The Field is White: Week 43 - Clay in the Potter's Hands

HOLA!

So we did have changes. I am still in the area, Victoria. Hna U is a Sister Training Leader now. My new companion is Hna Neibaur! I will admit that I was really sad when I found out that I wouldn't be training and that I still wouldn't be moving up to senior companion, but I am sooo happy! I love my companion. She is from Idaho. She is 22 and has 14 months in the mission. We get along sooo well and I just love her. I feel like she is the kind of friend in a companion that I really haven't had yet. We cook together and sing together and it's just so fun. And we can just talk and it's so nice. We work really well together and I don't feel the bar of junior companion and senior companion with her. I feel like we really are equal! I love it! (But I forgot to take a picture with her so I will do that next week)

Other changes to the mission... we have 2 more Assistants to the President who are just going to go on divisions all the time which is intereting because almost our whole mission is young so they don't want to lose the experience. Elder P (one of my District Leaders from a previous area) is a new Assistant to the President.

That's so cool that the elder in your ward is from San Pedro Sula! Be good to him and definitely have him make baleadas, lol.

It's so cool that the missionaries are teaching Diana! And I love that you are being her friend and helping her. Honestly that is the best thing that you can do, Mom. Every investigator needs to have a friend in the church and people who will be there for them, because missionaries come and go, but the members (generally) stay. So keep answering her questions and have lessons in our house and just be her friend! I can't believe she lent you those pearls!!!! You have to take a pic before you give them back!

I think that Daddy should work at the temple! It would be a great opportunity for him and it would give him something to do during the summer!!!

We made the pinata from scratch. That's how they do here.

1. What did you do for P-Day today? Does the Wendy's there have the same menu that they have in the US?

We played capture the flag for real and slaughterball again. And then we went to Pizza Hut! So it was a nice little change to mix things up. Yeah, essentially the restaurant menus are the same.

2. How was church yesterday? Did you have any investigators there?

Church was really good! We had 4 investigators at church which is the goal that we have in the mission, at least 4. Iris came to church with her son and they both want to get baptized, but on the 9th so they can see a baptism this Saturday. And Johana and her less active mom, Alda, both came to church! They didn't stay the whole time but both the fact that they came at all was HUGE! And a man that we found and invited to church in the street this week came! It was way cool. We were looking for someone else and he started talking to us and ended up sharing his life story and that he really needed God in his life right now! And he actually came to church with his kids and we have a cita (appointment) with him this week and he seems really genuine. But that was the most investigators I have seen in the church that were mine in Victoria!!!!!

3. How are Iris, Nakima, and Israel doing?

Iris is donig great! Shes so sweet and I feel like I have gotten to see her change from a grumpy, very closed off woman to a really nice and friendly and happy one. She even waits for us when we have citas (appointments) and she's just great. She is going to be baptized on the 9th and this week we are going to take them to a baptism in the Lopez (another area) to see a baptism. Israel... yeah, I don't know.... he's interesting. He knows it's true and doesn't want to act... so we are going to keep passing by every now and then but he has to make his own decision. Namika seems like she has no interest in getting baptized and it's hard to find her in her house actually so we will see what happens....

4. How are Hna Marcia and her family doing?

They are doing well. The daughter, Joselin, opened up a little bit to us. She's waiting for her passport stuff to get worked out so she can leave on her mission to Mexico. But I think that we are going to start cooking with Marcia and showing her how to make things like fruit pizza and cookies, lol. I think that I am going to gain weight this change....

5. Who was the little girl with you in the pictures from last week? She is adorable! What were the pictures of you going through a barbed wire fence??? The art piece -- did you do that? It's lovely! What is the little pink bead bracelet you're wearing?

The little girl is Johana (Andrea's daughter) and she lives below us and she is so dang cute! There is a barbed wire fence and we cross through there all the time so just for funzies we took pictures with it. The art piece was done by Andrea. She gave it to me. :) (I figured out how to change the keyboard to English so now I can do faces!!! ) and Johana made me the little bracelet.

