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

Week 65: Mission Blog Link

Hermana Bernal has been busy these past few weeks but you can also learn more about her mission through her the Mission President's blog!

http://servingintegucigalpa.blogspot.com

Week 64: Reflection of Gratitude Towards God

Hi Family!

This week was a good week! Seeing lots of progress in the area is the best! I now officially know that I will get home Thursday April 13th for those who wanted to know!

Something I have been learning this week is how my relationship with the people that surround me is a reflection of my gratitude towards God. Sometimes as human beings (or maybe it´s just me) we have this tunnel vision that only permits us to see the here and right now.. We get frustrated quickly, we criticize easily, and sometimes we call our complete withdrawal from conflict "patience" rather than proactively untangling the mess of misunderstandings. This change I have had multiple opportunities to learn from misunderstandings from my companion. And I have realized that after God has patiently and lovingly allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them overtime, I owe it to Him to allow the people I work with time and love as they work through their mistakes.

Something funny that happened last night was that right before entering a family´s house, the city´s power went out (when the power goes home at night we have to go straight home) and our house was a little far away so we were scared to leave, and the guy kindly offered us a machete for the walk home haha. We decided to save our machete skills for another day and call a member to accompany us home :)

At the weeks end I am happy, we are still safe even without machetes, and my body is in the process of converting into a life size frijol.


Sending love from Honduras!

Hermana Bernal

Week 63: "Righteous desires will be granted"

Hi all!

WOW these couple of weeks have been jam packed. At the Christmas celebration I casually won a prize for doing an 8:30 min plank (which let me tell you was pure adrenaline, I´ve never gotten past 4 minutes in my life), ate a BILLION torrejas (Honduran style french toast, a Christmas tradition), and nacatamales, traveled to district meetings to do the health presentations (the purpose being for them to be self sufficient in knowing what over the counter medication to take like Acetominophen or Tabcin instead of calling us to say that they have a cough haha) This calling has really helped me learn to listen carefully and attentively to what people are going through. In my life I have been blessed to have a very healthy body, I rarely get sick and minor discomforts usually go away quickly. However in the mission I have realized that not everyone has had the same opportunities or education of personal health and I need to be sensitive when someone calls to say "I have asthma and I have trouble breathing". I can´t just say, "Tough luck the mission is hard, drink some water and you´ll be fine" haha. On the other hand I have also learned to ask questions to understand if something is really as serious as someone describes.

 
There was also the week of transfers, and it was really fun teaching the newbies the basic "10 Health Commandments", things like always using pure water, not eating street food, etc. It´s always fun to interact with new missionaries, pobrecitos they have no idea what they are getting into. Just kidding the mission is the best. 

 
In the past 3 weeks a lot was happening in the Nursing end, but on the working in our area end I was starting to fall into a pit of frustration, oops. With limited time in the area, I feel an extra push to use our time effectively and take advantage of every moment we have to teach in hopes to find someone with the curiousity and humility to actually ask God if what we teach is true. One of my main goals that I have had on the mission is to help every person I meet understand what is UNIQUE about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You would think this would be a simple task right? There are churches of all sorts Catholics, Protestant, Evangelicals, Jesus Te Quiere, Dios es amor, they are innumerable and all with their private interpretation of the scriptures. The most common belief is that all talk about God, therefore they are all the same. We are very scarcely denied entering a house because to all "whoever brings the word of God is welcome". It is a HUGE upside, because we are able to share the truth wherever we go, and it will be heard. Will it be understood? That´s a whole other story.. 

A couple examples: A member takes us to her neighbor´s house named Jorge. He is very kind, offers us a seat, and we ask about his family and beliefs, and then we share about how he can find the gospel as Jesus taught it, with no missing pieces or discrepancies. Jorge, are you willing to ask God to know if it´s true? He responds, Yes, I already know it´s true, I have my answer, I accepted Jesus into my life and that´s all I need to do. You said you´re from the United States right? Thanks Jorge. 

