Happy Late Valentines Day!
I have some super cool valentines to send you, but I lost them and found them hiding among my envelopes, so I'll send those along pretty soon. I'm so so so so so so so happy to hear about the plans for Lauren's new clinic. (Allison's sister Lauren has suffered from terrible chronic head pain for eleven years, and she is now getting some great therapy to rewire the brain and be able to live a more normal life. Allison has been a great support to Lauren and her family through these terribly difficult years.) I know I've mentioned this a few times before, but it's such a blessing to not have to worry quite so much about things at home. It was interesting because in the MTC there were 3 or 4 times when I was told specifically not to worry about home because everything would be fine. I wasn't worried about them at the time, but Heavenly Father knows me and knows that I need those kinds of preemptive consejos (advice,counsel.)
Man. English. You betray me again. I love Spanglish. For example, in my exit interview with one of the counselors in the branch presidency, he brought up Section 31 in the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord is talking to early Church Pioneer Thomas B. Marsh about his calling to be a missionary and what blessings his family will receive, particularly in verse 5 where it says: (sorry I don't have my English scriptures with me..mom, can you translate this?) "Por tanto, mete tu hoz con toda tu alma, y tus pecados te son perdonados, y tus espaldas seran cargadas de gavillas, porque el obrero es digno de su salario. Por consiguiente, tu familia vivira"("Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.") The counselor, Brother Hollister said "you know, Hermana, the Lord doesn't just mean that his family will live physically. He means they will be blessed with eternal life, that they'll be blessed with faith and hope in the Gospel of Christ." The interesting thing was, I had read that section the night before. I wanted to read something other than the next chapter in the Book of Mormon, so I opened up to the Doctrine and Covenants, found a really short section, and just read one verse (which happened to be verse 5). I was super tired, but thought "Huh. That's an interesting promise. What's this section about?" I just read the rest of it, liked it, but didn't think much else of it until the next day. In addition, there were a few talks the next few days that assured the missionaries that our families would be blessed for our full time service.......I'm understanding more and more that Heavenly Father has so much in store for us, we just have to ask for it, work to get it. I like the Bible Dictionary in the prayer section where it says "prayer is a form of work. There are many blessings God is already willing to grant, but are dependent upon our asking for them." And then that's where the Holy Ghost comes in to give us direction to know what to ask for in our prayers. Gosh. Heavenly Father's so amazingly smart!
That seems to be happening a lot lately. I'll have a worry in the back of my mind that I don't want to really think about or I just don't have time to really examine it, but I have all these little messages from Heavenly Father that help me resolve the worry and the doubt before it even becomes a problem (or at least before it becomes a big problem). I love it.
Yesterday we had a Sisters' Training where all the sister missionaries in the mission got to come, President and Sister Martin talked to us, the mission doctor (frankly, I think a mom would have had a bit better advice. He mostly just talked about what a miracle IBuprofen is), and then we got to hear from the sisters who are going home after this transfer (6 week period) one of which is my own dear Hermana Strong. I guess I really haven't told you anything about my companions... sorry!
Hermana Strong is from Utah and she worked as a first grade teacher for a year before her mission. She's really laid back and super cool, knows the ins and outs of the administrative aspects of missionary work and has so many object lessons up her sleeve, it's amazing. She loves loves music and we listen to it all the time. She's very encouraging and listens to the Spirit like no one I've ever encountered before.
Hermana Gerhartz is from New Jersey and reminds me a lot of my cousin Kristina, actually. She has a very direct, loving way of sharing the Gospel and is fantastic at finding small, simple ways to help our investigators have at least one positive daily encounter with the missionaries. She also plays guitar super-well, but I haven't yet had the privilege of hearing her play, since we have no guitar in our apartment. But she plays air guitar all the time. Legit air guitar. Awesome.
We get along really really well, and I'm SO grateful. Everyone seems to have horror stories about trios (most companionships are two sisters or two elders, but it may vary), but I've been so blessed to have 2 great ones. We're covering two areas and that makes it harder to get to all of our appointments and give equal time to everyone who needs it. I'm starting to look forward to having just one area to keep track of.
Anyway, sorry I don't have as many fun stories as last week.... but oh! we had a 4-Zone activity the other day (several companionships form a district, several districts form a zone..etc) and Hermana Gerhartz taught me how to play tennis. Where has this sport been all my life? Me gusta mucho. Also, I got to talking to one of the APs (Assistants to the President - elders who are called out of the field to help the President with troubleshooting, administrative work, transfer logistics, and so forth) who is from the Dominican Republic but his family just moved to the Canary Islands. I mentioned that my favorite hobby is traveling, we made some cursory plans to play in the DR and maybe the Canary Islands sometime in the future. YESSSSSSSSS. Also, I told him he should visit Colorado because it's wonderful.
Anyway, gotta run, love you! be good!
Hermana B.
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