February 6, 2023
Hey, ya'll! Hope you're doing good and thawing out a bit!
Another week of highest of highs and lowest of lows as a missionary.
Earlier this week a senior couple stopped by to check on our house. Guys, I'm not crazy they feel bad for us haha. It's not ideal living conditions. Lol. Honestly really counting my blessings though. We have running water.
I also got to go to Carrasco to the mission home on Thursday to have another meeting with all the other missionaries that arrived with me. That was really cool. I love our mission president and his wife and family They are the best.
This week I saw a lot of miracles in the work. We have been slowly losing people to teach for various reasons, so we've been trying to find more to work with. One day we were out contacting some people in our other area La Capuera and we came across some menos activos families and they are just the coolest. They are so kind and shared their testimonies and their experiences with us. Normally when we talk to less active families or people they all give us the same story about why they don't go to church. "Years ago so and so did this or didn't do this" and they all got offended in some way or another and they don't feel comfortable at church anymore.
We found a really cool family this week like that. However, we were able to find some others this week that for the first time didn't give us that story. One lady just fell away after moving here and not knowing where the church was. She just stopped going. But she is so amazing and has such great faith and will return soon, I think. Another one is Mauricio. Mauricio is a recent convert who we didn't know about, but he reached out to us asking how to have a lesson with us. We met him and had a lesson with him and he says he wants to serve a mission. Woohoo! He came back to church on Sunday, and so did another of our less active members, Anabela.
Now, Sunday was a real miracle. There is a family here that has been having issues with the leadership and others in the branch. It causes a lot of contention. However, on Sunday, this couple got up and bore their testimonies and said sorry, and asked for forgiveness from anyone they may have offended recently. What happened is they had a dear friend pass away this week and it really opened their eyes that you never know when you could die. And they assessed their testimonies and their lives and they knew they did not want to die outside of the church. They know this church is true and that it's the way to return to live with God, so they decided they would do the things they know they need to and they wouldn't be leaving the church. It was incredible! And after that, the others in the branch got up and told how they were going to forgive somebody that had offended them and on and on, and at the end of the sacrament meeting, everybody was talking and greeting (besos- I'm still getting used to that) each other and it was really cool! It's a miracle! We have a branch again here in Pan de Azucar! We have members that function together and now we have a welcoming environment to invite investigators to attend instead of a contentious environment.
It's hard to be humble. It's hard to forgive. It's hard. But what are you willing to do to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Please, if you know this church is true, if you have a testimony of Jesus Christ, do not leave the church because of the actions or words of another member. We are not perfect. We are not supposed to be perfect. But the gospel is perfect. The doctrine of Christ is true and unchanging. And we are just asked to do our best to follow Christ.
Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ. Sometimes we have days where nobody is interested or lessons fall through. Some days this is just not fun. But I just keep remembering my purpose. I'm not here to have fun, although I do have hope that'll come as I get more settled, however, it's not my purpose here. I'm not here to baptize the most amount of people. I'm not here to get cool pictures and see new places and be stress-free. It's okay if our lessons fall through. It's ok if it's not fun, as long as I'm doing what I'm here to do- inviting others to come unto Christ, then I'm doing good!
Our purpose on this earth is not to be perfect and it's also not to have a perfect stress-free life with no challenges. We are meant to have hard things to work through. We are meant to progress. Your purpose is to just learn and grow, to have joy through it, which I know we can all find in Christ, and to do what we know we need to do in order to return to our Father in Heaven again. In other words, we are just supposed to be good girls and boys. If you're doing your best, you're doing good. Keep it up!
Our friend Franco did not get baptized on Sunday but hopefully soon!
I am not sure what else to write about lol. I'm sure other things happened but my mind is blanking and it's all a blur. Oh, I guess another miracle is one day I really had to go to the bathroom but we were out waiting for our bus to take us back to our area and there wasn't a bathroom near and the bus was running late and we weren't sure when it would come. I was literally like in pain and I prayed SO hard to make it to a bathroom - haha. I made it. Like 40 minutes later. God is in the details of our lives.
Oh, one day somebody's dog followed us when we left their house, and like 2 miles later he was still with us and he stayed with us until we got home that night and then stayed outside our door fighting with another dog for a couple hours. I'm really not a huge fan of these dogs here.
I finally bought a sombrero haha! No more sunburns for me! Got the widest rim I could find.
Oh, it rained a little this week so that's awesome!! It's been a little cooler so that's really nice.
We stayed last night in Maldonado after our zone conference and then spent this morning together. Like 10 hermanas all stayed together in the apartment last night lol it was interesting.
Every time I have challenges and struggles to overcome, Christ walks through them with me and helps me. He lifts me up and keeps me going. I could not do this without Him. He never fails me. I hope to never fail Him.
Love y'all so much! And miss you tons! Doesn't always feel like it, but really it's a privilege to be a missionary. Vamo Arriba!
Hermana Bailey
Spider count: that big fat one is still living in our window. I really gotta kill it before it has babies or something.
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