I only have one hour and I couldn't really fall asleep last night because I have so little time to write you and toooooooooooo much to say!!!! However,...let it begin :)
Mi Familia,
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Except the boys..they haven't written me. Friendly reminder, I'm only sending Christmas surprises home for those who write me;) There's incentive hehe. First of all thank you to all who have written me!! You are the best and I have loved every single letter! Note to America: Yes I am getting your letters! The first one was almost a full paragraph but it cut off half way through a sentence so I don't know what happened there but I got your second one and I love you too!! Please give me your address yo! I'll write you a personalized letter once I get that. Good luck with finals! Also, very good with the whole Z man thing. Don't forget what you really want and remember where you really want to be in the end. Send me your address on Dear ELder by Monday!..or give it to my mom. Love ya. Note to Emily: Thank you soooo much for your letters!! I'm sending you a letter tonight :) Note to Erma: Thank you sooooo much for the card and pictures! People were shocked to see that I actually had family cause I'm the only one who doesn't have pictures of their family with me :) I'll send you and Grandpa a letter tonight. Note to Cass: I wrote you a letter and I'm mailing it today! :) Note to Manda: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY LETTER! I was sooooooo happy to hear from you! That's so great that your wrapping everything up. I'm glad that you're feeling good about your plans, and I'm not judging you whatsoever on wanting to stay in Jerome. I've been realizing lately just how fantastic it is:) Please send me your address so I can write you a better letter!! Love you so much!
About Grandpa Chambers, and Kent's dad. I'm so sorry to hear that they passed away because we'll miss them so much. However, being out here I've been reminded even more of the fact that there is soooo much more than our time on earth. I know they're both continuing on and that they are with you in spirit. My love and prayers are with all of you.
Holy cannoli I have learned so much it's ridiculous! I feel like I've truly become bipolar haha! Some days are so fantastic and spiritually high and other days I'm like wow this is really hard and I don't want to study for another three hours straight. HOWEVER! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! :) Seriously it's the best. I've had such a great companion whom I can totally be myself with and we're constantly having fun and learning. We've lived really similar lives and have so much to talk about. My district is Fantastic! We've all become best friends and I'm seriously going to miss them sooooo much! THe NC people leave Monday and the Tulsa people fly out Tuesday.( We're leaving the MTC AT 2:30AM ON Tuesday....ya. So, basically my last day here is MoNday and then I'm flying out. Mom: I'll be able to call on Monday around 6 am.....if you don't want me to I understand haha I realize you love sleep :) ) I have had great roommates (also part of my district). Ya, soryy for lack of details with the pictures, but I can't really remember what pictures I sent you. Sis lavea is my comp, the tan beautiful one :) The blonde curly hair is Sis. Jacot(JAY-COT) and we have a ton in common. SHe's going to BYU. SHe went for a year. Then the short blonde hair is Sister Larson and she is fantastic. :) SHe's so nice and friendly but all of us get along so great. Those two sisters went to a year of college before coming out so I'm the baby...weird. However, there's 3 or 4 elders in my distric who are the smae age/position as me. Elder Burton and I are literally best friends now haha. He's ALWAYS talking to me and getting me in trouble!! Terd :) Just kidding I get him in trouble too haha. Me, sis lavea, Elder Burton, and Elder Madsen (his comp) are all going to Tulsa and we all are literally best friends. We're always talking to each other and somehow we always end up in the same rooms for everything even when it's with everyone and completely random! Elder Madsen is also HILARIOUS! I'm gonna try and send you pictures. There's one where we're all together and the boys are kneeling on the floor. Elder Madsen is the white super blonde guy caressing Elder burton the little guy with glasses hahahah holy cow it cracks me up! :) I told them I'm pretty sure my grandpa and grandpa took a picture like that, and Elder Madsen,..... you're my grandma. Hahah I'm so glad we're all going to the smae place. It's gonna be a blast...if I ever see them.
Ok, on to more important things. :) Mom you remember when I learned about the holocaust and got really super depressed because I just really felt for those people and I was in that funk for a good couple months? Well, as I've been out here we've had the chance to teach people who volunteer to be investigators. Most people are members, but some aren't. Well, sis lavea and I were teaching this girl from china who was mormon just acting like she wasn't but she missed one of our appointments, so we're sitting there waiting for her and this other lady comes up and is asking if we're there to meet with her cause she'd love to hear from us. We said ya sure! So, we go in and start "talking to her" which consisted of us sitting down and listening to her tell us her whole life story.....wow. SHe is a real investigator and she came to volunteer cause she didn't want her friend to know that she was meeting with the missionaries. She told us all about her life and I have never ever heard a life so hard. She was abused physically, emotionally and sexually by both of her parents, her brothers, and her husband. She went into detail about how she's never been loved and how she was always blamed for problems and how her husband had an affair with a lady and as she was getting a sea section for her 2nd child cause her pelvis had been broken as a child. Her husband walks in with his girlfriend to see "their child". Her incision was infected and the doctors didn't have the medicine or something and her husband, with his girlfriend told the doctor "Call me if anything happens. I'll call a truck to come pick up the slabs of meat".....It's making me cry again just writing this. THis was only ONE of many MANY awful things this lady really experienced. I cried, she cried, sister lavea cried. We stayed in there with her for 2 1/2 hours. Lessons are usually 45 minutes. I have NEVER felt sooooo unbelievably sad in my life. But the thing is , she has no hatred. SHe doesn't hold any grudges. She said she's experienced mean all her life so why would she want to continue that. I have never met anyone so strong and humble in my life. We bore our testimony to her on who she really is, how God loves her and knows her. We told her of the atonement and how Christ knows everything she has gone through, and how even though she dosen't and we don't know why she would ever have to experience any of those things, we told her "God sends his hardest trials to his strongest most valiant warriors." She just cried and cried. I can't even tell you how I feel about that. It was obvious that we were supposed to meet with her instead of our "fake" investigator. However, just like with the holocaust situation, after heard all of these things I just felt so depressed and sad. I couldn't get that dark alone feeling out of me. I explained to sis lavea how I felt cause she was so excited to talk to her cause her mom had been through similar things and I told her I just feel really what she's been through and I can''t shake it. Well, later that night I still was in this funk and she gave me a scripture to read, Alma 36:27...one of my favorite scriptures that I forgot about. And I felt better immediately. She told the branch president about it and he told her that I have a special gift, and although it may seem like a trial now, it will come to be a gift. It's hard, I'm not gonna lie. I just feel really deeply these people's lives and it's hard to get out of that dark place and back into the happiness of the gospel, but I'm beginning to see that through the scriptures, through prayer, and through the atonement, everyone can be healed of ANY pain they've experienced.
I'm out of time, but I know this church is true. I've never felt more close to my Heavenly Father and the Savior than I do out here. I'm excited to serve and I have this weird feeling about Kansas haha but I learned yesterday during "in-field training" that God has prepared someone in EVERY area that I will be called, and I can feel that there are friends that I've known before this life waiting to hear that they can be with their families forever, that they can be freed from sadness and sin and truly come to know what true happiness is through A relationship with Jesus CHrist. I love you all and Monday is my last day in the MTC! Be strong and count your blessings. So many have so little, but where much is given, much is required. I love being a missionary, and it's going by quick haha:) Talk to you on Tuesday!
Love you forever,
Sis. Moreno
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