HELLO! Thank you all so much for the love and support, just wanted to say that. Happy St. Patrick's day tomorrow! Go luck of the Irish. (Try not to think about anything that has to do with love here on the mission ha...)
EXCEPT, for the LEGIT san valentine dance we had for the ward, yeah, missionaries can't dance, but that doesn't mean I was so stinking entertained by watching all of these latinos dance. There is one brother in the ward from Mexico, THEY ARE GREAT!!! He is just as wide as he is tall (maybe 5 foot if that) he has a huge fro and was wiggling all over the dance floor. I felt like I was right back in mexico. It was probably the best thing of my life!!!
So today is going to be really short cause here we are doing emails and the place closes early today, so I only have like 5 minutes to write instead of an hour!!
But do you remember Eduardo? The cuban? We found in the rain while he was randomly fixing his blinker? He is so amazing. We were teaching him the commandments the other day, and usually when we teach commandment number 5 which is honor your father and mother everybody agrees and we move on. But it was a little bit different with him, when we were talking about it he was like, "hermanas, it is so important to honor your father and your mother, but one of the main reasons I want to get baptized is to let go of the bitterness I feel everytime I think about them. My parents left me an orphan when I was 5 years old. Years later I found my dad, but my step mom never wanted my around so she would hold my down and cut my legs with a knife. My dad wouldn't let my stay there, so I was on my own again. At a young age, I knew I had an eternal identy and that some how I was a son of God. There were so many times in life I have been alone, literally alone, abandoned, and unloved. But somewhere deep deep down inside my broken heart I knew that I had a perfect Father (as he pointed upward) that would never abandon me and loved me more than anybody else ever had." It was one of the most amazing stories. He told us that's why he appreciated our love so much, because he has no family, his only daughter lives in florida, but he has no wife or other family. We had an amazing conversation with him about the eternal and infinite love Heavenly Father has for him. It was just so amazing to me that after all he had been through, and after life was SO hard, for SO long, he never, never gave up and never lost hope that God loves him.
I hope this is something we never lose sight of. This week has been really hard to see how easy it is for people to forget this. We went over to visit a family who just joined the church before I got here, and the sister says to us when we walk in, how does one leave the church? She said, I just don't really see the blessings anymore, I knew it was true at one point but I always thought things would get better. But we still have money problems, and we even pay our tithing, my family and kids still aren't perfect. I just don't think God is really going to bless me for doing anything that's right. I know I haven't given my 100%, but even if I do, He still won't bless me because there are other people out there getting more blessings than me and they aren't even members of the church.... She went on and on and on. She kept telling us how if the church is really true then she wants a vision from God.
It was just incredible to me how one man, can suffer and suffer and suffer and still turn to God. Then, someone else can see small struggles as a sign that God doesn't even exist. It just reminded me of Nephi verse Laman and Lemuel. Nephi still suffered the same things as they did, yet they always managed to lose sight, cry about every little thing and chose not to follow God because of their afflictions. Then, there is Nephi, who whenever he struggles, he gets on his knees and asks for help cause he knows that God will provide a way to do what He has asked of us. I just pray that as each of us go through times of hardship, doubt, change, temptaion and even times of happiness we can ALWAYS remember the infinite love and compassion and patience our perfect Father in Heaven has for us. He is ALWAYS there. Yeah, maybe this life is full of learning experiences and a lot of times, learning them the hard way, but when we remember that is the reason we are here, and we knew that was the reason before we ever came here, then it makes things a little easier and more worth it. When we keep our eternal perspective with our daily prayers and scripture study, we will never doubt the heavenly help that is poured upon us daily. Remember, when life knocks you on your knees, you are in the perfect position to pray!
Peace and love from above!
Sista Marshall
No comments:
Post a Comment