Howdy howdy family and friends!
Oh, boy was it an exciting week... the classic ups and downs of missionary work were really humbling for me and Sister Muaina this week... but it wasn't without some excellent lessons learned. :)
Our home renovation/repair skills are being developed here... we found some ants this morning coming in through a crack in the baseboard in our bathroom, so we caulked it with some rubber cement... pretty innovative huh? :P Also, we've been blessed with opportunities to give service, and we have been/ will be helping with some awesome home renovations, and stuff! I'm pretty excited!
Being in a bike area has been pretty fun! We've now biked, and walked all around Hobbs! It kind of feels like our two companionships are like teenage kids sharing mom and dad's car, except we get along and are finding ways to make sure our sibling can use it. We had almost all of our planned appointments fall through this week, and we were dropped by our favorite investigator, nevertheless, God is good, we are continually humbled every day and we are seeing many miracles.
One miracle we saw on Sunday was about 4 months in the making! A member I met when I was serving in Monahans has a sister who hasn't been active for many years here in the Hobbs ward (mainly because she lives in a town almost an hour away!) Both of them drove to come to church on Sunday, and it was amazing to see these wonderful sisters together at church! :D
We have had many humbling experiences also: There was a point this week when we were at about mile 4, walking to the library to meet Justin, and he wasn't there when I thought to myself aw man! What can we do right today? But we had a great lesson with the member we brought with us to the lesson (who is getting his mission papers in right now!) and we walked another couple miles up to the Smokin' Gun (an awesome food truck, owned by some members in the ward), and when we sat down on the curb to eat for the first time since breakfast, I thought to myself wow, this is happiness right here. It was pretty great.
Since Sister Muaina and I have more time as we travel to appointments, we've been talking more about things that we are grateful for, and naturally we talk about our investigators, the members (active and less-active) that we work with, and just being missionaries... but we always seem to eventually stumble on to those less tangible, ideas/ concepts that we are grateful for. Truth and trust came up a lot this week... I think I talk about searching for truth a lot, but that was coupled with trusting in Heavenly Father's plan and timing this week. It seems like it's been a more difficult uphill battle than usual, lately, and it's really nice to find solace in faith. As I was reading in Mosiah 7 (verses 29-33) this morning it stood out to me that we truly do reap what we sow... as we sow spiritual seeds, we receive the fruits of the Spirit; on the other hand as we sow worldly things, and rely on ourselves instead of God, we receive the fruits of our own labors, which aren't eternally comforting, edifying and instructing as the fruits of the Spirit are.
I've actually been studying a lot of the first few chapters of Mosiah lately, which is a great discourse from King Benjamin (which totally gets me even more excited for general conference! :D), but it seems like everyday, no matter what book of scripture I'm in, it's been testified in similar language over and over again, that the only way back to the Father is through Jesus Christ. He is the WAY, the only way... this makes sense, because the role of the prophet is to testify of Christ, and help Heavenly Father's children prepare to return to Him.
The morning after we were dropped by our favorite investigator both Sister Muaina and I had similar questions going into our personal study. After I had prayed, I took my new quad (my scriptures with the Bible and Book of Mormon together), and I just flipped it open. I opened right up to 3 Nephi, when Christ is ministering to the Nephites in His resurrected form, and I took a deep breath and read. Nothing amazing stood out to me, but I was impressed simply, and quietly by the Spirit that this truly did happen, Christ came and ministered to some of his "other sheep" here in the American continent, after He was resurrected in Jerusalem. He walked with them, prayed with them, blessed their children, and His ministry was recorded so that we could learn from it, and so that it would stand as a second witness to the Holy Bible that He is the Christ, He is our Savior, and that it is only in and through Him that we can be saved in the Kingdom of God.
We are so blessed to have the scriptures in our lives, and I know with all of my heart that as we take the time to read them prayerfully we will be filled, and we will receive guidance that we are searching for. Our mission President, President Augustin says "This is THE self-help book!" as he points to his scriptures. It's so true, and we really get to learn just a little bit at a time, line upon line. :)
2Nephi 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 recieveth I will give more; and form them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."
As we keep searching to improve and progress, we will, I know that with all of my heart, and I know that as we first seek spiritually, the rest will be added unto us.
I love you all! I hope this letter finds you well, and I know that if you have questions and take them to the scriptures, searching for truth, you will find answers... maybe even answers to questions you didn't know you had. :)
All my love,
Sister Lagrosa
Pictures:
1- Eating some of the best food in town after walking all the way around Hobbs!
2- Awesome sign! :D
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