I wanted to share two particularly meaningful experiences that happened to me this week. I will say this, that so much happens between the weeks of emailing, that it is impossible to give a good summary. This week I had one of the hardest weeks of my mission up to this point. I already look back on it with fondness. It is so funny how it works. I am sitting at Infozion where I email, and I feel this energy and drive to do it again. I know it will be hard. But I feel the Spirit and excitement as I think about the work we can do this week.
It rained a lot here this week, and one of the days I was seriously sooo sad, I can't even tell you why. We had to drop some stuff off at our house, and I learned a tender lesson from the Lord as I cried to Him in prayer. I learned that in my efforts to learn and grow and become, there has to be rain. Just as it was pouring down rain in Sao Paulo Brazil, it was pouring down rain on Spencer. It is impossible to grow without rain. It was an obvious, but needed analogy.
Tuesday we got a call to go and give someone a blessing. It is the mother of two boys that are in the ward here, and she is not a member. She is part of a family that has many members in the ward. We went on Wednesday. We arrived at the house, and we talked with the woman who is skin and bones. She can hardly see. She is so weak. We began talking more and I learned she has diabetes, and is dying very slowly from the complications. She has to go to a health post, and is a long long walk in order to check her blood. They had no paperwork about how to treat diabetes, and I was so concerned at the lack of organization after our family had that huge orientation and all of this support and help. She said last time she went in she was at 500 or 600. We gave her a blessing, and on Sunday her son said that she was doing better.
Sunday morning we had confirmed 12 people to come to church. 5 ended up coming and I was frustrated. I was still a little sad when I was asked to help bless the Sacrament. Sitting in front before the meeting started, I saw many members of the family were rushing outside of the building, tears were on the face of those remaining inside. It was evident that something had happened. I looked down at her 15 year old son, waiting the pass the Sacrament with tears streaming down his cheeks. His 18 year old brother sitting in the back, holding his little cousin on his lap. I saw cousins, and friends crying with the family as the woman suffering was rushed to the hospital. It was testimony meeting and one of the relatives came back to Sacrament meeting to bear her testimony about the Savior. The older son got up and bore his testimony that he knows the Lord doesn't forget us. As I sat on the stand and looked into the faces of these people, I felt such a love for them. It was a very tender experience.
I felt so much gratitude for the health of my sweet sister, who is such a wonderful example of strength. Everyone here prays for health. I thought it was vain repetition. But how grateful I am to be healthy, and to have a healthy family. I was praying for an experience with gratitude and how very gracious the Lord was with me, as I felt so very, very grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment