Focus on Families (Sept 16)

Happy Independence Day Guatemala yesterday! I wore the guatemalan colors yesterday without realizing it and my companion congratulated me:). 

 

Anyways, my viaje was awesome this week to siquani. I have never felt sooo inadequate and insecure in maybe all of my life. There was one night where I just laid their on a mattress on the floor of the apartment de hermana inga and hermana allred just thinking, what am i doing here?? Who am I to be a sister leader and be an example and help and train these hermanas when I can barely even speak this language?? Obviously it was satan putting these thoughts into my mind, so I just prayed and prayed. I never realized how much stress and responsibility a leader can have. I am making greater efforts to purify myself and follow more the example of Jesus Christ and trust in the Lord. I have so much to learn. I think my biggest insecurity is spanish lately. i know I’m not supposed to compare myself but I see my friends that I was with in the ccm and their spanish and it’s hard not to compare. Especially what was hard about my travel was that hermana allred started her mission the same time as me, is speaking well, and I’m supposed to be training them and helping them when I can’t speak so well. Like i went on a split with hermana allred and she speaks better than me. 

I am realizing that this is one of the tactics of satan. if he can get us to feel insecure, think these thoughts that we`re not good enough to do the work of the Lord or that the world is too wicked, we don’t have a chance to help it, or  feel overwhelmed with all the things we have to do that we don’t want to do anything, Satan has won. I’ve been realizing that the more I think my spanish isn’t good or that I can’t speak, the more I CANT speak it. Interesting how that works ah? Faith is to not think these thoughts, but to always remember that who the Lord calls the Lord qualifies and we have been promised so many blessings, let’s just trust the Lord act ah? That’s what faith is. action on the hope of the promised blessings or word of the Lord.

The focus of our mission with our new president has changed to focus more on the less actives and fortifying the church in this way. we still have high goals for baptisms, but we were taught from our area seventy that the baptisms will come when we work with the less active members. how? Because there are a lot of family members in their families that aren't members. our focus needs to be on completing these families. Families are the strength of the church, the basic unit, and where the gospel is best learned. yup, this is our new focus.

There are so many less actives here it’s crazy. we visited a family yesterday that is just so poor. The father says that he cant go to church because he has to work to help his family. We showed a video about a father that realized he was focusing too much on work and wasn’t giving enough time to his family. We asked the family what they thought about this message and the oldest daughter who’s fourteen said, how are we going to live if my parents don’t work? I felt the spirit come on me and I promised them as a representative of Jesus Christ that if they obeyed the commandments and went to church always, they would always have enough. We read mosiah 2:41 that talks about the blessings of the Lord for those that obey the commandments. this is what faith is. Acting on the hope that comes from the word of the Lord, even when everything else is telling you not to. 

My companion and I have a goal to talk to every single family that we see in the street, we`re taking up our leaders on their council to work with the families. Its awesome cuz without even saying something to the other companion, if we see a parent with a kid we talk to them. or sometimes there will be a family like way down the street and ill just say, `familia`and we go, even if its out of our way. haha its awesome cuz its so easy to contact these families, all we have to do is say, `que linda es! es suyo?` then we ask like how old they are, what’s their name, sometimes I’ll tell them that I have a sister that is 5 years old and how i love kids. Yup, usually that does it. Ticket into their house. People love talking about their kids. haha so this goal has also gotten us into some `awkward` or `creeper` situations. hahaha I’ve taught these two words to my companion. We laugh all the time..I never realized how many awkward situations are in the mission. hahaha. ya...well think about it. To have the goal of talking to every family means that sometimes we have to chase after some of them, or follow them until we catch up to them or awkwardly change directions or cross the street when we have no reason to. haha good times. crazy mormons. 

well love you all lots!

hermana black