Sunday, February 26, 2017

Week 67: Transferred for my last 6 weeks!

Hello family and friends!

This next week that comes up I will be transferred to a new area, and unfortunately have to say goodbye to the "Girasoles" area on Wednesday. It has been a blast serving as Hermana Enfermera and in the capital of Honduras, and I´m excited to see what adventures lie ahead for my last 6 weeks! Also I will go back to writing on Mondays.

Some ups and downs from these past couple of weeks:

On Valentines day I almost got a smootch from a creepy homeless man, the other day I ALMOST got bit by a stray dog (my companion said that it literally was about to sink it´s teeth into my leg and then just turned its head as if it didn´t feel like it anymore, seriously a miracle), this week I felt proud of myself because I helped someone with their math homework and realized that not all of my knowledge of rationalizing denominators has diminished, a couple missionaries stayed in our house to go to hospital appointments, all in all, a great month!

Out of all of the ups and downs in these two transfers that Hermana Nuñez and I have had in our area, the highest up was seeing the change in our recent convert´s mom, named Clarissa. In the beginning when we first found Arely (her daughter, the convert), Clarissa had shown indifference to our visits, when she was there she would listen, but she told us about how the missionaries had taught her 10 years ago when Arely was 4 years old and she wasn´t married, and though she received them for awhile, very quickly lost interest. The missionaries stopped visiting, and she decided to join the Jehova´s witness congregation...

10 years later we find her daughter, Clarissa always giving her daughter the freedom to choose what church to attend, but as for herself she never entered into a church building until the day of Arely´s baptism. When Arely was baptized, we played the Restoration video, and she began to ask so many questions, and we were so excited to see a spark of interest in her. It was funny the first time that we taught the Plan of Salvation, and how we will live in the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial kingdom after judgement (1 corinthians 15:40), we asked the classic question, "In what kingdom would you like to live in?" To our surprise, she answered, "Right now, the Terestrial kingdom". Although it was a shock to hear that answer, we knew from that moment that she began to understand what really was required of her to live again with God. Little by little we taught her the blessings and restored truths of the gospel, and she always told us that she wanted to have a perfect knowledge before making any big decisions of going to church or anything, but little by little she would have moments where she just told us out of the blue "I am really starting to like this, I´m thinking that that must mean it is true". It was so cool to see her recognize with little help the way that the Spirit offers answers to our prayers- simple changes in our desires and thoughts, little "aHA" moments, or when you just feel like something makes sense.. Three times she put a goal to be baptized and three times that baptismal date fell through, each time she would say "I just don´t feel ready, I want to be more sure"..

This week after deciding for sure to be baptized, she told us that what made the difference this time was that as she saw the truths of the gospel line up between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, she began to know for herself that it was really true. And, apparently the Elders that taught her 10 years ago had unfortunately told her "we don´t use the Bible" (yikes, completely false).. I remember when I first felt the same way, comparing the footnotes of the Book of Mormon and Bible, and seeing how all of the pieces of the gospel fit together so perfectly, there is nothing that I love more than feeling like I understand a little more about what God expects from me.

I know I´m definitely gonna miss the area Gira Soles so much, and I´m sure I´ll miss the missionary phone calls of "I have diarrhea, what do I do??", even more.
Photos will be sent next weeeeeek!!


Love you all!
Hermana Bernal

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