Austin: 11/4/2013 - FW: The Lord knows all things.

Hola!

 

I`m writing backwards today.

 

Mom - Thanks for your little bit about your gratitude statement of the day. And for the words to This is the Christ. I forgot about that song. It`s powerful. 

 

Dad - Have I ever told you I`m jealous that you can build sets and stuff? Because I am.

 

John - your life sounds...fun Haha.

 

Jordan - Question. How much would it cost/would it be possible to hook me up with one of the magnetic tags? Because they made a new rule and the tag has to go on a t shirt with the pin know, we can`t use the clip and the magnetic tag would make this soooo much easier.

 

Tashie - did that joke happen in real life?? I hope so that was great.

 

Shaylee - How`s good `ld reading elementary?

 

The Lord knows all things. I don`t. I had to keep that attitude this week. This week was hard. Probably the hardest of my mission. Hardest physically, emotionally, spiritually. And I have to remember the Lord has a reason for everything. 

 

Monday, was the easiest/most pointless day of my mission, but not at the same time. I had to go to immigrations for stuff for my visa (I`m almost legal!!) I was in the offices with Elder Wilson (have a talked about him? He`s another Elder in my group, from Payson ut) at 2 PM. We got back to the offices at 10. We had to hang out in the offices for awhile because missionaries (and people in general here) are ALWAYS late (it drives me nuts!!!!!!!) Then we headed into Central Lima for immigrations. I stood in line for a few minutes (after a drive of about an hour and a half), signed 2 papers, and fingerprinted 2 papers. That`s literally all I did. I waited the rest of the time. There were about 10 missionaries from my group there. I`m not sure why it took so long, but it did. After we got everything signed, the mission bought us KFC. It was pretty good. Real American food. Crazy. And then we saw Dunkin'  Donuts. I spent about 10 soles of my personal money for it. SOOOOOOO worth it. Wowzers. Incredible. But that`s not important. The whole 8 hours weren`t bad, because I just talked to other missionaries, all in english. There were 4 other missionaries from my CCM district, so it was cool to hear how their missions are going. When we finally got back to the offices, we got permission and I went to Elder Wilson`s apartment because it was so late. I don`t know for sure, but I think it was a blessing for Elder Wilson. He`s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO discouraged. His Spanish isn`t bad, but he thinks that it`s terrible.He has problems with his comp, not with his comp, just that they can`t communicated very well because his comp knows absolutely no English. (Elder Giacoboni actually knows a lot. We had a 10 minute conversation in english so members couldn`t understand us this week). Elder Wilson is discouraged because it`s hard to comunicate. So we just talked in English. He really needed the break. I enjoyed it too, but it was more for him than for me. He straight up told me that he wants to go home. But I was able to help him see why and how he`ll be blessed if he doesn`t. I think the Lord set that up for a reason.

 

Tuesday was the hardest day physically of my misison so far. I ran so much! We had to get the papers done for the marriage that day before 5. So I got to sprint all the time. It was hard. But we got it done! I litewrally left the manicipalidad at 4:55, 5 minutes before it closed. It was hard, but we got it done! The Lord blessed us as we worked our tails off.

 

Wednesday tested my patience. Tuesday we had to get all the papers done for the marriage so the Familia Giocochea could have their medical exam wednesday. And we went with them, because you can`t trust people in this country to do things on their own. That took the entire afternoon, so we couldn`t work a lot, normal missionary work. But it was for a reason. That was the attitude I had to take.

 

Thursday was a bit frustrating. We taught Edgar Silva. He had a date for baptism for November 16. He`s super hard to get ahold of because of his work schedule, but we did Thursday and we taught his Lesson 3, the doctrine of Christ. We preached, he felt the spirit, he practically bore his testimony, and wouldn`t accept baptism. It was frustrating. What else to you want buddy?? Everything for a reason, everything for a reason. 

 

"Saturday, November 8

 

I`m so angry right now. If I had a gun this afternoon, Bishop Montes would be dead right now. Elder Giacoboni had to do a visita de trabajo with Elder Urzola today, so I worked with Elder Narvaez. We had a reference, so we went to contact the guy. The address took us to Obispo Montes` house. I was pretty confused, so we knocked. Obispo Montes came out and we talked for a minute, and he said the guy was his neighbor. I asked when we could talk to him (the neighbor), or what time is usually good. And obispo Montes tried to shoot down la Obra Misional en el barrio Amancaes. he said "it`s bettewr with Elder Giacoboni. I think we should wait for Elder Giacoboni" I thought we meant the guy wasn`t there, and we had to wait for Elder G. (actually, I knew exactly what he meant, I just hoped I misunderstood). Then he gave me a reference, of his cousin and offered to go visit him with us tomorrow. Awesome, no problem. And then I brought up the first guy again. And again, he said we should wait for Elder G. So I asked him why and he said E` G has "knowledge" meaning the bishop told him before that this guy has a porn problem. Fun fact of the day. We`re comps. If you tell E` Giacoboni, you tell me as well. I was there. I knew too. But he wouldn`t budge. I stood against him though. We had lunch with him earlier that day and one thing we talked about is that the members need to trust the bishop. So I said that the bishop has to trust him missionaries. No dice. He wouldn`t budge. But if the bishop doesn`t trust his missionaries, how`s the work going to continue? E`G is going to leave in a month. What`s gonna happen then? If the bishop doesn`t trust us, we can`t serve him and can`t have success. I was so angry. As soon as he went back into his house, I threw my pen on the ground so hard it shattered. Not broke, shattered. I don`t care that it`s me, really. I`m not important. I`m not offended. I totally understadn where he`s coming from. I`m a new missionary, whose spanish isn`t very good. I`d have trouble trusting me too. But i`d be ticked if he said this to any missionary. If the bishop isn`t supporting us, we can`t have success in the area. The key is the bishop. I just have to remember that everything happens for a reason. The Lord knows. His hand is in all things. Who knows? Maybe this guy wasn`t ready and if we had contacted him, he would`ve rejected us and we would`ve lost the opportunity. I don`t know. I just knbow the Lord does and I need to learn something from this. As a representative of the Savior, I need to become like Him. He wouldn`t have been angered by this. So I`m going to try to learn to becomne more like Him. What am I studying tomorrow in my Personal Study? The attributes of Christ, patience. I just need to learn from this and accept the Lord`s will for me. 

 

Sunday, November 3

 

Today was hard. I learned something about myself. I have to have patience. ith my comps, members, local leaders, and myself. I taught Giulanne L3. And it wasn`t bad, but I didn`t have the spirit with me. My problem wasn`t the language, it was me. I`m to the point where I have to learn how to teach. I need to have patience with myself. Because I was so frustrated with myself, I couldn`t teach with the spirit. I studied patience this morning, and I learned I need to have it with myself. This whole week was hard, becase I wasn`t having patience with myself. I want to teach like a pro today, but I can`t. I need to pray for patience with myself. Because if I`m impatenct, I can`t teach witht eh spirit, and I can`t improve. Patience is an Attribute of Christ for a reason. Impatience is of the devil. And the devil and the spirit can`t mix."

 

So that`s my week! I know my savior lives. I have no doubt. I couldn`t handle weeks like this if I didn`t have a testimony. I know this is the work of the Lord. We all have a part to play. He is our strength, always. We just need to let him be the guide.

 

Elder Schouten