June 30, 2014

Week 70

I feel like for the most of my mission I have been really happy, but this week I have been happy in almost every moment! Even if the situation isn't so great, I've still been able to maintain this happiness that comes from sharing the gospel and from accepting that I'm not perfect. I've been learning a lot about that this past week...that the Lord does not expect me to be perfect! I learned this lesson a while back when I was training in my second transfer. It was pretty stressful and I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. But One day, I recognized that the Lord doesn't want me to have all that weight on me....that's why the Savior performed the Atonement, so I don't have to do that! SO me holding onto problems and blaming them on myself is totally not right. I learned this lesson a long time ago it feels like, but in the beginning of this past week, we were feeling pressure to be perfect. I think a lot of people, including ourselves, have pretty high expectations for this companionship...we are best friends, we work hard in the same way, we're both older in the mission, etc, etc. But I think that pressure really got to us in the beginning of this week and came out as us trying to be perfect. On Tuesday, I realized the trap Satan wanted me to fall into and I re-remembered the lesson that I learned last year....that perfection is not what the Lord is looking for...He's looking for a dedicated heart! He wants us to have the correct motivation! I went to sleep on Tuesday night, committing to the Lord that the next day, I would be more calm in order to allow Him to direct my path a little bit better.... When I woke up the next morning, it was literally a night and day difference! From that day on I have been feeling so at peace and happy, even despite the unexpected "glitches" or mistakes that we make throughout the day. I have been at peace with the fact that my desires are good and I'm working with my heart turned towards Him :) A MIRACLE happened!!!! So we went running the other day, and on the way home from the run, I wanted to print off a picture of Teresa's baptism to give her...so I put my camera SIM card on the inside of my pants by my hip so I wouldn't have to carry around the whole camera... Well after we had run probably a mile or so of different side streets and through a park, I realized that the SIM card wasn't there anymore!!! It had fallen out!!!! This SIM card has ALL of my pictures from my ENTIRE MISSION! Some how I stayed calm, however...we said a prayer and I had complete faith that we'd find it or some miracle would happen so some one could give it back to me...We walked back almost to where we started, looking under cars, going through trash cans, looking in bushes, etc. and when we got to basically where we started, I FOUND IT ON THE GROUND!! Oh my gosh! I was LIterally in SHOCK that I found it!!! I was trying not to think of all the things that could've happened to it: a dog could've swallowed it, a bird could've picked it up and flown away, a car might've ran over it, someone might've taken it! We are in the biggest city in Poland and somehow, the Lord kept my little SIM card safe that means more to me than any large sum of money!! It was such a miracle to me and a sign to me that the Lord really cares about the little things...even as small in size as a SIM card :) Another thing that has been so amazing to witness is the change in a woman named Ewa Conn (the same lady that had bugs coming out of her wool coat). This past week, we taught her about repentance...we gave her a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and told her that in this pamphlet are the ways revealed to prophets that we can live the commandments in today's day! We told her that repentance is becoming aware of the things that we can cahnge to live more according to God's commandments, and then changing! We we asked her to choose something out of the pamphlet and change that part of her life. The next time we saw her she was wearing a modest shirt and said that she read that God wants us to value our bodies and show respect for ourselves and Him when we are wearing modest clothes! It's so cool to see the real and noticable changes this gospel makes in peoples' lives! Funny Moment: Oh my heavens...a lot happened all in a few moments! A wheel flew off of a car whizzing by while Sister Hemming is on the phone with someone who she's trying to console! She runs after the car waving it down while still trying to console and listen to a struggling investigator and waving her arms like a crazy person!...to no avail! It was hilarious from my side of it all at least! Picture: we got a referal who lives in a NEIGHBORHOOD!!!!! because on the missionary areas are in the big cities in Poland, we rarely see houses... but we got to go into a GATED COMMUNITY!! and we found a house with a picket fence and berries! How quaint! Love, Sister Blake