Happy Monday!! Wow. This week has been crazy. I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard! But God always has something for me to learn so that I can share with y’all, so let’s be patient and see how much LOVE God has for us!
So let’s start out with some things that’ll make you smile:
So you know that I eat A TON right? So we are fed lunch by a member each day, but dinner is on our own. But my comp and I don’t find much work from the hours of 2 till 5 because people nap, so we usually work during our dinner hour. So sometimes during the day, well stop by members so we can use safe bathrooms and just get some juice, and the members know I eat a lot so now they’re feeding us some food! Well knock on the door and talk and then the member may ask, Elder Risueño, ¿tiene hambre? My answer: CLARO! Of course. And then they feed us a bit. Of course, My big toe and I are super grateful and its awesome. Well, my comp just laughs and says SIN VIRGUENZA! Which means WITHOUT SHAME! because I am honest about my hunger. That may contribute to the reason I’ve gained like 20 lbs here. Oops.
I also went to the SWAP MEET! Holla! My poor shirts are being trampled by the heat here because they get dried by the humidity so I took out 25 bucks and went with a goal to get some good bargains! and I DID! Ahh it felt so good! 3 shirts for 4 bucks each and a pair of shorts for 10 bucks? Thank you parents for teaching me well. That’s right! And I hope you enjoy the pictures of the shirts. They’re super fun.
So we also had a conference with a 70 this week... more on that later... but President said that EVERYTHING changes this week. The new Assistant to him? a missionary with 8 months in the mission who has only trained a new missionary. President is going off of pùre revelation! it doesn’t matter WHERE we serve, it matters HOW we serve! So who knows? Maybe next week I’ll be Zone Leader! (For those of you who don’t understand this jargon, consult my dad. THANKS!)
So the work this week? Oh guys. It was a chocolate week. Which means ROUGH. Monday night we found our only investigator close to a baptismal date super drunk. I cried. It was hard. The next morning? We went to another investigator who told us she didn’t want to talk to us anymore. I cried. It was hard. The same thing happened to another. GAHHH. But I wasn’t about to give up on God! HECK NO! So Wednesday morning, I got on my knees, turned on some hymns and prayed and offered my whole soul to God. I was confused. We had nothing. And I just asked what HE would have me do. As I was praying, the words to a hymn just struck me to the core:
I need thee ev'ry hour,
Most holy One.
Oh, make me thine indeed,
Thou blessed Son!
As I pondered upon these words, I wondered what it meant to made into God wants me to be made. What does it mean that I have to do? Be humble, have confidence in Him, to be patient, and more things. I kept thinking about this and it reminded me of my old job as a swim instructor. Every 2 weeks I would have new kids arrive to teach and they would be SO EXCITED to swim. Even if they didn’t know anything, they wanted to be like ME! So we would talk and then it would be time for them to go out one on one with me. That’s when problems came. Some would cry, or tense up, or just not trust me. I would have my hands on their arms to SHOW THEM the motions, but if they were tense, nothing would work. Sometimes it would require an effort on my part to sing to them, to counsel, but more importantly to love them. Once they saw that love, they would calm down and repeat the motions I had shown them as I, in essence, acted for their hands.
As I thought about that, my life changed as a missionary. I realized that I had become one of those children who was tense and didn’t understand what God was doing and I hadn’t trusted Him totally. I realized that maybe it didn’t matter how many had rejected me, but if I was willing to find the one whom HE had prepared for me. I continued to realize that the hymn mentioned above isn’t about our Heavenly Father, but our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who suffered for us. He is the one who felt our pains, our burdens, and took them upon us so that we could come to him. Once my swim students got to a point of knowing a bit, I let them swim into my arms. I was always ahead of them ready to come to me. Even when they didn’t have their goggles on and couldn’t see, I never left them. I loved them.
As I have come to realize that this week, I have come to change my entire perspective of my life as a missionary. I feel like my lessons have become out of much more love than I have ever given these Bolivians. I just want them to feel the love their Savior has for them. A member of the Quorum of the 70 visited us and said that we have brought 8,000 members back to activity in the past few months. Missionaries in 5 countries have helped them remember of the love God has had for them and will have for them. He taught of how we can receive personal revelation as missionaries and the attributes we must work to possess to deliver this message. It’s a continuous process. I testify of that.
After that conference, my companion and I GOT TO WORK! We found families to teach and were so happy. While none of them went to church, we still looked forward. As I walked to church without investigators, yet again, I envisioned God moving my arms and just whispering to me that it’ll all be okay. I sure hope this helps you all this week. I know that the Lord is willing to send me through trials so that you all can be uplifted. I love each of you. We may not email back and forth, but I assure that you that this work I do is with you all in mind. I continue to sing to the blind, to love them; to sing to the handicapped, to love them. And I hope that my emails sing to you.
I wish to close with this thought by Neal A Maxwell:
God does not begin by asking about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.
I love ya’ll! Now let’s get to work and show these people some smiles!
For a dollar. :)
Elder Risueño
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