Week 57: "I'm going to be a mission nurse!"

I missed a week on October..probably because I was so exciting that Izzy was going to be a mission nurse. Here is Hermana Bernal's e-mail. -Adrianna

The past couple of weeks have been a wild ride. A couple special moments that have been very special to me these past couple of dayzzz...

We were teaching the parents of a little girl who was baptized, the Mom`s name is Alma, and up until receiving us had not had any experience with any church or anything. We left the pamphlet for them to read about the Restoration of the gospel, but we just left the first page as her little homework for the next visit. When we came back, we asked her what she thought, and she responded saying, "My favorite part is when it says... then skimming the page again she read "God is our loving Heavenly Father, He knows each one of us individually". It was as if she was reading a new scientific discovery, something she didn`t understand before and then all of a sudden it just clicked. It made me remember the small moments when I have felt that way, when I have just known for sure that God knows me personally and cares about who I am. Something so simple and something I often take for granted, it was a treat seeing somebody discover it for the first time.

In another occasion we taught this OLD OLD man named Asuncion, he is 80 years old, and we thought it would be a good idea to introduce him to another old man who is a member so that they can be cute old friends. It was another cool experience to hear Raul`s (the member of the church) testimony and wisdom from his 88 years of living. One thing that stuck with me from what he said was that the two most important things in life are to 1. Repent from ALL the bad that we do, no matter how big or small the mistakes are, if we change our ways we can become completely clean, and ultimately free. 2. We must ALWAYS forgive, even when other people have just been the worst to us, even when we have done nothing, when we forgive and PRAY for the people who have offended us, those feelings of anger and frustration are converted into peace. Cool huh? It sounded cooler coming from an 88 year old man, sorry guys.

This week was a really hard week. We talked to a lot of people, we visited a lot of members, we contacted a lot of references, and.... nothing was to be found. Even a member that we thought was super on it with going out on visits with us hadn`t been to church in three weeks. In Sacrament meeting I just felt super super low. But as the tray of bread passed by me, I looked up and saw that the young man that had passed it to me was an inactive that we had been visiting, and in that moment I just was hit with the feeling that even though I hadn`t felt like my energy was helping anyone, it helped someone. At least one joven.


Today we received cambios, and even though I have only had 6 weeks here, I have changes! I am going to be companions with the Mission doctor, so I will be a missionary nurse. I`m excited to learn a lot, I`m hoping my one year of nutrition will do some good. WOOHOO ALL OF THE MISSION TEGUCIGALPA IS GOING ON A DIET!


Have a great week! 

 
Hermana Bernal

Week 56: Back to Tegucigalpa!

Hi family!

I don´t have too much time to write today but just a couple of details to get you caught up on what´s been going on with me the past couple of weeks:

-I am now actually in Tegucigalpa Honduras, our schedule of going back to our house has changed to be more safe, we usually have a member to walk us home. 

-Going from Southern Honduras where it is hot and sun all day, to the city where it is cold and more like Seattle weather, has caused my feet to shrink a full shoe size! I was confused before in the south when I thought my feet had grown, but they were just swollen, ha. Now we´re all back to my normal size 3 in kids no worries people!

-As the mission nurses I realize how lucky I am to have not gotten sick once in my whole mission. Sicknesses like Zika, Dengue, and Chikingua are all really common because of the mosquitos and bacteria or parasites are common when sometimes missionaries are too nice to reject water that isn´t purified. We help with the distribution of medication and guide them what to do with some symptoms. 

 
-In the South the cold shower water was actually really refreshing, but now we heat up our water just boiling it on the stove, most missionaries just handle the cold but its worth it for us to have hot pot water :)


Here are also some pictures from these weeks!

 

Week 55: "The love of God inspires us to be better people"

Hello!

My Preparation day has been changed to Saturdays, so now I will be emailing on Saturdays!

These past two weeks have been super crazy. The mission call of my companion Hermana Lara says that she will serve as a full time missionary- part time proselyting and part time in charge of the missionaries' health. As her companion, we receive calls from sick missionaries, we give them prescriptions, we go with them to doctor appointments, and we travel to different meetings giving health presentations to help them take better care of themselves. The funny thing is she is going home in December, so these weeks have been crazy learning the whole nurse drill as well as learning the area. But, it is so so fun.

Every time I have a companion that is going home, it gives me an opportunity to reflect on how much I have changed since I started the mission. I used to think that being humble only meant that you avoided recognition, so much that it stopped me from doing good works and I tended to judge people for their desires to do "big things". I used to think that avoiding conflict was more important than speaking my opinion, so much that I didn't defend even people I cared about. I used to think that being accepting of others meant withholding my ideas of how they could improve. I used to withhold from explaining clearly tough things that I was going through, but I've realized that the faster we recognize our weaknesses, the faster we can get a move on making them better. For example, when the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, He, though being perfect, didn't judge her but DID tell her to change. Something important to note is that Christ didn't say, "It's okay to sin, carry on", which for me is a true example of unconditional love. The love of God is so big, it inspires us to be better people, it gives us a reason to change ourselves, to be better at self-monitoring. However, sometimes we don't realize certain things we need to change, we need someone to tell us with love STOP. Learning to receive this kind of correction as well as learning to give it, requires a BIG effort to do as Jesus did when he said, "Neither do I condemn thee, now go and sin no more". I am grateful for Christ's examples of humility and love found in the scriptures, because learning from other sources sometimes leads to confusion. Humility is not just avoiding recognition, conflict, or disagreements, it's accepting the fact that Christ expects us to start from where we are right now and to change to become more like Him.


Good luck this week in elections :)


Hermana Bernal