Tuesday, July 13, 2010

My Going Home Instructions

Elder Owen presents me with my going home instructions.
Lots of mixed feelings.
Pia Parada turns 4! Happy Birthday Pia!A bad windstorm blows
this chain onto power lines-
hey everyone howa are things going?
this was a pretty slow week but we are getting things coordinated with the branch to do more family home evenings this week. On tuesday, we had a crazy rain and wind storm that lasted about all day. one funny thing was we decided to visit an older lady in the ward that we did service for once last change. we never go by her house and felt that we should go by around 12:30 in the afternoon. as we got there she opened the door and told us to come in, getting out of the rain and wind that was steadily increasing. As we entered the house, we noticed that she had to places set at the table for us to eat. I looked at my companion with a confused look on my face and noticed that he was giving me the same look of confusion. Hermana Teresa then told us that she was expecting us for lunch that day. According to her, on sunday, she had spoken with the sister in charge of our lunch schedule and told her that she was going to give lunch to the missionaries on the 6th. we didnt know what to do because we had lunch planned with another family at 1:30. Hermana Teresa told us to sit down so we did but we told her that we were both getting over colds and could only eat smaller portions (yes, we were both getting over colds at the time). Turns out that she had stopped giving lunch to the missionaries awhile ago but decided to sign up again. Luckliy for us, while in her house, the rain and wind was so strong that we couldnt even hear Hernana Teresa talking to us. We were glad to be indoors during that part of the storm. We felt bad that the hermana had gone to all that trouble to make us a nice lunch but at the same time we were grateful that we went by her house to see how she was doing. It would have really hurt her feelings if we hadnt shown up to eat. She is 85 and her memory isnt really in top shape anymore. It was rough trying to down the second lunch an hour later but we both succeeded in doing so. We didnt want to even see or think of food afterwards though...haha it was a funny experience i should say...
tomorrow, july 13, i hit 23 months in the mission. wow. this week we had a really spiritual lesson on the sacrament with an older lady. It really strengthened my testimony about the importance of going to church every week to renew our covanant that we made with Him. I received my going home envelope that requires me to make a 5 year plan for my life. one of the categories is "la búsqueda" or the search (for that special someone) haha. there are 5 time boxes: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years. in the search, the boxes with 3 and 5 years are crossed out haha....i also need to write a final letter to President Gillespie explaining what the most gratifying thing about serving a mission has been for me. we are visiting different organizations each week in church. last week we visited the relief society and shared a scripture with them about the importance of the mother and thanked them for all that they did for us. yesterday we sang the mission hymn in the priesthood opening. well the gonzalez family is still sick but it looks like and we are praying that we will be able to teach them this week sometime. it really is a patience tester for me but with lots of faith and prayers, we will be able to prepare the family without even teaching them. Well everyone have a great week.
chaíto-- Elder Jaren E. Nelson