Soooo, it's officially the first day of Chapter 3, and I am fixin' to be a Texan! (Did you know you only have to live in Texas for 6 months to be considered Texan? ...and I think me being brown gives me an honorary New Mexican status, so I'm excited to add another state to the list of awesome states I've lived in!!) :P The last big wave of missionaries has entered the Texas Lubbock Mission, and President has said that he's been told we are going to top off at 268 missionaries by the end of the year! So all the Sisters are generally still in trios right now.
This past week has been pretty eventful! I mowed 2 lawns!! (the lawn of the only member in our town, she's 87, and our lawn just this morning!) We also traveled to Lubbock again for the Missionary Leader Conference (MLC) that Sister Johnson needed to attend. Sister Hoover got her knee checked out (and it's a-okay!), and I was able to go to work the the Sisters in the single's ward at Texas Tech... IT WAS SOOOO WEIRD being around 1-so many people 2- buildings over 2 stories high and 3- seeing and stopping at so many traffic lights! We don't have any in our whole area, and I didn't realize how used to rural-ness I've become!
The other sisters there laughed a little when I said: "I'm not used to these big buildings [on campus]!" ... but I don't know if you can understand just how small it is out here unless you've seen it... their main streets in Lubbock are bigger than the highway out here!!!
But culture shock aside, we had some really great lessons, and we were able to work well together in discussing Christ's gospel and inviting some of the students on campus to come unto Christ. We had a lesson with Max, and as we were addressing some of his questions, he had some concerns about the Word of Wisdom (mainly, where it comes from in the scriptures). It was a great opportunity to bear testimony about how every step we take in this life needs to be in faith. We don't follow commandments to follow the rules of this church, we follow commandments, because they are given to us from our Heavenly Father, and through obedience to Him, we are able to have the Spirit more abundantly in our lives. One of my favorite scriptures is in 2 Corinthians 5:6-9, and it talks about how, while we are on this earth, in our mortal bodies, we have to walk by faith. Our goal isn't to please our fellow man here on earth, but to please our Heavenly Father, that we may be accepted of Him.
I love that, because even though we cannot attain perfection in this life (for any length of time, there are defiantly perfect moments), we can still work hard, progress, and He sees our hearts and our desire to do good! This message is truly a message of hope and love, and I'm sure that it is true, firstly because I pray to know every day, but also because I've seen it change so many lives, and continue to change those lives even in the midst of difficult trials.
We had another couple of lessons with Joe! :) this week, and I'm so sad to leave him! We read 1 Nephi Ch 8 with him from the Book of Mormon Stories (so he can understand a little better) and talked to him about how important it is to continue to hold on to that iron rod as we are on this journey back to our Heavenly Father. It still fills my heart with joy at his faith to continue to read, "just a little bit!" (as he says) every day, even though he has some trouble understanding the words. My heart almost burst with joy when he was explaining how he felt the Spirit. He explained how it makes him happy when we come over and talk about the gospel with him, and that he felt really at home when he went to church, he really liked what the people had to say (when they were bearing testimony of what they knew to be true), and he liked how it (the gospel) has helped them in their lives. He also explained that he feels happy when he prays (at work) "when I'm with the horses, just to myself", and at night before he goes to sleep. It's so wonderful to me that he can see the changes that have occurred in his life, and he's thinking about a good day to be baptized right now. I've asked Sister Johnson to definitely keep me updated!
And one more miracle before I'll tell you more about where I'm going!
Remember the girl that came to the door and said "Hey! ...I'm Mormon!" Well we've been teaching her friend, Mark, and this morning he accepted to be baptized in a couple weeks! He's been to church the past 2 weeks in a row, and has been doing just about everything on his own. He is really searching for the truth, and the Lord really does answer our prayers when we intend to act in faith!
So, tomorrow we'll probably be headed to Lubbock, because Sister Johnson is training two new Sisters (who are probably flying down here right now!), and I'm going to Midland, TX!! Sister Hoover is getting transferred to Clovis, but since they have to drop off one of their Sisters to go up to Amarillo, we'll probably all just meet up in Lubbock. It's Crazy right?
Next week you'll have a picture of me and Sisters Turner (the elder, because there are two single Sister Turners in the mission, and one of the new couples is Sister Turner as well, but she's at the office), anyway, you'll have a picture with me, Sister Turner the Elder and Sister Toole (who is just finished her first 6 weeks out here!) It's going to be so weird, but AWESOME to meet new people every day! And, since Sister Turner the Elder is also a Sister Training Leader (STL), like Sister Johnson is, we'll be traveling a little bit I'm sure! So I'm going to see some more of the mission! Maybe one day this transfer I'll be caught up to how far my bike has traveled around the mission, and I can share some of the stories it would know. :P Sister Johnson's first area was in Odessa, and she said that it smells a lot like oil (pronounced ole), and that the cities are growing with lots of people working the oil fields, so I'm excited to get to work!
I love you all so much! Don't forget to pray!
All my heart,
Sister Lagrosa! :D
Pictures:
1- On our way home from Lubbock we took an accidental detour and got lost on this desolate road for a 1/2 hour before we realized we were going in the wrong direction!
2- Us with Joe! :) and Israel (his nephew)
No comments:
Post a Comment