Oh how I love the people of Yucatan. We had been visiting a less active named Nidia about 3 months ago whenever we had time to stop by and see her. She has been inactive for like 40 years and says she´s catholic, but a wonderful lady and we just love her so much! One of her daughters, who must be in her 30´s, lives with her..and always was getting home from work while we were there. She never even said hi to us, usually scowled and walked through the room back to her room and shut the door..nice and tight..However, little by little, with lots of smiles and slowly trying to reach out to her, with time she warmed up to us. During one lesson, she even sang the opening song with us before leaving to go back to her room. Then, the next time we came, my companion kind of just put the lesson on hold and really reached out to her. She was sewing, and we began to ask her about what she was doing and really try to get to know her. After about a half hour of simply conversing with her, she let us share a sripture with them! About a month passed and we hand´t passed by to seem them due to such a full schedule lately. However, we were visiting their neighbors the other day, when Nidia and her daughter came outside, gave us both a big hug, and invited us to come over to dinner the following week. The daughter invited us! the nonmember daughter, yep. The daughter who 3 months ago wouldn´t look at us. I was blown away. So we went, and they had a humble little dinner prepared of white bread sandwhiches with ham and cheese, along with a pitcher of ice cold horchata, my favorite :) She began to ask lots of questions about the mission, what we do, if we miss our families (duh!) and if we enjoy what we do. Even though she is not interested right now in listening to the missionary lessons, I know that her time will come. Little by little, I have seen her heart change. I´m grateful we reached out to her and befriended her, because she is slowly becoming interested with more time. I was so grateful that they offered to make us dinner, although it was very meager and simple, it means so much to me when they people who have so little, give us so much. I was also grateful to be able to share with both of them my testimony about the mission, the best and most fulfilling work in the whole wide world.
Ok, best part of the week though...CONFERENCE! I loved it. Loved it soooo much. The best part? I felt the Spirit strongly, and really loved the emphasis that was put on the prophet and how we can sustain him. I´m truly grateful for a living prophet. I know he has been called of God and leads and guides this church.
I don´t really know if I could pick a favorite talk, but one that really spoke to me was by Elder Jorg Klebingat..
He said, " Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don´t be immobilized by them, because some of them wil be your companions until you depart this earth life."
Wow, I needed to hear that! We want to be perfect, as least I do, and sometimes my weaknesses get me down. But it doesn´t have to be that way! The Lord gives us weaknesses to make us strong, to help us learn and progress on this mortal journey. We can choose to be grateful for them!
Also, anything that President Uchtdorf says immediately becomes my favorite, simply because I love that man!
"I know of no sign on the doors of our meetinghouses that says ´your testimony must be this tall to enter´"
We all come from different backgrounds, have different testimonies, and learn at different paces. I have to try really hard to not compare my testimony to that of other missionaries. Because when I do, I let Satan win. That´s what he wants me to do, to feel inadequate compared to others, compared to their testimonies or knowledge of the gospel. But I won´t do it! Heavenly Father knows I have a strong testimony, and that it´s growing each new day :)
this church is so true. I know that from the very bottom of my heart.
That shall be all for this week :) I pray that we will all begin studying and reading the conference talks so that we can strengthen our testimonies and continue to receive personal revelation from the words of living prophets and apostles.
Hermana Melody Maki
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