Tuesday, November 26, 2013

ALL THINGS GOOD COME WITH TIME AND EFFORT – Nov. 18


 GUESS WHAT?!??!! We had another family make the decision to be baptized!!! They will be baptized together next month! We´re so incredibly happy! The work here has progressed so much! I was looking through my agenda of our first two weeks here in this area and I actually started laughing. The difference between now and 12 weeks ago is astronomical! Haha! The Lord has truly put forth His hand and brought us to those who have been prepared for the gospel!
We found more people to teach this week and had a bunch of people come to church with us on Sunday! It´s incredible to see! The branch is getting more and more excited and has started to really get involved in the missionary work here. We´re all working as one big team to find those people in this village who need peace and joy in their lives right now. We have been working hard with a few less active members who have started to reactivate themselves again in the branch. We get to see the light come back into their eyes! I´ve seen for myself that all good things come with time and effort. AHHHH!!! I’m soooooo happy! Sometimes I’ll just be walking down the street and have the urge to scream ¨I love being a missionary!¨ But then I stop myself because I realize that no one would understand....cause it´s in English. ME ENCANTA SER UNA MISIONERA! There...that fixes that problem. 
It is absolutely FREEZING here!!!! I thought I was in Spain not Russia!!!! Ok, it´s probably just cold to me because I finally got used to the Spanish heat. I´m being a baby, I know, but I thought I’d just let you all know that it´s cold on this side of the world too. Just in case any of you were wondering!
Ok, so good story of the week. So we were inside an investigator´s piso (apartment) teaching a lesson and all of the sudden a little brown thing darted across the floor. My companion whispered into my ear, ¨I think that was a squirrel.¨ I told her that there was no way that it was a squirrel and that it was probably just their dog or something. Lo and behold a fluffy squirrel jumps up onto my lap and just looks up at me. A SQUIRREL!!! Yes, you are correct. They do indeed have a pet squirrel. Not like a domesticated squirrel from the pet-store but a squirrel that lives in the forest. I´m here to tell you that there´s nothing more distracting during a lesson than having a squirrel running laps around everyone´s heads in the room. My companion and I could not handle ourselves. We were laughing so hard and so was the family. We loved every second of it. Haha
This week was another fantastic week in the service of the Lord! I worked hard, made mistakes, tried again, got discouraged, found strength in the lord, had faith, and found success. We don´t have to be perfect. We´re going to fall down, sometimes every single day, but that´s where we get to show our strength and faith in the Lord. Are we going to sit down and complain about all of the things that made us fall and blame the Lord for letting us stumble, or are we going to take the Lord´s extended hand and get back up? If you are frustrated because you keep falling even though you are trying so hard, take hope. We learn something new each and every time we fall. Let the Lord pick you back up, brush you off, and get you back on track. I love this work and I love the Lord.
Remember to try a little harder today to be a little better than you were yesterday.
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Hermana Israelsen


No comments:

Post a Comment