Dearest Family,
It was again another great week. Here's how it went:
Tuesday:
|There was a zone meeting where they handed out a letter from our
mission president. He was clarifying some of the mission rules and one
was involving music. It sounds silly, but I had a hard time processing
it because I brought only music that I felt was appropriate but
according to his clarification did not quite meet mission standard. It
got me thinking about myself and my personality vs. my personal culture.
At first it kind of upset me to think of deleting certain songs that
reminded me of my past but may not be "spiritual" per se but as I prayed
about it (I know, it's kind of silly that I had to do this much
processing on something so little) I realized that my music from my past
life isn't my personality. Just because I delete a song doesn't mean I
am giving up who I am. My songs are my personal culture which is the
manifestation of my personality. I am still me even if I don't have the
songs I would prefer. I am putting aside my personal culture for now and
living the culture of the Lord. That is ok. That is refining and good. I
will have these songs when I get home. I can sacrifice my own culture
to be obedient and submissive. I want to do everything I can to be
obedient but it doesn't mean that I am perfect at my willingness. I am
still working on that. But the Lord is blessing my heart and helping me
with my weaknesses. Hopefully that paragraph made sense...
We
had a movie "party" at our recent convert's house, Daniel, and invited a
bunch of recent converts and investigators to watch the Joseph Smith
movie. We watched the old edit of the movie and I have to admit I wasn't
a huge fan but the Spirit was the teacher and all in the room were
touched by the prophet and his devotional and sacrifice.
Wednesday:
We work with a recent convert called Pricilla twice a week and she
translates and fellowships for/with us. She was only baptized in
February but she is already working on her mission papers so she can
leave as soon as she is one year in the church. Her faith and excitement
about the work astounds me. I really hope I stay here in Lilongwe to
watch her open her call.
Thursday: We found
ourselves with very few progressing investigators last week and it made
us re-analyze our approach. This week we decided to go hard and ask
everyone we could possibliy think of for referrals. As a result we got a
whole new pool of investigators and it was so cool to watch a little
bit of work and a whole lot of prayers and faith manifest in the people
we found and began to teach.
Friday: We did
exchanges this week again with the other companionship in the flat and I
especially learned from Sister Quaye (from Ghana). We had kind of a
super rough day full of walking miles and miles and very few lessons. We
met with one of our less actives and that resulted in the first time
I've cried here in Malawi. She yelled at us for an hour straight in
Chichewa and we couldn't pacify her no matter what scripture we shared.
Sister Quaye was so bold and just stopped her and testified. She
continued yelling after that but you could tell she felt something. Then
I finally built up the courage and through my tears testified to her
that we wouldn't be here if we didn't love her and we were called by a
prophet to come and represent Jesus Christ and let her know that He
loves her and knows her personally. It's amazing how even when someone
is yelling in a different language you can't understand it can still be
upsetting. I've been praying a lot about this lady. I'm not quite sure
how to proceed to help her but I do know that I felt the spirit when I
boldy testified and that is what matters.
Saturday:
We saw a miracle. One of our appointments fell through so we were going
to go visit the sister of the couple that just got baptized and when we
got to her house the whole family was there. Chisomo and Mercy (the
couple) "happened" to walk in and find us teaching his sister, parents,
and brothers. It was so directed. They just sat down and shared their
testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was so strong. Both
Sister Orr and I have felt that we really need to start teaching their
family and the fact that we just showed up unannounced and they were all
there sitting in the same room it was like they were saying, "Come
teach us." It would be so cool if they were to get baptized and even
cooler if Chisomo could baptize them. We don't get to teach whole
families almost ever so it was just an amazing lesson and orchestration.
Sunday:
We had church outside because they tore up the chapel floor. Our
building is still being built because we are a new branch (therefore the
building is still undedicated). All during sacrament meeting there was a
little chicken just walking up and down the aisle and it was SO funny.
It was chirping so loud and I just kept thinking, "How many people have
chickens walking around their sacrament meeting". It truly is an
adventure everyday here.
We went to celebrate
an investigators birthday at his house and teach a lesson and his
friend, Gift (recent convert), was there too. He was one of the people
last week that got involved in anti material. At the end after we had
born our testimonies and closed, he asked if he could bear his
testimony. He simply said, "Through prayer and study I have found that
Joseph Smith is a true prophet. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." My
life was made. Those are the kind of moments missionaries live for.
Love you!
Sister Michaela Proctor
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