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| Family Home Evening with the Vasquez family |
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| My girl Cordovita |
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| Best friends |
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| Volleyball with the Zone |
It has been a wonderful week. We have been sprinting around trying to help all the hermanas... there was a bunch of riots and protests and people going on strike here because the government is trying to change the corn crop... so the people got mad. But in the end, all the missionaries were safe. The scariest that happened is that some hermanas were chased by crazy people while the police threw bombs at the other people. haha wow. Welcome to my country. I love it here. I never want to leave. Remember that grateful poster that I put up freshman year in my apartment? (I think Amy was the one that gave my the idea. Thanks tia Amy...) Well I have started putting grateful posters in the houses of all the hermanas that I visit in divisions. It has really helped them look for the good and remember how much our Father in Heaven blesses us. Sometimes they complain a lot about not having water or good beds or stuff like that, but we can be happy no matter what we have. And it´s just better to laugh and make the best of your situation anyway, like Dad and Sister Hinckley always say. I want to be better at always having a positive attitude and for expressing gratitude for frequently.
A hard thing happened this week. My friend, Linda, passed away. She was a 19 year old member from the other ward, but a good friend of ours. She converted to the church about 3 years ago and has been nothing but a faithful, wonderful, powerful influence for good since she was baptized. Many people have found the truth of the gospel because of her righteous influence, example, and testimony. She had cancer and it just got to an unbearable point. We were teaching her grandma and her aunt that live in our area and aren´t members. Her aunt is called Esperanza and we went to visit Linda with her a few weeks ago to sing some hymns and lift her spirits. We sang ¨Nearer My God to Thee¨ and it was so beautiful. The spirit was so strong and Linda shared a great testimony, the best she could. After that, her family members weren´t progressing so we had to turn them back over to the Lord for a time and we hadn´t seen them in a while. We went back this last Wednesday just to check up on them and 5 minutes after we left the cita, they called us crying to say that Linda had passed away. It was so random and so sad. Obviously there was a reason that the Lord had sent us back there. The funeral was on Thursday and it was one of the most beautiful services that I have ever been to. I gained a real and powerful testimony in that meeting of the power of the Resurrection and the reality of the Spirit World. I teach those things almost daily but it was just different this time. I felt her so close to us. And then we sang ¨Nearer My God to Thee¨ to close the meeting and Esperanza just hugged me so so tight and long and cried as we remembered singing that with Linda.
We got home and I said a prayer kneeling by the metal front door and in it I said ¨Heavenly Father, take care of Linda and send her spirit here with us help us teach and bless her family members so that they will feel the truth of this message.¨ Right then the metal door blew open a little bit and chills filled my whole body. I know that angels are real. We went and taught Esperanza and she shared with us of a time that she was in the hospital with Linda in Guate and the temple president visited in the hospital and gave Linda a blessing. He asked Esperanza if she was a member of the church. She said no and he said ¨It will be an honor to have you as a member someday.¨ Linda then shared her whole conversion story and testimony with Esperanza and made her promise that she would be baptized once Linda passed away. Esperanza shared that story with us on Saturday and then asked what time church was on Sunday so that she could figure out what she was supposed to do. She is amazing. She came to all 3 hours and everyone loved her and she wants to keep coming and prepare to be baptized in the future. I love her so much. I love angels. I love our Father´s plan.
La famila Vasquez is so great. They are amazing. We tried to make handmade tortillas with them this week and it was so hard. But we were pretty good by the end. hahaha not. My hands are not like the chapinas and they just can´t quite stand the heat and the speed. But they are progressing so quickly and each time we teach a commandment they ask ¨So how I can fill out my own tithing slip and pay it?¨ ¨What can I drink instead of coffee so that I can let it go?¨ Just a lot of things like that. They love all the members and everyone is so excited about them and so nice. We are going to see if we can finish and prepare everything for this Saturday for their baptism. It is just really hard with their work schedule and other factors like transportation. But none of that matters. God has all power and can do all things according to His will. We are running and working and doing all we can to strengthen their faith and prepare them for this sacred step. We have faith in the Lord´s plan and in His timing.
Esmeralda (baptized a few months ago) is so great and filling out her family history chart to go to the temple and do all the baptisms. She is wonderful. La familia Polio are in El Salvador right now picking up their aunt that just flew in from the states to be with them for the holidays but they are so great, too. Hermana Xiomara says that best prayers in the whole world and always prayers that her family will continue faithful and be able to go to church together and partake of the sacrament. They are reading the Book of Mormon as a family and are working through 1 Nephi. It is really hard for them to read because nobody really went to school but you don´t need to graduate or know everything to be able to feel the Spirit.
Eric sent a talk to me awhile ago by Elder Maxwell and I reread a part a few times this week as I sought revelation concerning different investigators and hermanas in the zone.
¨While most of our suffering is self-inflicted, some is caused by or permitted by God. This sobering reality calls for deep submissiveness, especially when God does not remove the cup from us. In such circumstances, when reminded about the premortal shouting for joy as this life’s plan was unfolded (see Job 38:7), we can perhaps be pardoned if, in some moments, we wonder what all the shouting was about.
For the faithful, what finally emerges is an understanding of “things as they really are” (Jacob 4:13), such as the reassuring realization that we are in the Lord’s hands! But, brothers and sisters, we were never really anywhere else!¨
I know that that is true. We are never really anywhere else. We are in the Lord´s hands. His precious, wounded, careful hands. And I love being there. We have a great responsibilty as members of the church to be His hands and take this gospel to all the ends of the earth. We need to be missionaries always. I always think about how once we come to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ everything changes. We are able to love. We can forgive. We will change and become and progress. Joy will be found. And we can live with Him again. Devoted disciples, Fixed faithfulness. and Unselfish love. That is what this gospel is all about.
I am so not ready to give this all up, but I feel at peace. I still one whole week to give it all that I have and keep working hand in hand with the Lord. And then I have the rest of my life to live all that I have learned and keep sharing it with others. I am so happy. So truly happy.
You are in my prayers. I love you so much.
Hermana McGill
