Week 3

Hola mi familia y amigos,

Week 3 down!! This week definitely went faster which is a relief. The regular routine is still intact which is honestly pretty dang boring, but that's okay because I am thankful for this time to prepare. Some really cool stuff happened this week though!!

1) I gave a talk in church on Sunday (all in Spanish)! Everyone has to prepare a talk every week and they don't call on people to speak until we are already sitting in sacrament and the branch presidency is conducting. As soon as the meeting started I could feel it was going to be.. and sure enough.. they called on Hermana Roberts! I spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, only for like 4-5 minutes, but still challenging considering it's all in Spanish! But I felt really good about it and I had several people comment on how my spanish is progressing. I don't necessarily feel like it is, but I appreciate the encouragement :). 

2) There are SO MANY ELDERS!! Now that high school is out, there has been and will continue to be floods of elders every Wednesday. The past two weeks we have received two new districts of all elders (total of 16 new in our zone) and no sisters. Que triste. They all seem so young haha. And the district I am the closest with (that contains the only other sisters in our zone and the two elders I'm closet with) leaves this upcoming Monday so I'm super bummed about that!! There will be only 4 sisters and like 25 elders in our zone.

3) MOM AND DAD I LOVE YOU!! Thank you for the package!!! It felt like a holiday. Seriously, thank you for everything it contained. And thank you especially for the shoes! Mom, I have been describing you as my angel mother to everyone haha because I can now walk without being in pain all the time! (That is a little dramatic, you usually can't tell I'm in pain, I kind of just suffer through and try to forget about it) but now I don't even have to think about it!! And the candy..... :))))) I'm gonna get so fat here haha.

4) So an update with my deformity hehehe. I went to the podiatrist yesterday and discussed with him my other options. And he said that we aren't even considering surgery at this point.. YAYY!!!!! He said there are several things still we can do (like the cortisone shot) and such. But before we do that I'm going to try anti-inflammatory meds (like Aleeve) and icing it and staying in open back shoes to let the inflammation go down. In the mean time I am going to try and get ahold of my mission president to get permission to wear open back shoes or sandals or whatever in my mission. If he says yes, then that should simply solve the problem. If he says no, then we'll try the cortisone shot and what not if needed. I had him x-ray my feet though because I like to be able to visualize the problem (and I'm an anatomy lover). It's the same on both feet, but only one is currently inflammed. It seems odd to me that I wouldn't have this problem until now, but now that I think about it, church shoes similar to these would hurt me if I wore them for very long in the past, I just always blamed it on the shoes being uncomfortable. But maybe it's just been my bone the whole time... haha who knows. Anyways, I'm just happy surgery isn't an option cause I've been kind of stressing over it. Thank you everyone for your prayers :). Please continue :). 

5) Hermana Bullock and myself (and lots of other missionaries) took a trip to Salt Lake this past week!! Whooo! We went to the Mexican Consulate and signed papers/took pictures for our visas. That's literally all we did, but it was fun to get out of the MTC for a good chunk of the day. 

6) Awesome experiences teaching this week. I'll just type up one of my journal entries because it says it best (since I wrote it the day of)

"Today was such a good day! And it was all because of missionary work. I feel overjoyed with my purpose to teach others about the gospel! Yesterday we started teaching an investigator named Juan Carlos. He's actually our teacher acting as someone he taught on his mission, but he did really well and it felt so real to me. We knocked on his door and he opened the door only far enough to hear his voice. He wasn't going to let us in and he sounded so depressed, but we were able to persuade him. We entered and greeted him and asked him about himself, and he would answer the questions, but so simply and he had his head down the entire time. We started to teach him and continued to try to get to know him better. He's 23 and mostly lives in the street because he's drunk all the time. His mom lives nearby, but she's usually mad at him and won't let him be in her house while he is drunk, which is most of the time. He's gone to a lot of churches, but they're all the same and no one actually cares about him (so he believes). He basically feels alone and hopeless. The entire time we had to try and get answers from him and he was fairly good about it, but the blinds were closed and the lights were off and he kept his head down like the whole time, just twitling with him thumbs. I felt so sad for him. We shared the message of the first vision and the restoration to some degree. The Spirit was so strong as Hermana Bullock recounted the first vision. We talked with him a lot about how God loves him, and he definitely wants to believe that is true, but he doesn't feel it. As we were teaching him the Spirit prompted me to ask him certain questions, say things certain ways, and testify to him that yes, life is hard, but he is not alone. God loves him and is aware of him. We (Hermana Bullock and myself) are representatives of Jesus Christ and God was sending us to him to share the message of the restored gospel with him. I testified that I know God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith and that Juan Carlos could also receive answers to his questions. I asked him to look me in the eyes and I testified to him that I know this message is for him and it was the way by which he could change and find true happiness. The Spirit was so strong and I was enveloped in this love for him and the strongest desire for him to have the gospel. Before we could say much else he looked up and through his helpless eyes he asked if we would come back. I wanted to cry I was so happy and have this love for him.

That whole lesson was with my teacher pretending to be someone else, yet I could still see that person who needed the gospel. It was so real to me. And especially after having a rough day with being discouraged by my foot, I almost didn't want to give the lesson. I was almost in teachers a few minutes before knocking on his door I was so discouraged, but as soon as we started teaching him, my personal concerns and worries dissipated and I didn't care about anything except Juan Carlos. So today, we were preparing for our next lesson with him and as I studied Preach My Gospel and the scriptures with Juan Carlos specifically in mind, I was able to find things to share with him and I just felt buoyed up by this purpose of sharing the gospel with him so that he might find purpose and joy in this life."

Most of our lessons don't go quite this well. We teach anywhere between 2-5 lessons a day, and usually they go well, but this particular lesson was kind of a turning point for me. Honestly, teaching lessons really isn't my favorite thing ever. Especially because I don't know how to say much in spanish and it's all given in spanish, but its moments like these that make me love being here. Or more that I know there are real people out there who really do need the restored gospel. It's worth it. 

The other thing that is great about the MTC are the devotionals. Oh. my. gosh. I LOVE DEVOTIONALS. The speakers are so inspired and I always leave having learned so much. And the personal revelation that comes from it is amazing. What stood out the most to me this past devotional was being a disciple of Christ. What I want in my mission, WAY more than teaching, is for others to simply see the light of Christ in me. That could sound prideful I guess, but it's because I am so human and so imperfect, but Christ is perfect, and if people can see a glimpse of Him through me, I feel like I would accomplish my purpose as a missionary. Seriously, I just want to love people. Haha to heck with teaching, I'm not very good at it, but if the way for me to reach people and help them feel the love of Christ and the truth of the gospel is through being a proselyting missionary, then so be it. I will do it. 

I'm out of time, but a quote I love given by Richard G. Scott is this: "The Lord will not force you to learn, but you have to use your agency to authorize Him to you through the Holy Ghost." You have to AUTHORIZE it. I love that. Absolutely love it. "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you." 

Well y'all, I love you so much!!! The church is true. I have not a doubt. This work isn't easy, but through the power of God, it will be accomplished :). 

Con amor, 

Hermana Roberts