 
Another example, we watch the Restoration movie with a recent convert and her dad. After watching the video, he shares how he is moved by the truthfulness of the confusion of the millions of churches, and the need for a Restoration. The end result of this lesson was him saying that he doesn´t need to go with his daughter to Church because he already attends another group much closer to their house.
The church video, interactive examples, homemade puzzles of the church as Jesus Christ called his 12 apostles, giving them the power and authority to act in His name and receive revelation ...and at the end sometimes I am not sure if they are still confused whether I am a Jehovah´s witness or a Mormon. 

 
In a priesthood blessing I received before the mission, I was told that my heart would be broken when people did not accept the plan, but blessed to know that my heart would repair quickly. Recognizing that being ignored or disregarded was always a part of the mission, my companion and I came up with a phrase, "we may not have found any prepared people, but we sure prepared a lot of people". Maybe next time God offers them the truth they will recognize it.

I continually turned my frustration to the Lord, setting new goals and trying to apply what Dallin H Oaks taught when he visited our mission in November (oops ya that also happened, I was sitting in the first row!) that our personal goals should not be dependent on the agency of other people. I prayed for a long time asking to send us to someone who was willing to open their ears. "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you" (3 Nephi 18:20) The promise is clear, whatever righteous desire will be granted. Timing always depends on what God sees fit for our spiritual progress, but if it is right, it will be granted.

 

New Mission Address!

The New Direction to the Mission Office is: 

Col. Palmira Av. Juan Lindo Fte Embajada

App: 556 o 3539

Tegucigalpa M.D.C ; Honduras

Week 60: Merry Christmas!

Hello!

Christmas on the mission is funny because you get all excited about a 40 minute video call that just ends up being an hour of google call/skype confusion, internet buffering, and if it´s my family 10 people trying to talk to you at once in spanish and english, and it all just being another reminder that all you really wanted was a hug and there´s no chance you´re getting that. I love you guys. I already lived this once last year so this time I decided that I would turn my thoughts to something a little more important...

On Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Savior, but the real question is what does this even mean? What affect on the world did Christ have at His coming, what would the world be like if He never came? If Christ never came, feelings like regret when you know you have messed up big, would have no escape from your conscience. The kinds of feelings like when you wish you could rewind and remove from your life moments of extreme frustration or anger, as seen in the "chew it over with a Twix" commercials. Feelings like when something you want so bad just seems to always be out of your reach could never be calmed. 

If Christ never came, the mind battle of just wanting to be happy when the satisfaction never seems to last would have no end. There would be a lack of purpose in what we do, I mean why work so hard to have a good life if WWIII is already coming up and we´ll all soon be turned to dust?

It is normal, to relate to one or more of these examples. However the regret, the frustration, the dissatisfaction, the lack of purpose, has an end, which end can only be determined by you. When Christ came He made it possible to be free from our natural weaknesses and incapabilities, and made possible the hope for change. He lived, died, and then lived again, opening doors to life after death, giving us a reason to use our time wisely here on Earth. He is a source of strength, relief, stability, and peace. However our access to His strength depends on our willingness to change our current habits and thoughts and consequentially we are allowed the peace of being free from the weight of past decisions and experiences. 

 This Christmas you´re invited to celebrate as if Christ really did come to Earth, take a moment to see what it is in your life that might be worth letting go of, and enjoy the hope of a brighter future full of better choices. 

 
Merry Christmas Eve! Love you all!

Also, my companion says Feliz Navidad... enjoy some photos from the Mission Christmas party and my lovely companion <3

Hermana Bernal

Week 59: Light the World

Hi!

It´s been a great week, and my new companion is really sweet, her name is Hermana Nuñez and she is also from Mexico! To get into the Christmas spirit a little bit we have been sharing these two short videos that are really awesome- watch them both! 

This is the Church´s link to the video "Lighting the World" https://www.mormon.org/spa/navidad/ilumina-el-mundo

Love,

Hermana Bernal

 Also here are a couple of photos from the day of transfers!