Servicio!

September 15, 2014

Hola, Cómo les va?? :)

This week was pretty good! More than anything I was able to learn a lot this week. To be honest, we pretty much did just the same old same old, but it was a good growing week if ya know what I mean. Hmmm...I’ll explain a little more. At the beginning of the week, starting Sunday, between all our leaders and the members, we had just about everyone in our small world as missionaries telling us what we were doing wrong and exactly what we needed to do. I can’t even explain how frustrating this was! I mean, I’m already a perfectionist so I basically was already well aware of what was happening and what I needed to do to improve the situation and improve myself. My companion and I talked a lot and we soon realized that we had many voices "shouting" at us and it was impossible to satisfy them all. We recognized that there was only one voice that we needed to listen to, but that voice was the hardest one to hear: The quiet voice of the spirit. As we continued to analyze the situation, it dawned on me that this trial we had been given was an answer to a prayer. My companion and I had wanted from the very beginning of this transfer to develop the ability to always listen to the spirit and be completely led by the spirit in everything we do. Well, Heavenly Father was now (and still is) giving us the opportunity to develop this attribute. He was giving us the opportunity to find the still small voice of the spirit, and ignore all the other loud voices that were shouting at us. When we recognized that this is what we were to learn from this trial, our mentality changed and we viewed the situation much differently. We could see the trial as a blessing. But even so, we had no idea HOW we were going to be able to recognize the spirit. We studied so much about the spirit this week and how we can recognize his promptings. Well Wednesday, we fasted for a couple different reasons, but mainly to be able to recognize the voice of the spirit in our lives so we could be more guided by it and completely do the will of God. This fast was an incredible experience. It  was the absolute easiest fast I’ve ever done. We fasted during Weekly Planning, and after the fast we were like wow, we actually received a ton of guidance during this fast. It was incredible. As we have focused our energy in listening to the spirit and changing our view of the situation, we have been able to be more sensitive to the spirit. Of course it’s not over, but the situation has improved and we have learned a lot, and continue learning a lot about how the spirit works with us. This has seriously been such a great learning experience for me. It really applies to everyone. We have so many voices shouting at us constantly-the many voices of the world. And like I said, they’re shouting. They are not quiet which makes it that much harder to hear the soft voice of the Holy Ghost. But his voice is the most important. I know that as we pray to be more receptive to this voice, God will give us the opportunities to practice. It is this voice that we must listen for and hear and heed. This voice will never lead us astray. It takes practice hearing this voice. I’ve been very blessed to have the opportunity to practice so much here in the mission. It’s something that I will need the rest of my life. 

So my years of piano are really paying off right now. Yep, that’s right, I’m the piano player for Sacrament Meeting. In Congreso we had a few people that could play the piano, so they never needed me. I started to think that every ward would be like that and maybe I wouldn’t play the piano in my mission at all. Ja! Oh how wrong I was! I am the one that has the privilege of accompanying the congregation every Sunday. But in all honesty I really love it! I can’t even tell you how much I have missed playing the piano! It is seriously so fun for me that I now get to play. It’s kind of intimidating because I never have time to practice so I just get up there and start playing and hope for the best jaja. Nah, but it’s all good. I love it! :)

Loving painting for the service project!

So it finally happened! (Even though I only have 6 months in the mish jaja) Saturday we had a huge service project (I don’t know if it was world wide...). Two or three stakes got together and did service for a hospital. There were like 4 zones of missionaries there so it was a nice little reunion. What I refer to when I say "It finally happened" is that I got to do the typical missionary service project and I got to paint!! It was so much fun! I had a blast! All the missionaries were pretty much outside painting the building, but there were tons of members doing more service inside. The missionaries were only there from 9-12, but the service project lasted until like 3 or 5 so it was a pretty huge project. It was so much fun!! I can’t even tell you!! I had a blast! It’s always fun being with all the missionary. And on top of that, it was fun to just paint and relax from all the stress. By the end I was covered in paint. It took me like an hour in the shower to get all the paint off jaja!! :)

Covering up the graffiti!

Well, that’s about it for ya. We have a couple investigators that are super awesome  named Mariana y Jenifer, but they didn’t go to church for the second week in a row even when it was super set, like they were going to go for sure. So I don’t know what happened, it looks like we’re going to have to stop visiting them. :( So just pray that we’ll be able to find people. It has been super hard to find people lately. Ugh. But that’s okay, we’re definitely going to find!!! Thanks for all you do! I love you all lots! Until next week!! :) Remember, when you love the way the Savior does, miracles happen! And of course, Stay Anxiously Engaged!! :)

xoxo,

Hermana Van