It's been a crazy crazy week, as usual. :) On Tuesday my companion had to take a daytrip to Phoenix in order to get her visa, and I was on edge most of the week waiting to hear about mine. If you don't get your visa in time, you take a transfer stateside, which would have been cool too, but I wanted to get to Quito. Then I got the good news Wednesday night that Thursday I would be going to Phoenix to get my visa! Woohoo!!! It was a long day that began at 2:00 am, but it was so much fun to be outside in "real life" for a bit. It was also awesome because everybody stopped to talk to us when they saw our tags, and we met lots of cool people and heard lots of amazing stories. We got to eat real food, we bought Smashburger in the airport. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! It cost me twenty bucks, but I'd have given them forty if they'd asked for it, it was worth every penny! We were going to have to miss dinner, and then a really kind member bought us Costa Vida for dinner, so we were just walking on clouds! Phoenix has some beautiful weather right now, I made lots of new friends, learned to Uber, and got my Ecuador visa; it was a fantastic day.
(Pic with Sister McCune and Sister Kelsey)
On Tuesday the devotional was ELDER UCHTDORF! All the missionaries were bouncing off the walls and giving everybody high fives when we found out. :) It was an amazing talk, and I learned so much and had a lot of questions answered. Not even necessarily in what he said, but just in what the Spirit taught me during it. I was in the choir again and we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was awesome!
We had a great last visit with Octavio this week. He is seriously so prepared, and I hope he discovers that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the one and only source of true joy as he continues to meet with missionaries here. Our teacher sat in with us as we taught him, and that made me really nervous. But this lesson...it was POWERFUL. We were discussing the story of the First Vision, and Octavio loves Joseph Smith and his story. He said, " I think that I relate to Joseph Smith in many ways. I have questions too and I pray. But I don't understand, I feel like I don't receive answers to my prayers. Nothing happens. God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and they gave him the Book of Mormon to answer his questions, but obviously they don't appear to answer every person's prayer. They certainly don't appear to answer mine. Why don't they answer everyone's prayers?" I've discovered that when I am prompted to say something that isn't from me, my heart pounds and my breath comes short, and my ears get hot and it feels like my head is about to explode! I get a little scared, because they certainly aren't my ideas, but I just have this overwhelming "say this" kind of feeling and every single time it is just right. So after Octavio said this, I got THAT feeling and all of the sudden I remembered something my teacher had said that very morning (the teacher sitting in on our lesson) and I knew I needed to share it with him. So I said, (and this whole time I just felt this overwhelming love for him, God's love for him), "Octavio, something that our teacher shared with us this morning was this, 'When Jesus Christ can't be here right now, he sends his missionaries.'" Then I pointed to my tag and said, "It says right here that Hermana Kendell and I are representatives of Jesus Christ himself, and I believe that He has sent us as an answer to your prayers. It isn't necessary that God or angels appear in answer to every prayer. He uses his children as the means to answer the prayers of and to bless all of his other children. That's why I wanted to serve a mission. Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him the Book of Mormon. Right now, sitting in front of you are two of his missionaries, representatives of Him, and we would like to give YOU the Book of Mormon. I think you are, in fact, very similar to the boy Joseph Smith, and Heavenly Father is answering your prayers."
The Spirit was powerful, and my voice was choked by the end. I'd never made that correlation before, it wasn't my idea, and I was able to explain it perfectly in Spanish, which I could never do on my own. His eyes got wide and he just sat back in his chair and said, "Wow. I think I understand." Hermana Inskeep was crying sitting next to me, and Hermana Kendell and I just smiled at each other knowingly. We are becoming familiar with the power of the Spirit in our lessons, and the way he literally takes over, and it never ceases to take our breath away! Then we shared a scripture, one my sweet sister Emma shared with me earlier this week; it was so perfect. 2 Nephi 21:16: "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." Isn't that beautiful? Hermana Kendell shared with him her testimony that God never forgets us, and is aware of our questions and struggles and hopes and desires. Everything. He wants to answer our prayers and He does. We just have to be ready to see it. We challenged Octavio to continue to seek for truth and light, and to continue to pray and read the Book of Mormon, and trust his Heavenly Father. I really think he will and it makes me so happy.
The gospel is so true! Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. If you're on the fence about it, please please please do it! I'm only six weeks in and I can't believe the way the Lord has been teaching me, it is incredible and I am so grateful for this opportunity. It's such a wonderful day to be a missionary!
(L to R: Hermana Kendell, me, Hermana McKinnon, Hermana Brimhall- the district Hermanas)
(Me at the "The Map")
(L to R bottom: Sis Mousia, Sis Drussell, Sis Ross, Sis McKinnon, Sis Allen, and top: Me, Sis Brimhall, Sis Kendell-- some of the girls in our branch. We all have rooms next to each other and we always hang out, it's a tight squad:)
(Sunset from classroom window!)
(One of my favorite views, with the scripture banners)
MTC teachers with District Hermanas
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