The Haps This Week In Chorrera

Hello fam,

This week satan worked really hard on our investigators which is really really frustrating.  I think Heavenly Father knew that was going to happen so He strengthened us a lot so that we can turn around and strengthen the people we teach.

I honestly don't remember a whole lot of what happened at the beginning of this week but Friday and Saturday were by far the best days of my week. 

On friday we had divisions....but funner.  We did divisions among all of the sisters in the zone and made it a competition!  I got put with Hna Eardley who was in the MTC with me and also waited in the Redlands mission.   We were given a list of points-
every lesson taught with a member- 5 pts

every contact with the word pollo- 2 pts

every contact with the law of chastity-5 pts

buses contacted- 10 pts

baptismal invitations- 10 pts

when someone says ¨soy catolica¨ and you share a scripture about priesthood authority- 10 pts

and some other fun ones

We planned it out super strategically and ran around like crazies contacting people and buses and inviting people to baptism using the law of chastity and chickens and it was so FUN!  We destroyed the game and beat all of the other sisters by at least 100 points and had way too much fun doing it.  Helped remind us how fun missionary work can be:)

My favorite part of the whole day was when we contacted this guy who spoke a little bit of english ( according to him philidelphia is not the brotherhood city)  and he told us he was catholic so we shared the scripture about authority and then we brought up baptism to try and invite him to be baptized but he didnt let us get even 1 word in.  In his own words ¨ah bautismo!  hay muchas formas de bautismo y todos son buenas.  Como en lion king when the monkey hold up the baby to papa dios.  Muy bonito este bautismo, muy bonito.¨   I had literally no come back to that so we just said goodbye and kept walking. 

Then on saturday we had a day full of conferences.  President Russel M Nelson came to Honduras and had a conference with the missionaries there which got broadcasted to all of the missions in Central America.  I learned a ton but my favorite part was when he said, very simply ¨love everyone and see how easy being a missionary really is.¨  It's all about the love.  He also shared a statistic- there are more male members of the church not ordained to the melchezidek priesthood than those who are. ¨The lord is not pleased with that, that's why he sent missionaries to help them¨  Our goal really isn't baptisms or converts, it's getting the families of panama to the temple to be sealed by priesthood.   

Then in the afternoon we got to listen to President Nelson´s wife, Wendy Nelson and her talk was unreal.  I loved listening to her speak and I really got so much out of her talk.  One of my favorite parts was when she talked about comparing ourselves to others because I definitely have that problem and she said ¨ In a very sacred place we learn that we are here to fill the measure of OUR creation, not anyone else's.¨ and then she talked about being a holy people.  HOUSE OF THE LORD. HOLINESS TO THE LORD.  Could that phrase be placed on our lives?  We can constantly ask ourselves..Is this how a holy person would respond to this situation?  How would a holy missionary wake up, do studies, respond to rejection, work with members, love her companion, respond to disappointment?  It has already changed completely the way I interact with my companion and with others and the way I do missionary work.  I want to be able to place that phrase on my mission and my life.  HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 

But for real satan worked hard on all of our investigators with baptismal dates and they all either won't answer the phone or the door or they flat out told us they don't want anything more to do with the church.  So this week we are going to walk all of our area contacting like crazy people and try to find the people that God is preparing for us to teach.  Pray for us!

Have a great week and be holy!

love,

hermana smith