So many thoughts

Hello! I am alive! Honestly every time I sit down to write I am grateful to have experienced another week in the mission. AND now being on bike I am grateful to have lived or survived another week without crashing. My companion on the other hand....well I feel really bad. The other day she was... actually I don't even know what happened. All I know is one minute she was on the bike and the next second she was on the ground in our parking garage. Later on in the day it happened again. I turn my head for a split second and she is on the ground. I honestly don't know how she crashes so much. I can't take my eye off of her or she is doomed.  On top of her two crashes we were parking our bikes and she hit her head on a sign. I feel really bad. I texted her old companion and asked if she could give me tips on how to better take care of her but at the rate we are going things aren't looking good. Since then I have been keeping a better eye on her. Especially in times of dismounting the bike.

One thing that I have been thinking about lately is how.... well..... Before in my pre-days of thinking, I thought that things came instantly to people. I don't know why or where I came up with that idea but for the most part it is not true. I know there are a few talents we can pick up rather quickly but for the most part things take practice. Last transfer I was watching some Elders skateboard up and down the sidewalk. One of them had stopped doing tricks a few minutes before because he said "I don't want to go home from my mission because I broke my ankle doing tricks on a skateboard" which I think was smart. Anyway as I was talking to this Elder he told me that a particular trick on the skateboard can take well up to a year to learn how to do. I see people skateboard all the time! Most of the time I see these skateboarders practicing a particular trick over and over again. For some reason as I was talking to him I realized how easy skateboarding looks and how hard it actually is. It is crazy! I don't know why I thought it was easy at one point. Over the weeks of thinking about this experience I have come to realize how like skateboarding everything in life takes practice and experience and practice. We are here to become perfect, to become more like Christ so we can live with our Heavenly Father again. But I can tell you I am FAR, FAR from perfect. The best day I can compare normal life to is P-day. It is the day that we email families, go grocery shopping, wash our clothes, and maybe some other fun activity that is close around the area. Being a missionary you would think....well at least I thought anyway.. that it would be an automatic thing to be that busy but still have a full day of studies. I was wrong. Since this day is semi close to normal life I can see how hard it is to read our scriptures, say our prayers, do language study, etc.  I have been trying really hard to do the best I can at these on P-day so that when I go to tell people to read the scriptures everyday and do those basic things I can know that I do them in the times when I have a close to normal day too. It is difficult trust me I know. I think about my life before my mission and I know how hard it was to read, study, pray, do things to put the Lord first in our life. I hope and pray that I don't fall into my old habits once I return. I can see how important it is to have a set schedule and time for reading. I have to make sure I do this. I don't want to forget. I know you are all a lot better at these things then me so forgive me as I go through this learning experience. I just don't want to forget my love for reading the scriptures everyday! I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I don't know why but I have had various countdowns during my mission. One was for leaving the MTC, One was until a baptism, One was to the temple, One was to my year mark and my newest one is until general conference! I love general conference! I have been reading the talks again (this time in Spanish). Aren't they so great? I have realized they have been a great thing to share with members when we go eat at their house. A lot of members don't have copies of the Liahona in their home or Internet access so unless they went to all 5 sessions a lot of them don't know the words of the prophets and apostles. There are 62 days until Conference again! It will go by so quickly but I can't wait to hear what they have to say. Until then I am still learning from their words found in the Liahona.

 

Last week we had a training. Our Zone Leader talked a little about killing our Giants. He shared the story of David and Goliath found in the Bible. Here is this Giant who has come into the village. David fights him but he doesn't just walk up with fear in his heart trying to decide what to do but he "David hasted, and ran toward". He tied that into things that are destroying us. Things we are either doing or not doing that are Giants who need to be destroyed. I am going to study this more this week. I will get back to you next week.

 

My last word for the day. I am making a call to you non-missionaries. Last week we were encouraged to have more members present in our lessons. My companion took the challenge to find someone for a specific appointment we had Saturday morning. We went over to the investigators house and taught our lesson. I felt really good about it even though she said she wouldn't be able to come to church. Later on in the day we went to a Blitz the Elder's were doing in their area. As we were getting back to our bikes from knocking we saw we had a missed phone call from this particular investigator. We called her back and she had said she wanted to come to church! This rarely happens so I consider it a true miracle. We were able to find her a ride to church and she came! Even better while she was there she saw a friend! I am calling all members everywhere if there are missionaries in your ward serving. Please give an hour or two to go out and teach with them. It makes a HUGE difference. It helps them see that we are normal. It gives them a friend to see when they come to church.

 

Oh actually ones last story! As we were doing the Blitz in the Elder's area we were walking around kind of going nowhere. They had said they needed to find new investigators but when we got there they said "okay pick a direction". We had no clue where to go, so we started walking. We walked and knocked a few doors, then walked some more. We eventually got to a point where we needed to head back but still hadn't found anyone and walking with no direction. As we were walking back we saw a gentlemen sitting on his stairs smoking. We asked him if he knew which of his neighbors spoke Spanish so he gave a few tips. We ended up talking to him for quite awhile. He told us his dad is in Palestine and has started a branch of the church there, teaching people about Christ there. I thought that was pretty cool. He told us that he gets in arguments with his dad about the religion. Apparently this particular religion teaches you shouldn't watch television at all and if you do it is a sin. He said he found it funny when he would go to his grandpa's house and see a television in the home. He said even one time he walked into a pastor's home and saw him watching a L.A dodgers vs Texas rangers came. He said "I'll never forget that, I was completely shocked and confused". It sounds like he has done a lot of research into what is taught and doesn't fully agree with it. I gave him the only copy of the Book of Mormon I had for some reason grabbed in English that day.  I don't know what will happen but I might tell the English Elder's in a few weeks to go by. I felt really good about him. He was smoking as we walked away while reading the Book of Mormon but hey at least he was looking at it!

 

Well that is it! I just spilled a whole bunch of thoughts I hope they all make sense! Love you all!

-Hermana Fish