March 26, 2018
Spiritual Slap in the Face
Hola.
This week wow, can you believe it has already been another week??? Lots
of good stuff this week!!!!
Well we got some bad news.. Raquel, our golden investigator was anti-ed.
She dropped us and we haven't been able to find her since. We are so so sad.
Her family is meeting the JW's (Jehovah’s Witnesses) and we are hoping that
somehow someway we will be able to find her and talk to her again.
Wednesday all of our plans just kinda fell through. We had wanted to try
some new ways to find and so we went TIENDA FINDING!! woot woot. We found all
the Latina tiendas and just talked to all the Hispanics there. It was so so
fun. We wanted to look unweird because two white girls dressed up in a Mexican
tienda don't stand out at all right? So, we bought all the stuff to make salsa
(which turned out BOMB!!!!) We were inviting people to English class and saw
little miracles from it. We met a member that we have yet to track down, two
friends named Miguel and Miguel talked to us all about God and we got
their contact info. It was just really successful. At the last tienda, we were
so grateful that we felt like we had to thank the tienda by buying something. We are in line to buy our churros and we
couldn't pay with our card, a nice man in line bought our churros!!!!!!
Heavenly Father always always sends blessings and sometimes they are just in
the form of a churro.
The Hernandez family was so fun this week. We have really been focusing
in on Troy and trying to help him. He just is a kid that has never really felt
wanted. During the lesson I could tell that he was going to cry. His life has
been way harder than any 8 year old deserves. I just went over and told him how
much I loved him and how much we loved teaching him and we thought he was
great. I had never felt so much Christlike love for a little boy before.
We had the chance to Video message Jose who has been in Mexico for the
last 4 months. He goes back to Charleston in like a week. He is so so excited.
But talking to him was such a tender mercy. We told him that now we can cook
like Mexicanas and we speak Spanish so we could be Mexican.. He just laughed. I
think he was agreeing... Right?
Saturday we had a mission wide conference!! It was so fun because I got
to see all of my favorite missionaries. Elder Klebingat is a member of the Seventy.
Y'all should listen to the talk he gave in conference a couple years back. It
is called "Approaching the Thrown of God with Confidence." The talk
is pretty much a spiritual slap in the face. Which also perfectly describes the
conference that we had. I loved it though. I realized there are a lot of things
that I need to do to be a better disciple of Christ. He talked so much about
putting everything on the altar. I always have felt like I have put forth a
good effort but there is so much that can be changed and should be. I loved
that he said there is no such thing as exact obedience, there is only
consecrated obedience and that involves faith in Christ and a lot of effort and
repentance.
OH MAN. Not only is Elder Klebingat a fireball who very lovingly roasted
us into the Second Coming, he is also so, so funny. He is sharp and German and
awesome. He did a couple things that were just so good - anytime he was telling
us about someone who was saying something dumb, he used an American accent. He
kept getting after the elders and he'd just be like, "Elders, are you
kidding me?" Let me give you some quotes from him to help you see how the
day went.
-"Whatever DNA strand involves
beating around the bush, I wasn't born with it. I don't have it."
-"My highest degree of
depression comes when I pull my toast out of the toaster and I realize my
Nutella is gone."
-*Looking directly at Sister
Hamilton and I* "That is a boatload of...untruth."
-"I don't care if you only move
one inch, but move."
-"The least the Lord can expect
is your best effort."
-"You don't earn respect by
trying to earn respect. You earn respect by leading."
-"Well, hello!"
-(After saying some
"insensitive" things about mental health, AKA missionaries who use
bad mental health as an excuse not to do missionary work) "Some people
tell me, (reverts to American accent) 'you can't say things like that, you're
in America!' And I'm like, 'well, the Lord called me here, so...'"
-"Heavenly Father, I am dying
1000 deaths right now..."
-"Why are you laughing? That
was profound, what I just said."
-"You cannot be perfect but you
can easily be consecrated. If you're not willing to do that, you would be
better off at home."
I came out of that conference different. I just felt like that will be a
turning point in my life. What we do on the mission is not just important for 2
years. This is important stuff!!!
Sunday night we had an awesome lesson with Robert. He has
had the hardest week. We told him that after we chose a date it would all get
harder, he has a testimony of that!!! He is learning to rely on the Lord and he
loves how much he has already progressed. Pray for Robert. :)
I am going to
work every day on being a consecrated missionary and it will be something I
have to do every day for the rest of my life. I know that the calling to be a
missionary is of eternal significance and that was something that hit me hard.
We are not just gathering the lost sheep and trying to build up the kingdom,
even though we are, we are gathering our friends. We are finding and teaching
the people that we promised to find. I know that the Church is true and that
the gospel is the way to happiness.
Con mucho amor
Hermana Crofts
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| The South Carolina Columbia Mission. See if you can find me in the picture. I think I am wearing blue-green and am on the right side. |
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| Video message with Jose |
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| District meeting. I swear all the pictures I send home are from DDM but oh well at least I am sending home pictures right? |
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| Churros. We ate them outside because we can't eat them in our car. It was freezing and I think my churro was more like a popsicle when I finished. |
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| MMA with Josh |
