meeting and then had our lesson. This guy, this guy is awesome. He is a member of the Jamaican clan and they are legendary is this area. We were excited to stop by and see how they have been, so we did that Sunday and they said we could come back the next day to teach some of the members of the family individually. First up was the 25-year-old.
This morning during personal study I thought about him and remembered we had felt prompted to leave him a chapter. I know the chapter pretty well but was curious what exactly we had left him. I opened it up and with the first verse was laughing. I told my companion to read it. We skimmed through the chapter together and just looked at each other amazed. God is so good!! Yes, we know this, but really! This chapter, the whole thing, was the most perfect thing for him. It blew our minds just how perfect it all was, exactly with what we were talking about and exactly with what his questions were. It was really cool. We are super excited to meet with him tomorrow and see what he thought of it. We think he probably laughed about how perfect it was too. Man, the Lord is trying to tell him something! Just as He is all of us with our individual needs. Will we recognize His voice and His answers to our questions when He sends them? As He always does? I hope for each of us that is a YES!
Friday we had interviews with President in Rego. That was good. He gave me some good reminders.
Now Thursday we had our little miracle dinner/lesson/thing. It was awesome. The Saturday before Elder McConkie told us he felt impressed to get these three specific families together for this. We all agreed and he said it would probably take some time to get organized but that we could do it and if we could that it would be great for these families and their progress. Well, three days later the date was set, the people confirmed, and the food planned. It was a miracle. We were allowed by the zone leaders to go as well with the english elders because we had three families of investigators there who we are tag teaching. This was perfect. It went amazingly and right after we left we all four offered up a prayer on the driveway because it was so perfect, and the only way it was ever happening was if it was the will of the Lord.
Since this dinner we have met with one of the families twice and the husband is progressing like crazy! He really knows everything is true. His testimony is unbelievable, and he has been prepared literally his whole life by the Lord. It is amazing how his stories testify of this. We taught the family Sunday after church when they invited us over to try their traditional New Year's squash soup. It was really good. The husband shared a bunch of stories with us and had one that brought us to Helaman 16 with Samuel the Lamanite. That whole lesson was fairly soportarnos as it didn't go how we had planned, but rather we played off his experiences and how the Lord has been preparing him his whole life up to this point to accept the gospel. Right after we left the elders taught them having been invited, and they committed him to be baptized. He wants a senior couple who served here back in the day to be there. We are going to get in touch with them and see when they can come out for it then propose that day! We are really excited.
This brings another thought to mind. This is probably the fourth family we have visited just in the last week who has shared with us just how much this or that senior couple in particular meant to them. It is crazy to me how much these senior couples really do for the work. It may be a different side of the work without knocking or formally proselyting all the time, but it is important and necessary and it changes lives. So thank you so much to all of our awesome senior couples and all those thinking of serving with their spouse. You change everything. It is amazing.
It has been a good, busy, crazy, and surprising week haha but that is the joy of the work, taking what comes and running with it! Oh! Almost forgot!! I saw Sister Welch on Sunday at church! We were talking to Hna Crisostomo when she came in so I didn't see her until we walked into the chapel and I was so happy to see her!! For those of you who do not remember every detail of my mission ;) she is my abuelita! I love her so much. It was so cool to see her. She started her mission here two years ago so seeing her with her family was awesome.
Anyway, this has been a pretty great week. Weird writing today, but asà es. Well, I love you tons, and hope we all are ready for a new year. Everyone likes to make new year's resolutions that they forget within the first month, but I would invite each of us to make our own resolutions for our spiritual journey this year, to evaluate where you progressed and perhaps digressed spiritually in the last year that we can determine and have a vision of where we want to be at the end of this year. Personally, I will be working on charity. Of course this is a lifelong journey that we are all on and we will not be perfect at those things we strive to improve this year by the end of it, but we will be better if we choose to be. I will be working to be more true to the feelings I have and expressing them more freely. :) If you have a hard time knowing what aspect of your spirituality you want to improve I would highly recommend the end of chapter six in Preach My Gospel where there is a little self-evaluation list of Christlike attributes where you can see what areas you would like most to improve and then make a plan for how you will do it. Anyway, this rambling has gone for long enough, I love you and wish the best week and happy new year for each of us! Love you!
MuchÃsimo amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley
P.S. Also, the subject line: we were doing the service and there was a radio blasting and the song by REO Speedwagon came on and we (Elder Firl --my 80s music comrade-- and I) could not for the love remember who it was, but in the end one of the guys looked it up for us so we were at peace, just a little disappointed in ourselves ;) ...the mission veil is real, I'm tellin' ya!
P.P.S. This exchange also took place yesterday haha
Hermana: *about my hair* "Girl, you better not go to Jamaica, they gonna scalp you for that!"
Me: *nervous laughter*
#strangestcomplimentihaveeverbeengiven #illtakeit
Laugh moment this week:
Washing every dish known to man in preparation for the dinner:
- Elder McConkie: *goes to rinse hands in sink*
- Me: "careful it's really hot"
- EM: ".....does that water not burn you???"
- Me: "my grandma says something like if it's not hot enough for you to barely handle it, it's not hot enough haha"
- EM: "uuuuuum.....I'm gonna unhot it..... I haven't got mom hand yet"
- (Later, after a cake overflowed and started to spill on the oven
so they had to clean up the batter before it started to burn)
- Iderle: *uses a rag and paper towel and her bare hands to wipe off the spilled batter from the 400 degree oven*
- EM: *looks of horror* "HOW???"
- Us: "mom hands"
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