June 9, 2014
¡Hola mi familia!
Oh you all are just the greatest! Know that I pray for you multiple times each
day! Thank you for all the love and prayers this week, I felt every
one!!! June?! What?! Time is just flying by, I can’t believe
it! Hopefully it is going by just as fast for you all as well!
So sad news...Yuri wasn’t able to be baptized this week because
we didn’t have permission from her family and her godmother is super
Evangelica, so of course that didn’t go over well. But we are planning to
work with her family this week and they are coming to the ward talent show this
Saturday. Hopefully their hearts will
soften with the crazy, fun talents we have planned. But Yuri really wants
to be baptized so we have been praying continuously for her and her family, so
I will keep you updated on her.
Jenny Barco did not attend church this week and her family
does not want her to become "Mormon". We planned a perfect
lesson for her using Mateo [Matthew]
10:22, which says,
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake:
but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
We plan to tie this scripture into sharing
the rejection of Joseph Smith so hopefully she will continue to listen.
She is AMAZING and loves El Libro de Mormon and adores our meetings on
Sundays. AHHH! Families are sometimes the biggest problem,
not the investigator.
Basically, all the rest of our investigators are no longer
interested, having family problems, need to get married first, or just want us
to visit so I can teach them English. During a recent lesson, as we were
repeatedly interrupted by a group of young boys who wanted me to tell them
their names in English, Hermana Toledo asked me in frustration, "Why do
you have to be American?!" Haha, so great! Anyways, so right
now we are in the process of finding new investigators and contacting
references of members.
Although we lack investigators at the moment, we still had
an incredible week! I have 2 spiritual thoughts for you all...
1. Monsters
Inc. can be related to missionary work! Who would have
thought?! I never thought of the popular Disney movie in this way, until
this week as I was talking with another Hermana in our mission.
Bueno, during the movie, the monsters work
to obtain energy or electricity to supply the city’s needs. There is a
dramatic moment early in the movie when the monsters walk into the workhouse in
slow-motion with serious faces, and are intently waiting for their door. This exemplifies
their grand desire at that point was to have better numbers than the monster
next to them and indicates that they felt their success was all about the
number of cans they filled.
However, by the end of the movie, the
monsters had realized that the work was more rewarding, in both numbers and the
experience, when they focused on the children, making them laugh, and
perfecting their comedian skills rather than the numbers.
Talking with another Hermana in our mission
this week, we compared this to missionary work. It’s not all about the
numbers!!! This divine work is much more rewarding when we focus on those
we are teaching, perfecting our teaching skills, and honestly having fun; not
being consumed with how many baptisms we have or how many the other
missionaries have.
In reality when the monsters refocused
their approach on the children and not the numbers, Mike Wazowski (the main
character one-eyed green monster) couldn’t change the cans out fast enough to
capture all the energy he received. As missionaries we will receive
blessings "that there will not be room enough to receive it” if we are
focused on the right things.
I loved this analogy that we found because
many missionaries are consumed with how many baptisms they have and the others
next to them. Elder Jeffery R Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles
said that it doesn’t matter how many people we baptize on our mission, but at a
minimum we better come home with at least one convert - and I know that it will
be ME!!!! I am a representative of Jesus Christ here on my mission and my
mission is to become more like HIM.
2. My
second thought comes from a meeting we attended this last week with all of the missionaries
from the missions in Guayaquil (North, South, and West). We had a visiting General Authority from one
of the Quorums of the 70 speak to us, an Elder Madel. Elder Madel counseled
us to picture our investigators dressed in WHITE in the TEMPLE of
Guayaquil. He said although our missions are the highest baptizing missions
in the world, the number of those converts attending the temple are
minimal. He talked about how the ordinance of baptism is hollow without
the added blessings and covenants made in the temple.
Elder Madel told of a recent convert family, a couple and their 4
children, who had come to the temple to be sealed as a family for time and all
eternity. As the family was waiting in
the sealing room, the temple sealer asked if everyone was present. The family gave an affirmative nod and the
sealer began to talk with the family prior to the ceremony. After a couple of minutes, the sealer stopped
and again asked if everyone was present. The mother counted everyone and
said, “Yes, we are all here.” The sealer
began talking again and then stopped and asked one more time if everyone was
present. The mother recited the names of each of her kids and again
affirmed that all were present. The sealer began talking again, but then stopped
and said, "Sister, did you ever have a child pass away?"
The mother then recounted the story of how she had lost her first son
only a few months after birth. The sealer smiled and said, "I knew
someone was missing. A little voice
keeps saying ‘Mommy, Mommy don’t forget me!’" The family was overcome
with emotion. They went back and did the
necessary gospel ordinance work for their deceased son and were later sealed as
a family with all members present.
The ordinance of baptism is necessary to open the door to the path home
to our Heavenly Father, but as missionaries we need to picture our
investigators progressing further than just entering the door. We need to picture them dressed in WHITE in
the TEMPLE of Guayaquil.
Family, the spirit in that room full of missionaries was incredibly
strong as we were counseled how to become better missionaries. Another
happy thing is that I understood practically ALL that was said, minus a few
words, AHH the gift of tongues is real. Wow!
Thank you again for all your prayers this week! I felt
of your love and most importantly the love of my Heavenly Father.
Have a fantastic week!!!
Lots of love from Ecuador,
Hermana Bartholomew
(Oh, a quick fun fact, I learned all the words to the
Macarena song!! Wahoo!! Before, I thought the words were just, dadada da
da, macarena, dadañlksdfjñalskd susa buena, dadadañsldkjfñasdk AAAAAA
MACARENA. But now I know all the words, yup no big deal! ;)
Besides her regular
e-mail, Jessica sent a separate note about a video she was attempting to send
us:
I am trying to send you a video of all the banana trees but
it is not working! :( THERE ARE MILLIONS!!!! And I got to see the
whole process of how they package them and ship them off to America! SO
COOL!!
A few minutes later she
sent this note:
Sorry this computer sucks and I can’t send the video I have
for you this week! I’ll try again next week!
Love you all family! ¡Chao!
No comments:
Post a Comment