Hello friends, family and anything else you might be! This week has been really great for a lot of reasons (I feel like I say that a lot) and I hope it only gets better. This area was a bit dead when I got here just about a month ago and now we are really seeing some miracles start to happen here. I'll share the ones that I think are the most important. I'm trying to cut out the fluff of my emails so I can spend a bit more time actually preparing for the week. I'll try to keep them detailed as possible though.
So starting with around Wednesday I think is good. I went on splits with the ZL's that day and we had an awesome day. We visited Sis. Pumphery as per our weekly schedule and had the most awesome soup ever. It was some sort of Japanese mix of noodles (shocker) and onions and parsley and a whole bunch of other goodness. I've really come to look forward to these weekly visits. We shared a good lesson and set up some service for the next day and headed down to a place called Echo Park, in the north east corner of the mission. Yep, we were about 200 feet from the boarder for the next mission.
We got there and Elder Simpson and I felt like we should talk to this one woman under a tree listening to her headphones. I was a bit reluctant because around here we call those "Headphones of death/satan/the devil" for good reason. It usually means you can't get half of a word in before they wave you off. But we both felt we had been prompted to talk to her so we did. It turned into a 45 min full blown lesson! It was great and when I shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon she asked for a copy and promised to read it. We tried to set up a return appointment but she was reluctant to give her address or phone number, so we gave her ours and she said she visited the park every now and again and that she would talk to us if we found her. So right now we are really praying to find her again. She said her name was Taleina (I think I butchered that ta-LEE-na) and we really hope to meet her again.
We had a really good day at that park which included unexpected dinner. We went up and talked to a Mexican family in Spanish and it was awesome. That's right I said Spanish. The Lord has been great and has really helped me pick up enough Spanish to actually talk to people around the street. It wasn't very hard granted with a Portuguese background but I know the Lord has had a huge hand in my mission in this aspect. I think if my visa doesn't come (Heaven forbid that) I might ask to be transferred to a Spanish mission.
Anyway we approached these people while they were eating dinner so that there was no escape (Mwa-HAHAHA!) and started talking to the group of about 8. At first they seemed really reluctant but then they actually offered us some Carne Asada (look it up, you'll learn something) and as soon as we started eating they all seemed to love us. Elder Simpson underestimated my Spanish and kept telling them to give us more but I was quick enough to actually deny the stuff. I did end up drinking some of the devil's water: Soda, but it was worth it. The Spanish Elders just picked up a really solid referral. One woman actually asked when we could come over and expressed a need for the gospel in her life. It was awesome!
The next day we spent in service at Sis. Pumphery's house. We gardened literally all day. We pulled weeds, mowed the lawn and helped re-seed some of her yard. She has an electric lawn mower and I was so graceful as to run over the chord about half way in. Just your typical smoothness from Elder Teela I guess :). I spliced it back together and continued without issue though so I guess the only real damage done was to my pride. I was a fun day and it was good to get nice and dirty again.
The next major thing that happened I guess was an emergency leadership training meeting. Elder Phelps went to this meeting and I went on splits... with more Spanish Elders! It was great, Elder Peangee (Pee-an-ee) and Elder Santos were with me and we did yet some more service. This time remodeling the back of a house and no one there except us missionaries spoke English, so yet another time I was thankful for the Lord's gifts. It was fun and I got very messy.
Hopefully I'll have those pictures to send next week.
One final miracle that happened was this man Kenny. We met with him walking along the street and he stopped us half way through a cross walk. I felt like I wanted to keep on walking but the Spirit told me otherwise. We went back and talked to him and he said he really wanted to learn about the church and that he had read a lot of things he could tell were lies. He is a street poet and currently building his way up from being homeless so we hope we can really brighten his life and eventually baptize him (we can't baptize anyone without an address). We're meeting him at a Starbucks to teach him tomorrow so that will be cool. It's a bit ironic, meeting missionaries in a coffee shop :).
Anyway, I would like to finish this email with a bit of revelation that was dropped on me Sunday. I was thinking about how to become great like the prophet Joseph or David or Thomas S. Monson or people like that. I wanted to be like them one day and I was wondering how to do it. While I was pondering this the parable of the current bush came to mind (look it up on Mormon messages under "The Will of God") and how I couldn't be anything the Lord didn't want me to be. So then I asked myself:
"How do I become who the Lord wants me to be?"
After pondering that for a while I decided I needed to read my patriarchal blessing to really know that. I also know that for a basic fact for all of us he wants us to keep his commandments and be humble, something I felt I really struggled with. So I figure there all a few things we can do to help discover this idea of who God wants us to be. I even made a list:
1. Decide right here, right now you will devote your life to God. In every aspect, thought, deed and goal you will remember God in it and everything you do will be for his glory.
2. Repent, that's the first step to getting to be who you want to be. Start with a clean slate. Stop being who you were and start being who you will be.
3. Read your Patriarchal Blessing (if you have one) and list out the gifts you find in it. You will see God has given you plenty, also think of other gifts you have developed in this life.
4. Take these and see how they can help you a). Spread the gospel b). Improve the lives of those around you and c). How they can help you improve yourself.
This isn't really complete yet and relies on the spirit and personal revelation a lot. I think we can all get a little guidance from these steps though.
I forgot to mention one last thing. We've discovered biscuits.
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| Elder Phelps, Elder Teela's current companion |
2 Cups flour
4 Tablespoons butter (softened, beaten into the dry ingredients till fine)
1/4 Tablespoon salt (so a teaspoon I guess )
3 Tablespoons baking powder
2/3 cup of milk
Bake at 350F for about 12-15 mins.
Enjoy! It's sounds dumb but it was actually a really cool district bonding type thing. I loved it so much we just had to keep making em' lol
Enjoy! It's sounds dumb but it was actually a really cool district bonding type thing. I loved it so much we just had to keep making em' lol
Well, that's it for this week. I love you all and hope you all have a good one!
-Um no exercito de Deus
Elder Teela
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