Monday, December 1, 2014

WONDERFUL WEEK!!

Hola, How was thanksgiving/black friday shopping?? I hope super awesome!!!

        Well everyone I had my first baptism on Saturday. It was amazing!! After Britany came up from the water she said, "I feel different". It was a great experience and I will never forget it. My companion and I sang Britany a special song in English, she loved it. We also had tons of people show up for the baptism as well, which is super uncommon because our branch never comes to activities. We worked so hard to get everyone there and everything turned out great. It was such a special night for the family. They just remind me so much of how my family was before we were members. The mom was the only member in the family but now her kid is baptized. We are going to start working really hard with the dad so that he can do the same. This family is great and I see wonderful things happening for them in the future.
Well this week is the last full week I have with my companion. She is headed home back to Idaho on the 10th of December. It has been great having her as a comp and trainer and also super hard at times. I have had days were I think that I get to go home as well because she is leaving. haha its hard but Im glad that I have the comfort of the Holy Ghost to help me. It has really been a life saver.
With all the super awesome things this week there were also some really hard times. As most people know (people who read the emails) I have been having a really hard time with my district leader. Things seem better some days but other days they just get worse. So this week my district leader decided it would be good to do some things in the district that not everyone was on the same page with. We were all upset and just talking really bad about are DL. I was so upset that I talk to the mission president about it when we saw him at a conference we had this past week. I just went to president and told him all the problems that the DL had and not anything about me. Hermana Patrick was perfect right??? NO! but thats what was going through my head. I didnt need to change anything about myself he just needed to fix HIM not me. Well after several minutes of complaning to my mission president he tells me that he will take care of the problem but not until I prayed about it. He saw that I really have been trying to fix the problem but I didnt take it to the Lord. So that night I got down on my knees and prayed. I prayed to know what the Lord wanted me to do. As I studied Preach my Gospel I was ready something that never stuck out to me before. PRIDE! The whole time I was thinking that it was just the DL that needed to change and not me. President came to Santiago yesterday and before he talked to the DL I went in and told him what I had learned. That I wasnt trusting who the Lord put in charge and was being pridful. I wrote a three page paper on what I learned and showed it to mission President. He loved that I had changed and he wants me to teach the stuff I wrote in the next district meeting so that our district will get tons better. He then talked to the DL and now we all see that we have tons of work to do. Today we have gotten along so well and Im sure there will be many other days like these.

Sometimes we many not understand why the Lord sends us things and we many just want to give up, but we need to figure out what we can do to endure to the end. I love a quote that I read the other day. It says somthing like this...."All the bad things that happen in your life, happen for a reason, it gives you the chance to apply the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ". It is sooo true. When we just forget about ourselves and loose the pride we become so much more like christ. This is what I will be teaching my district on Tuesday. The mission so far has just taught me so much about myself that I would have never figured out on my own. They say that you come out for 18 months or 2 years to serve others and help others but at the same time you are helping yourself. I am becoming a person I thought I would never be. The past 4 almost 5 months have changed my life. I love the mission and I love the work!!
I miss you all and love you tons. Have a great week!! It begining to look a lot like Christmas.... not here in Panama but its okay haha. Have a wonderful week!

-Hermana Patrick

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