Hello friends, and family!
This week . . . was a hard one, really hard! I felt very tried and tested, but everything
turned out well in the end. Yes . . .
transfers are in! President Doman has
switched some things up.
- First
off, I got sick this week. We spent
Monday night to Thursday afternoon at the house because I had a super bad
stomach infection. Fun, right? I got a lot of reading in and we told
the sisters of the ward that I was sick and had some dietary restrictions
so every single day this week I ate vegetable soup.
- Zone
Conference! I really liked the part
where we took off our nametags and reflected on the first time we put it
on. I remember taking it out of my
envelope and thinking, “This is so weird!”
It was a surreal moment . . .and maybe that little piece of plastic
bearing Christ’s name won’t be on my chest forever, but the conversion
I’ve gone through means that it’ll always be on my heart.
- Our
investigator Jose Luis passed his baptismal interview so on Saturday we
were at the church all day filling the font. We had to heat the water in buckets with
a metal rod thing and then dump it into the font. The hour came . . and only one person
was there. . . . and it wasn’t Jose Luis.
Ahh! He couldn’t get out of
his work . . but it’s a terrible feeling when someone doesn’t show up to
their baptism. Hermana Diaz and I
were crying and it was really stressful because we had worked SO hard for
that moment. To be baptized we
spend hours teaching people and helping them keep commitments and come to
church. . . it’s a process in which the person has to change who they are
so that they can be someone better.
It’s devastating when it’s all thrown away. We went home and started a fast to find
5 people to baptize in the coming transfer. . .that night we found a
family of 5. I’ve said it before,
the lows are low but the highs are high.
- On
Sunday we held the baptismal service at 10 am and then at 11 we started
church and Jose Luis was confirmed.
Happy ending! He even bore
his testimony. It was a very special moment. So why did everything have to turn out
that way? I don’t know, but I do
know that if we don’t know what bitter is, we can never know what sweet is
either. I know that while Joseph
Smith was imprisoned in Liberty Jail, the Lord told him, “If the very jaws
of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou my son, that
all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy
good.” D & C 122:7. I know that the Lord told Israel “for
behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction” 1 Nephi 20:10.
Sometimes the Lord needs to HUMBLE US and make us trust Him and in
His plan.
- Okay
and now onto transfers! Hermana
Diaz is staying in Comitan and I am going to Tapachula!! It ‘s the only place I haven’t been in
and I’m going to Tapachula (Izapa-Laureles = zone-district). My companion will be with Hermana
Maldonado. She’s fresh out of her
training and Tapachula is HOT! I’m
going back to the heat and back to the coast. Ahh!
I will have 5 areas and 9 companions at the end of it all. Craziness!
- The
truth is that today is the first day of my LAST transfer in the
mission. I’ll only be in Tapachula
for 6 weeks and then I’ll be homeward bound. I’m saying it now so that we can all be
in a mutual agreement to not discuss it. :o) I have plans to focus on Tapachula and
the miracles that I’m going to see there, and not be reminded in every
single moment that it’s all coming to an end. It’s bitter sweet – I love the mission
and the people here but I’m also very excited to see my family and
friends. So I’m going to take
advantage of this time that I have left to work, love, and enjoy!
Con amor, Hermana Dangl
La Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Baptism of Jose Luis
Sister Missionaries
No comments:
Post a Comment