One-Year Mark in the Mission and Spiritual Thought About Time

Hola Mama! How are you? I’m finally starting to feel better. I’ve had stomach pain quite a bit this last week but thankfully no trips to the hospital. I tried a few different medications for the first couple of days but they didn’t work so now I’m taking some others that are working better. Also, I’ve got a bunch of fun pictures for you today that I just sent.

Tuesday I still felt sick with stomach pain. We had our district meeting that day and talked about how to contact people and it was a really great and awesome meeting. Then we had intercambios after and it was my turn to be with Elder Donkersgoed. It was super awesome to be able to go with him and teach lessons. We talked and laughed and joked and worked. I just love him for so many reasons. He is really good at ministering and helping people including me!

Wednesday was my one-year mark in the mission!! In the morning Elder Donkersgoed gave me a capacitación, which is like a training. It was super awesome spiritual and edifying. I wish I could have recorded it all with my voice recorder to help me remember all that we talked about. I also asked him to give me a blessing of counsel and guidance to help me. It was all wonderful!! He goes home in about 7 weeks, so around Thanksgiving! But I hope we can stay friends after I get home. He’s from Pleasant Grove.

Thursday we went contacting and found a girl who was from Idaho and lived there most of her life. She went to Texas and got married, had a daughter and then moved to Mexico and has another daughter. It was super awesome to find her and talk to her in English! Later we had interviews with President and Hermana Urrea and a teaching evaluation. That was the last thing we did before going home for the night.

Friday was a pretty rough day because both my companion and I were feeling sick so we didn’t get to do a lot that day. We were able to talk to some less active members, contacts from before and reschedule appointments. I was super tired and didn’t feel good, but at least we were able to find two contacts and also a family of really awesome less active members who have a huge, beautiful garden around and inside their house. They invited us to go back one day to eat carne asada and have a big food fiesta.

Saturday we had a lesson with Joel, Maria de Lourdes and her kids where we taught them about the law of chastity. They have the same challenges with Maria not being divorced from her husband, then not having money to pay for it and barely having money to eat each day, let alone buy clothes and shoes for the kids. It is a big trial they are going through but we are doing what we can to help. Later we talked with an inactive family to try and help them and invite them to come to church. This family is a very nice and great family, but they have been through a lot. And because of what they have been through and things they have done, they don’t feel worthy to go to church and doubting that they can go. We are also meeting with them to try and help them know what they need to do.

Sunday was a day I can’t even describe how happy and grateful I was. On Saturday I prayed and asked God that if right now is really Jimena’s time to be baptized then please help her and let her come to church. Well Heavenly Father answered my prayer because she was at church. My companion and I were helping prepare the sacrament when I looked out the door and saw her sitting with her grandpa. I almost yelled with excitement!! That was the best part of the day.

For my spiritual thought, one of the days of my journal entries I wrote a little bit about time and how I’ve been really stressed out with time. One thing I learned is that people mining gold rarely find the big gold nuggets, they find the little flakes and pebbles but only after working hard and looking for a long time. And as time goes on and they continue to find those little pieces, well those little pieces add up to be a lot! I'm having trouble remembering where it is and what exactly it says but there’s a scripture that says something along the lines of by smalls works are many mighty miracles brought forth. I’m pretty sure I totally botched that but a lot of times we only think about the big things we need to do but the small and simple things are just as important too! They take time and hard work as does everything, but we need to take it step by step, little by little. I hope that makes sense!

Another thought I had about time was, if we aren’t using our time wisely but want more because we feel like there isn’t enough or aren’t grateful for the time we do have, why is God going to give us more? I firmly and honestly believe that God controls time and can either make it speed up or slow down and give us more time if we are grateful and use the time we do have wisely. I’m going to study more about time but you know that can be related to a lot of things like blessings, talents and gifts, strengths, etc.

I have to go now but if people ask, clarify that the worms I ate were dead and cooked, not live and raw haha. Anyways I love you so much! I hope you have a great week!