Dear Familia,
This week was AWESOME and filled with all sorts of miracles, thanks to the love and patience Heavenly Father has for his children! I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for God to have to work with someone as imperfect and hard-headed as I am in order to perform his miracles and help his children progress in the Plan of Salvation.
I want to start things off with a little story, about a little missionary, that was serving in a skinny little country called Chile. She didn't have a lot of investigators that wanted to progress and she and her companion had been praying good and hard for the past 2 weeks to find people who were really prepared to receive the Gospel. They were looking high and low and walking to the Boondocks to try and find these prepared children of God. However, this whole time the little old man that lived in their apartment building was sitting and waiting for them to come visit him. He had received a Restoration pamphlet from some missionaries he met in the street and placed the pamphlet in the window so that the 2 little sister missionaries would pass by his house. But these little missionaries were too busy with other grand plans they had made to find people ready to receive the restored gospel that they never listened to the thelittle spirit telling them that there was a prepared soul right outside their front door. This past week when they finally saw the pamphlet and went to talk with the little old man, who wants to be baptized and has already received an answer from the Holy Ghost that the Restoration is real, they couldn't believe how hard headed and silly they had been this whole time,searching high and low, doing all these grand and extravagant things, when the answer was so simple and easy.
Sadly, this isn't some made up story, but is the life of your sweet friend and family member, Hna. McKenna. The little old man's name is Marco and he's AMAZING!!!!!! However, I can't even express how embarrassed I felt that I had been praying so hard for so long, literally walking to the corners and limits of my sector, when he was right there the whole time!
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this miracle that was waiting for us on our doorstep.
1. The importance of talking with EVERYONE about the Gospel!!! Especially the people that are closest to us in our lives…family, friends, neighbors...it doesn't matter how many times you've passed by, or how many times you've talked to them about the Gospel,you never know when Heavenly Father is preparing them for YOUR testimony!!
2. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor...and is SOOOOO patient with his children.
3. Heavenly Father always listens and responds to our prayers, we just need to be receptive to the promptings of the Spirit and recognize the answers.
4. Even when we're hard headed, make mistakes, or are inadequate instruments, Heavenly Father loves us and is still willing to work with us.
Also, this week Erica received an answer to the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!! One of my favorite parts about being a missionary is listening to people share their experiencias about how they've received an answer that the B of M is true. Erica described it like her life was like a lake and the water was all rough, but when she kneeled down to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, everything became really peaceful and the water became totally calm. I LOVE IT!!!!! How beautiful is that description!? This gospel brings peace!
This week there were a lot of high moments, and a lot of low moments. During the week I was starting to let Satan make me think that all the low moments canceled out the good that was happening in our sector. Because of a talk my comp. shared with me I started thinking of all the high moments as drops of awesomeness in the bucket of life/mission, and that couldn't be effected by the low moments. An investigator read the B of M...drop of awesome. I wrote two sentences in my journal...drop of awesome. A lot of recent converts came to church...drop of awesome. But at the end of the day I'm never going to be able to fill this bucket with my tiny tiny drops of awesome...and that, my friends, is where the giant pitcher of the Atonement comes into play and fills this bucket until it starts overflowing!!!! The Atonement is real and makes up for everything we lack in awesomeness, spiritualidad, charity, etc....Christ is always here to help us, to change us, so that one day we can be as awesome as him.
Love you all! You're all awesome!
XOXO-Hna. McKenna
Fun Facts:
-Monica had her baby!
-Millary and Paula shared their testimonies on Sunday. It was SOOOO sweet! Paula shared about how God loves us and that He was watching over her little brother in the pre-earth life...she started to cry...so did I...ya, I'm still a cry baby. And Millary bore her testimony on the B of M and Joseph Smith. She's a powerhouse and is currently in Mosiah 26.
-Jesuan is currently passing the sacrament, said the opening prayer last Sunday, and has memorized D&C 13.
-Thanks to my Latina compañera and the other hispanic missionaries, I have discovered that I am learning the worst Spanish in all of South America...I apologize if nobody can understand me when I get home.
- A Quote that I LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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