Monday, June 20, 2016

Week 14: Learning to be a Missionary Chapter 2: Learning to Love the Heat (June 6, 2016)

This week has been incredibly long and a blur.

Tuesday we had the Doctrine of Christ which was really amazing. I love learning and Sister Lewis is one of my favorites. We did an in depth study of 2 Nephi 31 and 32 which are my absolute favorites. Well, okay the Book of Mormon is my favorite in general, there are so many amazing chapters but most recently these chapters have hit me pretty hard along with 33. We talked a lot about why we are here as missionaries. Are we here serving out of love, fear, reward, obligation, why are we out here? It was eye opening to me because the reason I came out in the first place was love. But sometimes there are days when it's out of obligation or reward and I need to strive to always be doing this out of the love I have for my Heavenly Father and those that I am serving.

Wednesday we got the car! Yay! (We get it every Wednesday and Saturday) It is really heating up here, yesterday it was 105 and today it's supposed to be about the same. So when we get the car we are overjoyed. We met with some really neat people, we knocked into a couple of kids while we were searching for a potential and holy cow, they were darling. They absolutely love Christ and when we gave them the little Easter video, one of them ran up to his house to watch it right then. They wanted us to come talk to their family right then but her mom didn't really want to see us. But they really brightened my day :))

Thursday we helped with the food drive! Her whole garage was full of food and it took us quite a while to fix it up. It's for all of the children in summer school, on the weekends they get to take food home so that they have something to eat.

Friday we had Zone Training Meeting. It was really powerful. Again, there was a huge focus on why we are out here. Sometimes people just see us as the missionaries. They don't see or we don't show enough how we are the evidence of the gospel of Christ changing someone. As we were discussing that, I took a step back. I love this gospel, I love the things that I teach and I'm here to help others find happiness. It isn't out of my obligation, it's because I am really learning how to love this and I want people to see that it isn't just my tag that makes me share this, it's legitimately a part of who I am. We also threw a surprise party for Elder Solis during lunch because it's his last one. He's pretty fabulous and so although we tried our best, I don't know that we came close.

Saturday we met some Guatemalans that were awesome. It was actually kind of funny how that played out because we were just walking by them and said our typical, "Hola como estan?" He replied, "Bien bien, wow you speak really good Spanish! You are American, I mean you look American but you speak really good Espanol! I was really surprised!" It was a perfect opportunity to invite him to the free ingles classes at the church and they said that they would give it a try :)

Sunday wasn't the most productive day but it was a day packed full of some crazy things. We had a fast and testimony meeting combined with the ingles ward and so there was translation that needed to occur. Elder Solis was translating the Spanish testimonies and we were sitting by Hermana Gitta. She turned to me and said "I want you to translate for me." HA wait what Hermana I am so green, Elder Solis is there! "No, I want you to. Lets go." So I got up with her to translate her testimony. You think bearing your own testimony is nerve-wracking in front of a combined ward. Not even when you're facing a crowd of people you don't know and who don't know you and a handful of people that can speak los dos (both languages) and will be fully aware of how badly your translation will be. I knew all of the words, I understood what she was saying but to actually turn it into an ingles sentence that others could understand was a different story. Also, I needed a whole lot of dispacio entre sus palabras and sometimes there was a little bit more than I could both translate and then remember. It was incredibly nerve-wracking but as her testimony went on it got much easier. It was a really neat learning experience even if I butchered a good part of what she said. I was a little bit blown away by the faith she had in me, and afterwards I kept apologizing. She said, "No, don't apologize. It isn't us, it isn't what we say it is the Spirit that brings it to their hearts." It was humbling to say the least. We didn't have a dinner for that night so we ate with  some members we had run into from Castle Rock ward a couple weeks before. It was amazing. Their stories, the time we spent. It went much longer that we would have liked but it was worth it. At the end I asked if they happened to know of any violins floating around because I was hoping to play in church sometime. And miracle: Shelly had one! She gave it to me then and I carried it around the rest of the night. It's incredibly bright but it was such a miracle, I was thrilled beyond belief.

It sure is wonderful to be a missionary. Sometimes there are things that we go through, we get thrown into the fire, or baked in the oven that takes the forms of the streets of Wenatchee. But when we come at it at an angle of truly loving the Lord and serving Him with all that we have, it isn't something that is too bad. You learn to love everything about it, all the good and the bad. No importa. What a blessing it is to be called to serve.


Elder Solis in unicorn form.


Food drive! Took us about four hours but we got some awesome food out of it (we got to pick food out of all of the expired stuff. Super excited to eat my expired mac and cheese with my expired butter and a little bit expired milk.)


I let the kids draw in the back of my agenda. I've gotten some really awesome drawings. I love kids a lot and I've found that when you get the kids to love you, the parents see you in a much kinder and willing light.


​I believe this to be an accurate representation of me.

It sure is wonderful to be a missionary. Sometimes there are things that we go through, we get thrown into the fire, or baked in the oven that takes the forms of the streets of Wenatchee. But when we come at it at an angle of truly loving the Lord and serving Him with all that we have, it isn't something that is too bad. You learn to love everything about it, all the good and the bad. No importa. What a blessing it is to be called to serve.

--
Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission












1 comment:

  1. Some food drive. Wow. Very impressive. Expired food is great as long as the cans aren't bulging. Most of my food storage is in expired condition. I forget to rotate. So fun to read your posts Sister Baird. So happy that YOU are HAPPY!!

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