Know. Live. Love.

I Love Being a Missionary!!!!

There's a song we've been listening to all week - the Before and After Mission Rap. It's sooo good, and pumps me up to go out and work! Look it up!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkGth6Q7WMc Here's Link to the rap)

Anyway, on to what happened this week! It was a busy week, with two exchanges and a lot of miracles (naturally). On Wednesday, I went to Queen Creek with Hna Cedeño, and had a blast being her companion again!

I got to meet some of the amazing investigators down in the south part of the mission (the only other Spanish-speaking area for sisters at the moment) and we had an amazing experience with one of them. Her name is Gloria, and she's the cousin of a recent convert. Her cousin invited her to learn about the church, and she was kind of hesitant, and then one day she happened to visit her cousin at the same time as the missionaries and said she was ready for them to come over and start teaching her. Now, she's really investigating the church, and understands the importance of it. She's almost to 2nd Nephi already and is praying every day to know if it's true, and understands that that knowledge will only come as she puts the things that she's being taught into practice. When we were there, we extended a baptismal date to her - May 6th - and she said, "No me gusta el numero 6 ... tal vez el 5 de Mayo." I almost laughed out loud - I've never heard of an investigator asking for an earlier date before they actually knew it was true. But she's truly searching for the truth, and since Hna Cedeño leaves on May 8th she's hoping to get her answer before then, as are we.

Then we had exchanges again on Saturday, and Hna Anderson and I went to Queen Creek with Hna Showalter while Hna Cedeño came here to Gilbert with Hna Hanson. It was a pretty fun day, Hna Showalter's hilarious, and the three of us actually worked together rather well. It's funny because Hna Showalter was Hna Hanson's companion in the MTC, so we swapped stories about her as well :P.  There was one intense moment, though - I saw my first scorpion in Arizona! It was dead, but we didn't know that at the time. We were all freaking out a little bit, and Hna Showalter went into the kitchen and found some duct tape and taped a bunch of ladles together with a cup on the end to trap it so she wouldn't have to get close haha. It was pretty hilarious in the end, especially the way that Hna Showalter literally threw the cup away from her outside and then just ran back into the house, even after we already figured out that it was dead. I just hope I don't see a live one!

We found a lot of potential investigators and are excited about the work possibly picking up here - I really hope I get to stay in the same area next transfer, but it's all so up in the air! There are a million ways it could go!  

One of the most exciting moments of my mission happened this week - Luis called me a White Mexican!!!! We were outside and his neighbor was there. I was talking to him in Spanish, and the neighbor (who only speaks English) says, "Do you all speak Spanish, or just her?" I quickly reply that we all speak Spanish, then Luis says, "Yes, they all speak, but she's like a White Mexican," pointing to me. I was sooooo proud of myself haha, it was a big compliment! And Hna Cedeño said that I practically don't have an accent at all as far as the 'gringo' accent goes. I'm so grateful for the gift of tongues, and it's SO real! It's funny because so many people think of it as something different - we were stopped by a man as we walked into the library today who told us that we shouldn't stop seeking the Holy Spirit until we can speak with the Gift of Tongues in the 'Heavenly Language,' and he talked to us with his experience about speaking in the 'Heavenly Language.' I wanted to say, "I experience the gift of tongues literally every day of my life." I feel so humbled to have been given the opportunity to see the Lord's hand so clearly in my mission despite whether or not I have progressing investigators!

First off, one thing I've been really trying to study and improve on is recognizing the promptings of the Spirit. If anyone has something they'd like to share with me it would be more than welcome :) I'm reading Chapter 4 of PMG right now and studying each section to the best of my ability, but I still feel like it's my weakest area as a missionary.

Anyway, on to what I learned this week!

In relation to the spirit, I really liked D&C 84:45-48, which talks about both the Light of Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and how all can receive it. It also says in verse 48, "which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world." That stood out to me in my studies as I thought about the huge importance of being in tune with the Spirit as a missionary in order to reach others.

I ended up reading all the scriptures under the heading, "Salvation," and found that it kept referring to the "Helmet of Salvation." Pondering that and the other scriptures that I read, I felt that I was very clearly being taught that salvation is free, but to those who seek it. It's not enough to be a good person and refrain from sin - we must progress, and seek knowledge and wisdom, earnestly strive to understand and study the scriptures. It is only through this quest for knowledge and learning that we will be able to be saved in the kingdom of God, because it is the only way we can perfect ourselves and come to be more like Him.

Love you,

Hermana Garner

The zone had some fun lemon bashing with bats one morning.