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| Got to eat lunch with Riley who just returned from his mission! |
The cacti are growing, the dirt is still very brown, the temperatures are climbing and the only thing raining out of the sky are miracles.
It has been a pretty busy week here. We have a lot of work and it has been awesome to see the area continue to boom. We also had meetings everyday this week....the church is run on the spirit...and meetings my friends.
To start off with the meetings part of it all we had MLC, Spanish Zone Conference and a bunch of other things that edified my mind and spirit and made me really antsy to get out of a church building and talk with people.
MLC was awesome! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and it's importance in peoples conversion. It is the greatest tool we have been given and it is such a blessing. It is a book, a record, written for our time, to help guide us and every single verse was picked and recorded for a reason. The Book of Mormon has blessed my life infinitely. My life has been defined by it's precepts and it has shaped me into the person I am. I definitely left a bit chastised and with a firm commitment to use the Book of Mormon in every opportunity I have.
We also crashed a wedding.... we went to knock on an investigator's door and when they opened it, a bunch of family was inside and so was a long blonde-haired hippie with a cowboy hat who apparently was an ordained preacher...? Sister Shaffer and I are not the missionaries who walk away from awkward situations. De hecho usually we face them head on (embrace the awkward) but this one was not happening. We got out of there so quick. Hahahahaha most awkward thing ever
Also like 10 people have told me my accent sounds like a mix of Spain, Argentina and Brazil. I don't know how it happened but at least I don't sound white.
Biggest blessing of the week though was definitely Sara. Sara was invited to church a few weeks ago by a member and has been coming ever since. She has been really hesitant to meet with us but told us that she would let us know when she was ready. Well we got a text from her this week saying that we could come over. It had been a "eh" day but I wanted this lesson to go so well. All during the day I was just praying that she would feel the spirit. During the lesson Sister Shaffer and I tried to focus on the spirit and it was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever taught. As we were talking about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church I started to cry a little bit (I am not a crier) and she started to cry. The spirit was literally like a wall like "BOOM - THE CHURCH IS TRUE".
I love being a missionary. I have seen peace come into peoples lives through these teachings. I have felt the peace in my own life through the Book of Mormon and the guidance of living, modern day prophets. I don't really know how to describe being a missionary. It's hard and exhausting. It's frustrating and sometimes depressing. Yet I have never had greater peace and direction before in my life. I have never felt such joy in the midst of so much exhaustion. Those nights when I just want to go home and collapse I remember my Savior who carried a cross for me - Sister Showalter - a slightly dysfunctional person who cracks a lot of Mexican jokes, is always down for a dance party, makes bomb smoothie bowls and loves a grocery store (I miss Wegmans so much) almost as much as her family. That is what gets me through the good and bad days. It is what is going to keep getting me through them the rest of my life. I love my Savior and am so grateful I can follow a part of His path and I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon which has helped show and clarify that path for me.
2 Nephi 31:10 "And he said unto the children of men: aFollow thou me." I invite you all to follow our Savior. The best way to do that is to learn of Him. I promise you that as you search the Book of Mormon you will find the way to follow Him.
To the Moon and Back!
Hermana Showalter
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