Hello y'all! I would like to start this weekly update with, GO SEAHAWKS!! (:
One thing that I really felt like Heavenly Father taught me this week was the lesson of pushing until we cannot push anymore. We had quite a few experiences where we saw how working until there was absolutely nothing we could do anymore brings the blessings of Heaven.
We have been working a lot with Genesis. We found out last week that her mom lives in the area of a different branch, so we decided to pass her off to the missionaries in that branch so they could teach her. We kept trying but every time we went over, she wasn't there, or they didn't have time, or we just couldn't seem to get the words out. We kept praying about it and feeling like it was the right thing to do, so we kept trying, but it was just not working! One night, after it had been an exceptionally long and hard day, we were left with 30 minutes before we had to go in for the night, and no one was home. We decided to go over the the Valdez's home (Genesis's grandma who lives in our branch) and talk to her about passing Genesis to the other branch. We knocked and Genesis opened the door, threw her arms in the air, started jumping up and down and said "YES! SISTERS! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" It broke our hearts! We love her so much and the idea of passing her off made us so sad. So we went in and Hermana Flake distracted Genesis while I talked to Hermana Valdez. I explained how missionaries have authority for their specific areas and since Genesis didn't live in ours, the other missionaries had to teach her. Hermana Valdez looked at me super confused this whole time and I was worried that my Spanish wasn't making sense. Then she said "Genesis lives here." I explained again how even though Genesis was there most of the time, since she didn't actually live there, we couldn't teach her. But then she said "no no no she lives here now." My jaw dropped and my heart jumped. She told me that Genesis' mom is going through a hard time and that Genesis and her little sister Lily are going to live with them and that Hermana Valdez is going to try and get custody. AHHHHH! We were so excited! After such a hard day, it was a tender mercy for sure. For a while I was confused at why the Lord was telling us it was the right thing to do in passing her off, but that it wasn't working out. Well, we came to see that if we are obedient and do as he asks, that he will bless us. It was great(: As of now, Genesis has a baptismal date for the 31st of January!
Also, on Saturday morning, we were playing Frisbee with some of the other missionaries. We put our keys down on a table and when we walked back to get them, they were gone. Oh my goodness I had never felt so terrified and sick. We looked around the table for a bit but couldn't find them, so we then said a prayer. I was just so nervous that someone had come by and taken them! After the prayer we started looking through the field but were having no luck. A man came to clean the park and we let him know that we had lost our keys, so we asked him to help us look. We kept looking and then said another prayer. I felt a little hopeless by this point. We looked for about a total of 45 minutes, then decided that we probably were not going to find them, so we pulled out our phone and started dialing the number for our zone leaders. Just as we did that, the man cleaning the park walked over and said "are these your keys?" then held out our keys. Man alive it was such an incredible relief to see them! We have no clue how they got from the table to somewhere in the park, but we are just grateful that they were found. Another example of how we did everything we could, and when we had done it all, the Lord blessed us.
We also had a really cool experience with one of the less actives we are working with. We went to visit him one night, and he is just going through a lot of bad stuff right now. He feels lost in the world and confused. After we prayed, someone called him on his tablet (weird technology haha) so he answered the call and then was sending a message. I suddenly got this incredibly warm feeling of love and was prompted to tell him how much Heavenly Father loves him. The minute I told him, he stared at me, then turned off his tablet, sat down and started listening. We had an incredibly powerful lesson after that. As we walked away, I pondered on that feeling I had had. I have never felt such love as I did in that moment. I felt like Heavenly Father opened up my heart for a minute to be able to love at a greater capacity, just as he does. It was so incredible and such a testimony to me that the love he has for us is something we can never understand, but that is eternal and unending and so powerful. It was an incredible moment.
This week I was studying and found a really great quote about morning prayers by Tad R. Callister. He talked about how parents in the Book of Mormon time would never let their children go to war without first putting on their armor. We should never walk out the front door in the morning without first praying and putting on our spiritual armor. The world right now is one of the most fierce battles we will ever fight; against Satan and his followers. If we pray in the morning, we will be spiritual strengthened, guided, and warned for the things we will go through during the day. Don't forget to put on your armor! (Doctrine and Covenants 10:5)
Well I love you all! I hope that you have a great week!
Don't forget to put on your armor!
Love,
Hermana Lundquist