6. What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your prayers?

Really, having my new companion. I just love her and I have always prayed for a companion who would be like my best friend and I feel like I have that now. And I think we are going to get along really really well!

7. How has someone else blessed your life this week? How have you blessed someone else's life this week?

Well, I realized that it was a HUGE blessing that I left El Dorado... there have been 3 missionaries from there (including one sister who went there when we had transfers and lived in the same house we lived in!!!!) who got Dengue Fever!!!! So it really has been a blessing that I got taken out and maybe that's why, so I wouldn't get dengue. I don't know how I have blessed someone else's life this week... I try to serve when I can but I don't know.

8. What was the best thing that happened this week?

Changes meeting and getting to see President Dester. Oh, and we were able to find a ton of new people this week. Well, not a ton, but we talked with a ton of people this week and it was great because we REALLY need to find new people. So it was really great!

9. How is it going, teaching English to Hna Ugarte? Does she seem to be catching on quickly?

Yeah, mas o menos (more or less)... she is getting better at speaking but it's a little harder for her to understand the rules. It's really inteeresting to notice the different levels of education.... there is a huge difference between the level of education that we receive and what is available here. But she's with another gringa so I think that she will learn more and more.

10. What was the funnest/funniest thing that happened this week?

Well, guess who is my new lider de distrito (District Leader).... ELDER SCOTT! Yup, he's following me, lol, so that was pretty funny. We are in the same district and we share the same area in La Victoria and we are in the same ward and everything, Oh, Elder Scott! haha.

11. What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

We didn't really do much. We had a testimony meeting and those who leave share their testimonies but we pretty much just laughed through that because this zone is just hilarious, lol. But it was really fun.

12. What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

I think coming to realize that it really doesn't matter if I'm senior companion or junior companion. I already know that I can do everything and really we are all equal in this work. I think that I have been way to prideful, lol, but yeah...

13. What did you learn from your personal study this week? Did you finish Isaiah?

I finally finished Isaiah. I wrote down that I really liked Isaiah 64:8 ("But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand."). I think because really we are being shaped everyday by our Heavenly Father and he is polishing us and finishing us to become the masterpiece that He knows we can become. I feel like the mission is a microcosm (I think that is the word) for life and I feel like slowly but surely I am being shaped into who I need to become or what I can become.

14. Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you?

Always:)

15. What has been the most beautiful thing you've seen this week?

A family invited us over for dinner and we got to serve our own plates!!!!! Here the people always put the food on the plate and serve you, but for the first time I got to serve myself and it was so great!!!!! That sounds like something small but it was such a blessing, haha.

16. Did anything unusual or strange happen this week?

Not really, besides Elder Scott following me again!

17. What are you looking forward to this week?

Just working really, really hard with Han Neibaur. We are going to make bread this afternoon with a member who is really sweet. And I think we are going to experiment more with food... last night we made pancakes out of baleada mix and they weren't half bad, haha. I took a picture of them.

18. I listened to a radio program on leadership over the weekend that really impressed me, and it made me think of you and the various types and styles of leadership that you've been exposed to over the course of your mission so far. What have you learned about leadership from your experience -- what are the qualities you think are important in a good leader? What leadership qualities do you feel you already have, and which ones do you want to develop?

A good leader needs to be aware of the needs of those who he is over. You really can't help someone unless you know them.

19. What did Pres Dester have to say this week?

He talked about faith and how we really need to invite with faith, that we need to work with faith. He mentioned many examples of the people in the scriptures who exercised faith and saw miracles and I think that as missionaries we don't rely on the Lord enough. Really this is HIS work and not ours so we should trust that He will help us.

20. What do you do to relax?

I color, or sing and now I talk to Hna Neibaur!

And I got packages from the Wions and Grandma and Papa for my birthday! Thank you!

Thank you for everything! I love you!

Hermana Gisseman

Our District