Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Humbled unto the dust - 07/17/12

What an eye-opening week.
This past week was by far one of the most stressful but rewarding weeks of the mission. I have really been humbled unto the dust, and I have seen and felt the love of Christ in my life. I don´t know how if I can explain it in words, but I´ll try.

So to start off, this week was full of drama. Lots and lots of drama. My companion decides that he isn´t going to visit a certain members house because she is always insulting us. She insults us because she thinks that we don´t like her food, and since we don´t like her food we don´t pass by. The truth is that the Relief Society passes a food list around, and we have lunch and dinner for every single day of the week, and to be honest, we don´t have enough time to visit very many members.
Anyways, her sister moved in this week, and wants to hear our message. Definitely an answer to prayers, but due to my companion's hurt feelings, he refused to leave. I decided that I wasn´t going to deny this opportunity, and it turned into an argument, ending with me leaving with one of the Zone Leaders to go teach her. I felt bad afterwards, because I totally went around it the wrong way. My job isn´t to force my companion to do what is right, but to teach by example and instill within him the desire to do what's right. "G", the investigator, accepted a baptismal date that very first lesson, and she has accepted every single "assignment" we have given her. If everything goes well, she´ll be baptized August 4.

After that, my companion criticized my teaching, and once again, another argument. But after we cooled off we were able to talk things over, and I saw things from his point of view and he saw it from mine, and we felt really dumb for arguing over something so insignificant and dumb as that, even though the lesson we were talking about was crucial to the lives of the investigators. For the first time they really opened up to us and expressed a desire to not only listen, but to change their lives.

And then the very next morning we left to go give service, which was amazing, but when we came home we found out that the Zone Leaders had freaked out and called 911 to all of our members.

 On Sunday, we lost 8 of our 10 baptismal dates. And to put the icing on the cake, Monday I got hit really hard by the flu, which is why I didn´t write yesterday.

Needless to say, it was a great week.

BUT, on the good side, I´m having an amazing time and I´m feeling the spirit really strongly.

I realized that I was being prideful, and when I asked the Zone Leaders for forgiveness, it really was relieving. I can´t explain how good it felt to let it out. I felt like I had the reason (and was justified), but when I finally realized and confessed, a peace entered into my heart that really was amazing. The spirit told me to ask that same Elder (the one that I was arguing with just days before) to give me a blessing. Before the blessing I wasn´t able to walk from one side of the house to the other without taking a break, but after his blessing we left and worked for the last 3 hours like nothing had happened. I felt my Savior´s love. I felt his support, I was sustained by angels. I cried like a baby. You guys know that I don´t cry, but I couldn´t hold back the tears. I know my Savior loves me.

I love you guys a ton, and thanks for the prayers. They´re working. God is listening.

Elder Hansen

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