March 16, 2015

Hey sweet fam!!! 

This week, I would love to start out with a quick scripture, 2 Nephi 28:30!  

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth  I will give  more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

Okay this has totally been a theme scripture for my mission.  Every aspect of the mission (my Spanish, my ability to handle stress, my power to adapt to such a different life), has been a line upon line type of process.  And do you know what I realized???  Even though the mission is super hard and sometimes seems impossible, God always gives us a little bit here and there to keep us moving forward.

I would love to share an experience that happened last night.  It´s a little long, so bear with me!!!

I honestly saw one of the biggest miracles of my mission last night.  A month or so ago, I was walking around with Hermana Obando.  We had about fifteen minutes before we needed to head back to the house to cook lunch, and there was really no one for us to visit.  So I just prayed we´d be able to find someone to talk to, and we found a sweet lady named Monica!  She was standing outside of a house (not her house, the house of an older lady she takes care of) and was just outside for a couple minutes to get some fresh air.  We talked to her for a bit and she was super friendly and said we could totally pass by in another moment.  So we passed by the next Wednesday and taught her about the restoration and it went great!!  And then the following week, I passed by with Hermana Jenkins and we taught the Book of Mormon and it also went great!!  But after we taught the Book of Mormon, it became really difficult to find her.  The lady she´s been taking care of wasn´t feeling too well, so every time we passed by, Monica said it wasn´t a good time for them.  We were thinking it might be time to stop visiting her, but about a week ago, we saw Monica outside and asked for the address of HER house.  She gave it to us and told us to pass by on Saturday!  

Okay so now I´m going to rewind to the beginning of this week.  We´ve kind of been struggling a bit here because there´s not a ton of people to visit.  This past Monday, I remembered a companionship of hermanas who were working here before I came left a list of all their investigators.  They left in a rush before transfers because presidente called them to open an area in a part of our mission that covers Argentina!  So these two hermanas quickly wrote down all their investigators and left it in the house for the next hermanas to use!  Hermana Jenkins and I decided during the times when we didn´t have people to visit, we could search for all these investigators.  Let me just say, we did lots and lots of walking and barely found any houses and I was just kind of asking myself why I had even thought to do this.  BUT...we did find someone named Jeny!  We passed by her house one afternoon and met her two oldest kids.  Her kids were super nice, so we decided to pass by another moment in the future.

On Saturday, Hermana Jenkins and I passed by Monica´s house!  I didn´t realize it at first, but Hermana Jenkins figured out Monica lives right next door to Jeny.  I didn´t think much of it, but it turned out to be a HUGE miracle they live so close.  So anyway, we knocked on Monica´s door on Saturday, and her nephew poked his head out the door to tell us she wasn´t home.  We were a little bummed because she had told us to pass by that day, but all was good.

On Sunday after finishing our weekly planning, we made some quick plans for whom we would visit in the afternoon.  And we decided since we didn´t see Monica on Saturday, we could pass by again.  And we put her neighbor, Jeny as our Plan B.  Sunday at about 8:20 p.m. or so, we arrived at Monica´s house and knocked once again.  This time, her son poked his head out of the door to tell us she wasn´t home.  We had Jeny as our Plan B, but we kind of felt scared to knock at her house because it was a little late and we didn´t want her to be annoyed with us.  But we went and talked to her anyway!  When we knocked at Jeny´s house, she came outside but she was not interested in the gospel very much.  She said she was super busy and needed to cook, but something told me we just needed to talk to her a bit more.  So we asked about her kids, her work, etc., and we had a great conversation (although it wasn´t super centered in the gospel).  About five or ten minutes into our conversation, Monica came outside!!!  All four of us (Monica, Jeny, Hermana Jenkins, and I) talked for a bit but then Jeny had to leave to cook.  So then we were left with Monica!  It was late and dark and Monica has young kiddos, so I thought we would get the usual, "pass by another time" card.  But NO!  She asked us if we could come in for a moment.  As we sat around her kitchen table, we began talking with her, and she began to tell us about how horrible of a day it had been.  She began to get really emotional.  We weren´t really aware, but she´s been having a lot of big problems in her life and felt alone and sad and didn´t know what to do.  We listened to her, sang a hymn, and Hermana Jenkins shared an INCREDIBLE scripture passage to help Monica out.  We all felt the Spirit so strong, and with God´s help, we were able to help Monica (and two of her sweet kiddos who were listening) feel just a little bit better.  

After the lesson, Monica told us a bit about what happened before our lesson.  When we knocked on her door, she was actually in the bathroom.  When she came out, her son told her two women who spoke Spanish in a really weird way had passed by and that he had told us she wasn´t home!  She felt sad because she thought we had gone on our way, but something told her to take a step outside.  So she went outside and heard our voices talking to Jeny (her neighbor)!  She then went to find us because she really needed the help of God in that moment.  

God is so involved in the details!  Last night, I realized we´ve been using the list the other hermanas left so we could find Jeny, even though she wasn´t interested.  He needed us to find Jeny´s house so when we visited Monica on Sunday and thought she wasn´t home, we could talk to Jeny for a bit until Monica was ready to find us!  Also, Monica wasn´t home on Saturday so we would pass by on Sunday, during a crucial moment when she really needed the help of God.  Sorry this story was so long, but just remember God is willing to do whatever it takes to help His children.

I love you all, and keep being so awesome.  Always look for the little bit God gives us here and there to help us move forward!!!

Hermana Dixon