The quote for this week is courtesy of my companion, Hermana Herrera. A member called us and asked for 8 copies of the Book of Mormon, and we have about 20 in our apartment. I wasn´t sure if we were allowed to give that many to the members, but she said this, and it just made me laugh.
I think that mission work is always great, but sometimes different degrees of great. We´ve experienced the lower edge of great this week haha.
On Monday, we sat down with the Tres Mujeres and told them what we expected of these lessons, and they told us their thoughts about baptism. It was a wonderful lesson, and we really cleared up some things about our church that they didn´t know. Our purpose as missionaries is not to invite others to Christ, not to only sit in a park and chat. We left feeling really good about that lesson.
And then Wednesday came around. It started out fine, but in the afternoon, we had a really difficult lesson. We´re teaching four young people, my age, who are all friends (two couples). They´re amazing, and I love them all, but they tend to try to see us as friends, not as representatives of Jesus Christ. We spent an hour trying to teach about Joseph Smith and the Restauration, but in the end only shared a scripture and left. It was disheartening, but I was looking forward to our lesson with the Tres Mujeres.
When we got there, they were all very sad looking, very serious. I pointed out that one of them had brought her Book of Mormon like we´d asked last time, and she said, ¨Yes, I have all the things you gave me,¨ and gave them to my companion. She started explaining something about her husband in Spanish, and the other two women were talking as well, something about Mary, and I was like, what is going on...I realized that basically, her husband doesn´t like that we´re teaching them, and the other woman doesn´t like that we don´t worship the Virgin Mary, and the third was being supportive of her friends. They said they didn´t want to have the lessons anymore.
We understood, and completely respect their decision and right to make it. But afterward, we went to a bench a block away and just cried. I haven´t ever before felt like I did in that moment, when I watched them reject us. Because really, they weren´t rejecting us, they were rejecting Christ, who is the center of all our lessons. They were rejecting a chance to know God, to have peace in their homes and with their families. It made me so sad, because they didn´t realize that that is what they were rejecting.
So, that was hard. The rest of the day felt off, and to be honest, the rest of the week. We still see them and say hi, but of course it´s different. Something my companion said was this: ¨They aren´t ready now, they can´t do it now. But maybe in the next life, we´ll have the chance to teach them again.¨ That was very comforting.
The rest of the week was uneventful, honestly haha. Transfers came, so we have two new missionaries in my district, and they seem nice. We had a lot of investigators at church yesterday, and it was awesome. I´d say it was one of my most spiritual experiences at church so far on my mission, because I was praying the entire time for our investigators to feel the Spirit. They all enjoyed the meeting, and it was great for us as well.
Well, spiritual thought for the week: ¨God gives a testimony to those who are willing to share it.¨ President Uchtdorf (this is paraphrased, cuz I don´t remember the exact way he said it haha)
Love you all! I hope your weeks were great,
Hermana Jones
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