January 23, 2012

Hello!

Well first things first, I have learned so much about miracles this week. It was a tough one, things kept getting worse in the work, it seemed as if everyone hated and rejected us, and it was just a rough start. However, even in that rough time I learned a lot about the love that Christ has for us. I looked at the people who were making fun of us or rejecting us or lying withpain not because of my own pride, but because I just wish they would let me help them! I just love them so much! That's one of the hard parts for me, feeling so much love for the people of Chile and seeing the weakness of the church in a lot of places here, it just makes me want to do all that I can to strengthen it, but many times I feel like my efforts have been in vain, I just keep trying to tell myself that the Lord has a plan and that it's not important that I see the fruits right now, it's just important that I do what He called me here to do and it'll all work out.

So in the challenges we were facing I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to exercise real faith, patience and diligence. The miracle comes AFTER the trial of faith, we just have to keep pushing and believe that the miracle will come. Joseph Smith had to fight off the adversary right before the first vision. I have always thought that greater opposition means a greater miracle awaits....

AND THEN IT HAPPENED!

I had been praying for some way that the people would be humbled, some situation in which we could show people that we would be there for them no matter what to help them out, that we really do love and care about them, that we're not just trying to get in their door to try to convince them to join our church. Yesterday, despite the fact that every day this cambio has been super hot, THERE WAS A HAIL STORM! I felt like Nephi! It was so awesome! We happened to be by the apartments so we hurried over to Cristian's house. It turns out he had just run home and we were able to find out that he's not avoiding us, he's just been busy, but he wants us to come by to teach him today. I love faith!

We still haven't seen Margarita. She says we can call her at a certain time to see if she's home, but when we call she hangs up. I'm not really sure what to do with that, but we'll keep on trying. We've found a few other really cool people who we're continuing to work with, but a lot of people just do NOT want to meet with us.

I'm trying to just show as much love as possible to everyone. I'm trying to be "a light (in) the world." I remember reading from a talk in general conference that showing love is the most important thing that a missionary can do. My only worry is that I'm showing too much love and trying to gain too much confidence that people might be seeing us as just friends. 

Anyway, that's all for today, see you in 6 weeks!

Love,

Hermana Gebara

January 16, 2012

NOTE: Jamie's letter got cut off because she had to change libraries halfway through writing. This is the half that we got.

a copy of what I sent to President! -

Review: We are having so many challenges with the miracles we found last week, but I'm not giving up hope!

Ok, we found another spot, so where were we? Oh right. Margarita. So she fasted with us and I felt like an awesome instrument in the Lord's hands for being inspired to help her use a challenge to teach a principle of faith, but we've called her every day since then and her son is in the hospital and when she's not there with him she's working and she said that she's probably going to have to keep up the same schedule even when her son gets out of the hospital. We went by to see if there was anything we could do for her and her landlady came out and told us she never wanted us on her property again. We offered to have someone from the church give her son a blessing, but she didn't answer any of our calls yesterday. We are just having a lot of challenges!

Even with Cristian things have taken a small turn for the worse. I know that they really need to feel the Spirit, so I fasted again to know what they needed and to have as much of the Spirit as possible for our lesson. We even coordinated to have our branch mission leader and his family come with us, and then he didn't even let us in because he said he had to leave! I fasted twice this week! Nelson and Yenifer finally said they would consider coming to church and that he was going to read the Book of Mormon, but then his dad got in a car accident and they couldn't. That's the bad news part.

The good news part is that I have a loving Heavenly Father who guided me to Doctrine and Covenants 35. The part where the Lord talks about how he prepares his servants for great things and that often they are preparing his way without knowing it has been a huge comfort for me. Perhaps I won't see any baptisms, but I'm going to keep trusting that my service in this year and a half has been preparing the way of the Lord. I also read in Alma 24 when it talks about the strength of the faith of the anti-nefi-lehi's. Perhaps it's going to be more of a challenge for these people to be converted, but the important thing is the strength of that conversion when it happens. I would way rather prepare the way of the Lord in truly converting them than see the baptism now and find out later that they went inactive.

