I Suoi Mani

So I am typing three times as slowly today because the keyboard space bar barely functions. I am trying to be Christ-like and not complain and just deal with it 🙂 I will not type very much today though because it is taking me a long time.

We found out transfer news this week.  I will be staying here with Sorella Ervin and two completely new older training sisters will come and pink-wash the other coppia. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions these past couple of days and I’m excited for a new transfer and a fresh start!

If you want to know what we did this week, go read my companion’s blog 🙂

There have just been some really sweet moments that I want to talk about. I feel like you could read a bunch of stories today, but then the keyboard doesn’t work and I don’t have patience.

Saturday, went to go find some less-actives. They had moved. I was getting frustrated. But I kept feeling like we should go to the park.  We go to the park all the time and we had just talked about how we go there too much and we should give it a break.  But Sorella Ervin felt like we should go to the park too.  So we did 🙂 And we found a less-active man that we haven’t ever met, who wants us to come and teach his wife who isn’t a member. When we walked past him, I had such a strong prompting to stop and talk to this man.  I don’t even know, I literally just stopped myself and starting saying something. And then he knew us and recongnized us, ah, mamma mia it was such a miracle. I know that the power of the spirit is real.

I want to share something with you from my personal study today. As I have been reflecting on my mission and this last transfer, I am filled with emotions and things that I don’t know what to think.  Transfers are rough because no one wants to leave,people hate saying goodbye, and we don’t find out until right before.  The news we got shocked us.  Anyways, I have really been questioning my strengths as a missionary.  I can’t understand very well still, and I can’t for the life of me seem to be able to hold onto investigators. We teach them once, they seem so ready, and then they get busy and never call us back.

But today, I prayed that I could just feel at peace with myself.  I prayed so earnestly that I could get answers to my roller coaster of emotions during personal study this morning.  I found myself reading in John 13, the account of Christ washing the feet of His disciples.  Although a lot of the things that I learned here are too personal to put all over the internet, this was one thing that hit me:

verses 13-17

Ye call me ^aMaster and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and ^aMaster, have ^bwashed your feet; ye also ought to ^cwash one another’s ^dfeet. For I have given you an ^aexample, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, ^ahappy are ye if ye do them.

I don’t have control over what others do, whether they accept the gospel or not, but I do have control if I do my best to follow the Savior’s example.  As I love and serve others, everyone – my investigators, this branch, my companion, the sisters I am living with, etc., then I can feel accepted of the Lord.  Christ has died for me.  He has completely condescended below us all so that we too may conquer death.  As I lean on Him to be filled with love towards others, I can be an effective missionary.  I just have to try my best.  I am here on a mission to do what He wants me to do.  I am merely His hands.  And I am so, so, so imperfect at it, but He will help me. If we serve others and strive to love them and we remember our Savior always, we will be happy.  That’s why we’re here, to be happy.  And as we rely on Jesus Christ, we will find that happiness.

I know that God answers prayers and as we lean on Him and look to the scriptures for answers, He will answer.

I love you all, and I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real.  I love and treasure this time as a missionary. It is harder than I ever could have imagined, but it is more rewarding and beautiful than words can ever explain.

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Strong