Dear family and friends,
I love you all so much!! I just had to start out with that because I´ve been feeling so much love and support lately and today got to read a ton of Christmas cards that people were so thoughtful to send me in the mission field and I just realize how greatly blessed I am! Thank you--you get me through and I love you all so so much!!
My title from my email comes from D&C 6:33 and it´s a super theme for life! I know that theme is not the right word but can´t think of the other word in English right now haha. What a blessed week I have had. The Lord truly blesses me too much and I know I say this every time but WHY do I ever question my trials or the Lord´s hand in my life or the hard things I go through?! Super dumb--there is always light right around the corner of our darkest days and I, without fail, have seen that light every single time.
So I know I already talked about how hope and waiting are intimately related and how that was a cool revelation thinking about the words in Spanish but a couple weeks ago, I found evidence of that!! Romans 5:3-5 and Romans 8:24-25. Hope and waiting are always related and a quote that really hit me this week was something I found in a talk my mom sent me by Elder Uchtdorf.
He said: It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life´s story will develop.
That quote is related to D&C 136:31 and I just loved this during the week. The Lord requires us all to go through adversity. But He has told us there is glory awaiting us. We know all that so now it is up to us to decide how we will react and THAT will determine the rest of our story! I know that there are most of you out there that are going through really rough times. I also know that the Lord has INCREDIBLE things in store for each one of you. It is up to you to have hope, faith, and wait. But wait with hope! Your positive reactions to adversity will make it so your life´s story can be filled with happiness, and the fulness of the promised blessings the Lord has in store. Many blessings rely on our understanding who we are and what we can and must become. I´ve realized that lately. So to help you out if you can´t see the amazing person you are: you are a child of God. He loves you SO much! You have a potential to have an eternal family and to become like God and our Savior Jesus Christ. It´s not impossible--it´s actually in the plans for your life. Recognize what blessings the Lord has in store for you and who He wants you to become. This will be your life goal and even though we might fall short, if we do all we can, Christ has paid for the rest. How incredible!
So highlights of the week were our companionship improving and enjoying our trio. Other super highlight: on Thursday my comps had interviews with Pres Amaya to talk about their individual challenges and staying in the mission, etc. They finished and Pres Amaya greeted me and then asked if I had needed to talk to him as well. I smiled and said only if he wanted to but that I didn´t have a pressing need for an interview. He laughed and said he wanted to talk to me about my health and how I was doing so pulled me in. That alone was such a tender mercy. I didn´t want to take up his time but selfishly would have killed for an interview--I love them! Also it was such a blessing to once again have the concern and love of President Amaya--it was so impressive to me that he would take the time to talk to me about my health and make sure I was ok and that I was feeling comfortable, etc. He talked to me about what had happened and what the doctors said, then asked how I felt in my trio and I was honest that it had been difficult at first but had improved greatly, etc. He told me to enjoy it because soon my comp would arrive and I would be training again because he told me what a shame I hadn´t had the opportunity to fulfill that responsibility with Hermana Palma. He was smiling haha and I started laughing again. When she arrives, this will be Take 2 of the training by Hermana Bryan haha. He laughed and said he hoped that things would all work out so I never have to be in a trio again and I started laughing a lot. The whole office knows how crazy my mission has been and we all laugh about it. He then told me to have lots of faith, and enjoy the mission because the time goes by quickly. He then said some people are down at this time because of Christmas and they want to be with their fam, etc but we should treasure this time in the mish. I then took the time to share with him how my phone call home went and that I cried but out of gratitude and love and even told my family I wouldn´t want to be anywhere else right now and I´m already feeling the time go by quickly. I shared some of my feelings about the mission so he would know I wasn´t one of those super depressed wanting to be home kinds of missionaries and he was just smiling and whole heartedly agreed with me and then began to thank me for being in the mission and serving, etc. He thanked me a lot and was just smiley and as we left the office he just repeated my name in a happy sort of way and I laughed and returned to my comps. This is a lot of detail and I can´t really describe how I felt but it was SUCH a blessing--I felt so happy and grateful afterwards for his understanding, his counsel, and the trust I feel he has in me from our interactions and the things he has said. It showed a lot that he wanted to make sure I was better and chat for a few minutes. I truly do love him and feel so grateful for his personality.
Wow that was long--sorry! Afterwards my comps opened up to me about everything and we sat on our beds for an hour talking things through and their personal trials. They´re having a hard time staying motivated about being here. Hermana Hernandez has so much desire to be here and is so awesome but she has anemia and is super worried about that because she´s had it before. Also she thinks she came on the mish to escape marriage to her boyfriend haha. Hermana Aragon on the other hand is just not comfortable here and hates it and that´s been the hardest for us trying to give her motivation and the vision of how incredible the mission is! So we are in that right now and there have been hard days when I am affected as well and more down but I recognize that I´m on the Lord´s time.
Other highlight was seeing the Cruz family! I love them so much and they wrote me in my memorybook we all keep here in the mish for comps and other people to write to us. What Karen (the 21 yr old daughter who always helped us) wrote to me really really touched me. I feel like in a different way than we expect at times, we can feel and see the fruits of our labors even with the members.
To end, I found a scripture: Alma 28:8 this week that completely captures missionary work and emotions in just one scripture! So many emotions and things that happen but it is so incredible! I love you all so much! Have faith that things will work out. Feel how much I love you and that I pray for you all the time. I know that Christ lives and what a privilege to bear His name, the name of my family, and to share the good news of the gospel that changes lives!
Have an incredible week--I love you!!
Love,
Hermana Bryan
No comments:
Post a Comment