Hey family,
Man the days
are long but the weeks fly by. First off Proselitismo. Rozsa and I switched areas.
Our old area was like a suburb and now it’s a very busy city. It’s very very
intimidating to walk down a very busy city and try and talk to people who have
no desire to talk to you. We got like 20 contacts and 3 referrals, but all of
our referrals were golden. Two of them were at the same time. We stopped at this lady selling stuff on the
road. She had these way cool fanny packs that she makes. (pictures to come) So
we told her and another lady who stopped to look at them that we were
missionaries. They both spoke English which was actually not that much easier
because I guess I am losing my English or maybe never had it to begin with. One
of the ladies said her father has cancer and she needs faith. The other said
that she loves Mormons and she took a Book of Mormon. it was way way cool. Other
than that, proselitismo was kind of a downer. We came home kind of discouraged,
it’s hard not to compare with everyone else’s numbers. But I am so proud of
everyone, it was the new North Americans first time and they all did so good.
So on to Sunday.
Oh man, it was soooo good like always, the highlight was Hermana Willis. *The
cool part about a small MTC is we get to know the MTC President and his wife
and their councilors so well. They are like our parents. I love them so much! Hermana Willis talked about gratitude. She
gave us a talk by President Uchtodorf called “Grateful in any Circumstance”. A
quote I really liked was “perhaps focusing on what we are grateful for is
the wrong approach. It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our
thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. True,
it is important to frequently count our blessings... but I don’t believe that
the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of
abundance and ease.” I loved this so so
much!!! I hope you can all remember that this week and try to be thankful in
the circumstance you are in. You should all reread this talk.
Monday was
our group picture. It’s finally settling in that we are leaving the CCM. So I
knew about this last week but part of me didn’t believe, it so I didn’t tell
you. But they told us that today we would be going to see Elder Russell M Nelson
speak, and because of this we would not attend the temple. Wednesday we got a surprise,
we got to go to the temple! It was sooo great to be there one last time. I have
grown to love the temple workers and this temple so much even with it being in Spanish.
I love it so much.
So that gets
us to today. Why I didn’t write earlier today is because we got up and loaded
into buses at 7:30 to head to a stake to listen to Elder Nelson. He shook each
of our hands and looked into our eyes. It was incredible! We met with the
missionaries from this mission, the Buenos Aries, Argentina South and listened
to the words of an apostle of the Lord. He was also with a member of the Seventy
who spoke Spanish so he and his wife’s talks were in Spanish. I got about 50
percent-ok 40, but what I got of it was really good. Then Sister Nelson stood.
That woman is so amazing! She talked to us about how we are feeling as
missionaries and she told some amazing stories about her experiences. One in
particular that was cool - she said she was in Russia at a Women’s Conference
and she felt impressed to say, “I want to get to know you all by lineage” she
called out each lineage and people would stand. She said 11 of the 12 tribes
were present. All but Levi. Maybe this was not news to you, but I kind of
thought everyone on the earth but a few special people were from the tribe of Ephraim. I was shocked to hear this. She said that
news travels so fast in the church that by that next day when they met at a
conference in Romania the first thing the mission president’s wife said when
she stepped off the plane was “I got Levi.” She had a missionary who was of
that tribe so within the space of two days she met someone from each tribe. It
was so cool to hear her stand and say “The gathering of Israel is upon us, Elders
and Hermanas, you get to be a part of this amazing work.” She told us that when
we teach our children our ancestors and the ancestors of those we teach are
there, particularly the ones we teach. They are begging and waiting for their
family to receive the gospel. Then she said, “Think of the impact of your
missions, not only in this world.” It really made me remember what missionary
work is all about. Oh I forgot one other thing she said was her 30 day
challenge, which I am challenging all of you to do. Each day grab the scriptures and thank God
for them. Tell Him your hardest and deepest questions of your soul and ask that
the Holy Ghost will be with you throughout your study. Then open to a random
page and feast. Look up words, the foot notes, everything. You won’t have to
read far until your question will be answered. I thought “Wow, this is an
amazing promise from an Apostle’s wife. She said “there is no asterisk that
says unless your problem is learning the language, no anything you need will be
provided.” How wonderful is that!
Then Elder Nelson
spoke and man, I love him! At the beginning he did the very thing his wife
talked about. He had each tribe stand. At our meting we had two tribes present,
which was still way cool, Joseph and Judah. When he said Joseph we didn’t know
that meant Ephraim, so again I felt way dumb, haha, but he reminded us. He was
so informal - he kept saying “I have a surprise, the mission president and his
wife are going to share their one tip of advice, it was to “work hard and to be
obedient.” Oh, the president of the CCM and his wife, Hermana
Willis said “Go and do” and president, who is like a way rough man, he is just
really to the point about the gospel, got all teary eyed and said “You are
loved by the Lord so immensely.” That struck me so hard. The rest of Elder Nelson’s
talk was about how we need to be simple when teaching the gospel. This made me
happy because my Spanish vocab is so so so simple. I don’t remember everything
he said but it just seemed like direct inspiration that I needed so badly. He
left us with an apostolic blessing and it included those we left at home who
were sick or needed healing. That made me cry, he told us the Lord will protect
our families.
I love you
all so much! I think of you so much! I may get to email when I leave Tuesday
and when I arrive in Paraguay. If not, next time you hear from me I will be in
Paraguay!!!! It seems so unreal to me! The church is true and I love all of you.
xoxooxox
Hermana Ball
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