Sunday, December 15, 2013

God is Good!-12/15/13

Kumusta!
Wow so this week was probably the most bipolar week of my life! There were a lot of changes this week with new missionaries coming in, so we now have 6 missionaries in my ward. It feels really good to not be the youngest in the mission, but there's still a lot that I need to learn, like Tagalog haha, before I can feel super advanced or anything. But with the new missionaries came some changes to my area. We had to give part of our area to the other sisters, and they basically took our teaching pool, so a lot of the week, we were just trying to find new people to teach. Finding is really hard especially when all the people on the streets are men that look a little shady, and no one is home during the day. So the beginning of the week was pretty slow with all the new changes. Also, this week was a bit hard for my companion. I love her so much, but she was struggling with being the only philipina in the apartment. I knew that she was struggling and really down, but there wasn't much that I could do to help her being a foreigner myself. I felt so helpless, but I turned to prayer, and so did she. After I forgot about myself and my struggles, and just tried to focus on how to help my companion, I saw total shift in our week. We had more companionship unity, we could feel the spirit more strongly, and we eneded up having a lot of success! I'm really learning that in order to feel love from my heavenly father, I need to love those around me. I hope that I can conintue to develop christlike attributes like service and charity throughout my mission and even after becasue this is what matters most. If I can't love those around me, how can I love the Lord. So I really tried to forget myself and go to work for my companion and the people in our area, and you know what, I was so blessed for it! We had a whole day of successful tracting, and then best of all, our investigators finally came to church this week! It was the happiest moment of my mission, and I really felt like a successful missionary. I know it's true that if I even bring just one soul unto God, how great will be my joy! I love the Philippines, and I love the poeple that I am serving. That's really all that matters at the end of the day.
So this was a great week, I learned so much, and am trying to let go of the things of the world and life before the mission and just focus on my purpose here, to bring others unto Christ! I hope that you all remember that our greatest joy in life is to share the gospel with others becasue it really is true and can bring eternal happiness. I love this church, I love the prophet and their counsel for us. I feel ashamed that it took me 19 years to realize how amazing modern day prophets and apostles are. I hope that you read and re-read the conference talks and apply them into your life. My favorite part of the day is getting to do my personal study and just feast upon the words of Christ!
Ok sorry, I don't have any crazy stories this week, but just know that I love it here. Some of my favorite moments of the week were 1. when our investigators came to church obvioulsly haha. 2. when a poor less active member gave me her sweater because it's getting cold and fed us twice. 3.when people call us Sis instead of Sister, or when the little kids say my name, it makes me feel so special that I matter to them and they matter to me. 4. my companion cleaned my shoes. Yes, I have the best companion every and she is teaching me so much.

I love you all, thanks for your prayers and support and thanks for the letters Katie, MC, Deanna, and Samuel! I will write back soon!

Mahal Kita!
Sister Bangerter

No comments:

Post a Comment