Oi familia!
This week has been buckets of interesting. We had a
shortened transfer because of Christmas so transfers were today. I´m
chilling with my new comp right now, except he isn´t actually my comp.
He´s a temporary because I´m training!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! (scared scream, not
necessarily excited, just mostly nervous but faith-filled at the same time)
Everyone getting transfered went to the Montese Chapel and President Souza read
off the new Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and trainers. My Zone Leaders have
been joking continually that I´ll train this transfer and as President Souza
was reading through trainers he just kept listing names. The more he
listed the more I was thinking ´yes! not training!´ Then he read my name.
We have 43 missionaries coming in this transfer (yeah, seriously) so
we´ve got buckets of trainers. This will be a very interesting transfer.
I feel so humbled and so unprepared all at the same time. Whatever
happens, I know it will be the will of the Lord. I think it´s very
interesting that I gave my farewell on how we need to focus on the will of the
Lord and not our own, and the Lord has seen fit to test me in this very thing.
But let´s be real, we all knew it would happen.
But the news of the week was something I didn´t even see
coming. We had a fairly normal week, though as always adjusting to a
different mission culture is difficult. Tuesday night our Zone
Leaders called and said ´we´re having an exchange tomorrow. Elder
Evans is coming over here with Elder Lima´ which was abnormal. We´d
already had exchanges this transfer but I went with it anyway. When I
woke up Wednesday morning I was overwhelmed with this monsterous
feeling of inadequacy, like I was the world´s words missionary and I didn´t
have a prayer of ever accomplishing anything. Then we headed out to
exchanges. Elder Lima was jubilant and thrilled to be working. I
looked at him and realized that he reminded me of, me, when I was in Kansas.
I reflected on this and at one point he told me ´you know, making
contacts in the street is so hard for me, but I keep doing it. One day
I´m sure it´ll get easier´ and I realized that he had struggles just like I
had, but he was still thrilled to be a missionary! Sometimes, yeah,
missionary work gets you down. But, we´re sharing the greatest message
the world has ever known! Christ lives and He and our Father in Heaven
love us SO much! Because of that we have prophets on the earth! How
awesome is that?!?! No greater message has graced the earth before!
The next day we had Conferência de Natal (Christmas Conference) and we
watched a motivational clip about a guy named Billy Peck. Billy lost his
left arm and part of his leg in the war, but he doesn´t get down about it.
He focuses on always doing his best and fulfilling the expectations of
his leaders. As I considered this the thought came to mind (yep, I´m
thinking the Spirirt) ´Am I living up to my best, what the Lord expects?
Or am I creating a higher standard than the Lord expects?´ Essentially,
the film was exactly what I needed as well as the exchange. Basically,
the word of the week is that the Lord loves us. Because of that,
sometimes he gives us what we need, even before we realize we need it. I
love the Lord and He loves me. More important, he loves each one of you
more than you can ever comprehend! Even better, he is ALWAYS looking out
for us. Just call him whenever you need something. His prayer line
is always open :)
Feliz Natal!
Elder Evans
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