Other than a bit of insomnia in thinking about our investigators, I've been doing alright. It's a good thing, though. This is what being a missionary is all about. I love that I'm so attached to these people that I worry about them so much, I love them! That's the most important part about being a missionary, right?

We have been finding a ton of new people, which I'm happy about.

The good thing about these challenges is that I've had the opportunity to feel a closeness and support from my Heavenly Father in a way I had never felt before. I feel so supported by Him! Again, I know I am SOOO far from perfect, and I know He knows that too, but I feel so grateful that He lets me know that He's in my corner anyway!

Anyway, thanks for all you do, I feel like I'm on a spiritual high and I really just don't want it to come crashing down so I'm trying my best to stay positive.

December 9, 2011

Hello!

This has been a long but AMAZING week, probably one of the best of my whole mission. Let me just start by talking about a few of the MIRACLES that I saw. The first is Margarita. We had set up a cita with her and her boyfriend in a contact, but when we went by they weren't there. The next day, I had the distinct impression that we should go by and visit them, so we did. She was there and as we got to talking she told us that she had always wanted to meet with missionaries, that she had talked to them in the street but that they had never offered to come by and she was too embarassed to ask them to come! She has a good friend that was recently baptized and is really grateful and excited to be learning about the Gospel. It was like the PME video about "How to Begin Teaching" with German, it was just so unbelievable. We invited her to be baptized right then and she was so excited to be able to prepare to be baptized on the 28th! We also had the great privlidge of literally seeing the moment that the Holy Ghost testified to her that the Book of Mormon was true. We were reading the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction, and when she read "We invite all men... to read the Book of Mormon..." she got choked up and said: "This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read, I feel something in my heart just like my friend described to me, but I never thought I'd get to feel it too." Her prayers are so sincere and we are just so excited! She has a lot of challenges. She'll have to get married and her boyfriend is hesitant to change because of what his family and friends will say, but he supports her completely, it is also hard working around her work schedule, but she lives right in front of the church and says that she is excited to come this Sunday because she won't be working! I am so grateful that the Lord gave me the privlige of seeing this miracle, and equally grateful for the fact that He trusted me enough to give me the impression to go visit her because He knew I would listen!

We also found Cristian and Nicolas this week. We contacted Cristian near his apartment and shared a scripture about joy in 2 Nefi 2:25. The impression then came to me that I should give him the book, even though it was my last one, but I did and I told him: "This is a treasure, I want you to have it." He seemed taken aback but grateful. We went by on Sunday and he was there with a few friends, we got to teach them the Plan of Salvation and it was SO COOL! The Spirit testified so much. It's clear that they are living the lifestyle of typical jovenes, but they were so respectful and attentive and I could see that they really felt the Spirit. Nicolas prayed at the end that we would continue to teach them how to come closer to God. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but I keep thinking about how excited I am for them to be future missionaries and priesthood holders! I always get my hopes up so high, but that's a good think, I think.

I've learned so much this week. At the beginning of the week I was feeling really down because this is a really tough companionship for me, and it has made me realize the gap that there is between refraining from saying the negative and choosing not to respond when someone offends you and actually loving someone the way that Christ loves them. I have gotten pretty good at the first part, but I'm still working on the second. It's good because I have needed to turn so much more to prayer this cambio, and I feel the blessings of the greater fervency of my prayers. I gained a new appreciation for the Atonement and that even when I'm afraid that I've messed up on my mission, I know I haven't done anything unforgivable and that Christ always provides a ladder for us to be ok again. It was a nice reminder.

I realized that if there's one thing I've done right on my mission, it is that I've allowed it to change me. Just like it talks about in "The 4th Missionary" there is a difference between obedience for minimums and obligation, and obedience for love and discipleship, I know that my obedience is motivated by the latter, and that's at least one of the successes that the mission has brought me.

This is getting really long, so I'll wrap it up now, but thanks for being great and doing all that you do!

Love,

Hermana Gebara