Remember last week when I told you we had to get up at 3 am to catch the bus to go the the conference with Elder Oaks. There is a totally awesome tree in this public park. We took this photo at 3 in the morning, the only time I would feel comfortable in a tree in public as a missionary. We were walking to the bus stop for the conference when we took it.
First off as for the area, things are still a little rough, but we more or less had a miracle on Sunday by way of attendance. We recently started visiting Natalia Aldacour again, because we felt that we should on Wednesday. Turns out that she and Yanina have been passing through some really rough times and Natialia realized that she wants to come back to church. As such, we’ve decided that we’re going to help her for a bit longer this time and just help her see how wonderfully helpful the gospel is in our lives. On top of that, we had stopped visiting the Seiler family about 2 months ago. They’d been recieveing visits from the elders for probably a year straight and they didn’t come to church after repeated invitations. Elder Ruiz Diaz stopped by on Wednesday. Then, after a lesson with some investigators, Elder Ruiz Diaz and Elder Rosette and I made a visit to an endowed sister who has been inactive for about a year now and Elder Ruiz Diaz set up an interview with her. So then on Sunday the parents from the Seiler family, Natalia and her mom-who is visiting from colonia for the weekend- and the less active sister, Valeria, all came! I was so happy and dumb-struck to see them all in the church.
Saturday was a really hard day and we literally did not get in a door until 7 that night. All of our lessons fell through for the day and no one wanted to talk to us. We were pretty bummed by that, plus the fact that it’s getting really hot and really humid (really really hot) and we were fasting at the time made Saturday a really rotten day, but Sunday made all the sacrifice worth it. The Lord always does that to me! I sit here and gripe because the work is a little bit hard and then He drops a miracle in my lap and I get humbled just a little bit more by the awesome power of God.
As for enjoying the journey, I’ve actually been thinking on that lately. I really like this area. It’s hard, but I like learning all the things that I learn and getting to know the people and laughing and loving and sobbing tears of absolute sorrow and desperation. That’s happened more than once to both my companion and I. Dire circumstances tend to break the will of spiritual warriors, but that is what we need. It’s what we require. How else will the Lord refine and polish the weapons in His quick and deadly hand? We must pass through great heat if we are to be tempered to withstand the blows of an all too real warfare. Here’s to another brutal week.
Well, I want to shared a scripture with you from Alma 38:2
And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end.
That’s what I hang on to out here. The fact that my trials really aren’t all that bad and that I know I will pass through them. As grami once wrote to me in a letter, you can do anything 5 minutes at a time. I know that the Lord is watching over me. I know that He hears my cries and is instructing my by His Hand. I do my best to be steady and faithful unto God. Sometimes, I fail. Hardcore. But I just keep going. The Lord knew that we couldn’t do it all, that’s why He sent His Son to die for us. All that he asks is that we keep His commandments and endure to the end with a smile on our faces and a prayer in our hearts. In spite of the difficulties that we have had lately, I don’t find myself discouraged. We are winning little victories and it is to those that I clean. We can be frustrated, but only for a moment. The Atonement swallows that up whole.
May the heavens watch over you and the Lord be with you.
Elder Simpson
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