Well, how do I explain all the feelings of this morning...I read all
the emails about Hudson, yes I did cry. That dog was my puppy. I grew up with
that bear since I was 6, I’d say we got pretty close. So that was really sad
news.
So this week went by so stinking fast!! Literally I don’t know where
all the time goes...The best thing that happened was ELDER BEDNAR CAME!!!
YEAH!!!! It was incredible!!!!! But I will get to that in a minute! So we’ve
been working a lot with the listão and this week we were 2 days in a car
finding these references with the members, it was stellar. The very first
person we met, it was the daughter of Família Paiva. She wanted nothing to do
with us. We were really worried that they wanted to stop working with the
listão but we had one more person to visit named Elsa. So we started off and
for like 20 minutes we were searching for the house. I have such a strong
testimony on prayer so we decided to stop the car and say a prayer so we could
find the house and within 5 minutes, we found Elsa´s house. The Paiva´s didn’t
want to go with us to the door so we went. We met her husband and as we
explained why we were there she almost started to cry. Her birthday would be
the next day and she was so grateful that someone remembered her that was a
close friend. We gave her a book of Mormon and a DVD as well. It was such a
good moment and we even got her number and called her the next day and she was
just so cute with us. Missionary work is so much easier when we have
references. Truly the Listao was inspired so we could work with members!
Also we have Manuel and Paula that are getting married this week and
she’ll be baptized next week!! We called them this morning and talked about all
the paperwork and Manuel got super excited to tell us that they’ve almost got
all of them and the money! We were screaming all morning!!!! Then Paula gets on
the phone and talks about who she wants to baptize her and all! It was nuts!
She acts like a 5 year old sometimes and it’s really hard to teach her and we
were struggling to figure out a way to teach to make her understand. We taught
the first lesson 3 times... and when she talked about baptism, I wanted to
cry!! SO EXCITING!!!!
Lots of other people this week, lots of members helping, lots of
great thing are happening here in Viseu but the highlight of the week was Elder
Bednar. He came on Thursday so we got up at 5 to get there at 10. We got there
and I was so excited to sit at the feet of an apostle of God. It was
incredible. Elder Bednar was just so incredible. All week we were asked to
study 4 talks and come prepared with questions. We get there and he asked what
we learned and we responded and then he asked how we could apply that to our
life and to the mission. He used a different kind of teaching. He really got us
to learn from ourselves. He was making us agents instead of us listen to a
talk. It was interactive and I can tell you that I learned stuff completely
different than my comp. Incredible that way the spirit works differently with
every person. To show our faith, we need to pray in faith and then act! We can
pray for something and then not do anything for it, we can’t just wait. I
really loved him talking about being agents rather than objects. In the church
we are treated like objects rather than agents of faith. Really any aspect of
the gospel requires faith to act. He shared lots of verses from the book of
Mormon with a new twist on faith and pressing forward. We talked a little bit
about fear during the conference and it was interesting that fear only happens
when you are stopped. When you are continuing in faith it’s more of a doubt or
a wonder, but fear only comes when we stop progressing. We kill that fear by
moving, even if it’s a baby step. Also, the Lord will not let our weaknesses
get in the way of the progression of his work. The atonement covers those
weaknesses, Ether 12:27. Loved the whole conference. I got to shake his hand
and his wife asked about grandma and then Elder Bednar turned to me a smiled
and told me he loves our family. It was a very special moment.
Loved this week! It keeps getting faster and faster. I’m so thankful
for the time that I have. I love the mission and all the ups and downs and all
the way around. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end and a better way
to start. Love it! I love Jesus Christ, and the fact that we are progressing
beings in this world. I love him and everything that this work is doing. Love
you all so much!! I’m so blessed to be apart of this family :)
Sister Hillam
We have mission counsel this week, a wedding, next week we have a
baptism and then we start divisions! It’ll go by so fast these next few weeks!!
Stoked!! Packed full of missionary activities!!
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