This Christmas season the church is doing something called
the "He is the Gift" initiative (Él es la Dádiva). Not sure if you have
all seen the video, if not you can go to christmas.mormon.org
or navidad.mormon.org to watch it in Español. It is pretty cool. Mainly it is to help everyone remember why we
really celebrate Christmas. As missionaries we have "He is the Gift"
10 pass-along cards per-day that we need to hand out to member referrals. It is
pretty fun because it forces us to talk to a lot more people, and as a result
we find a lot more new investigators. Also, it is a great experience to feel
more like it is Christmas time even though it is really hot here. Something
that I have found interesting is the number of people that really don't know
why we celebrate Christmas. It is so important to remember that the first
Christmas gift that was given was our Savior Jesus Christ, who our Heavenly
Father gave us so that through Him we can be saved and return to His presence
(John 3:16). This is a really special time of year and a special time to be a
missionary. Also, the church took over Youtube yesterday, so that's pretty
cool.
We had a fun experience with this initiative on Saturday. We
went to contact a member referral with the member, and when we clapped her door, the sister of the referral opened it and didn't really want to talk to us, but
decided to come out to accept our pass-along card, mostly because we said we
only wanted to give it to her (that's what we say to everyone, but then we end
up talking about Christmas for at least 5-10 minutes). Anyway, Zulema, age 23,
came out to accept the card, and soon afterwards the wind blew and her door
shut behind her locking her out. Her dad was the only person home and he was
asleep, so even though she rang the doorbell many times, he didn't come down to
let her in. Haha, she was somewhat forced into talking with us. However, after
talking about Christmas a little bit, she softened up and we then spent about 40
minutes teaching her the first lesson (the Restoration), and she had a lot of
interest and was asking a lot of questions. Turns out she also has a friend who
is a member who is serving a mission right now. Anyway, it was a really cool
experience. We have an appointment with her today.
Another cool experience that I had this week was the
opportunity to interview 3 people for baptism. I was told that I needed to
interview them about an hour before the interviews, so I was a little bit
nervous due to the short-notice. Usually they give me a few days notice.
Anyway, it was a really great experience. It is incredible the Spirit that is
felt during a baptismal interview. While contemplating my experiences,
President Batalla's talk in stake conference came to my mind (he was my Stake
President when I was in Pacheco). In his talk he shared that whenever he has
interviews, as he sits down with the person, he already knows whether they are
worthy or not for a temple recommend, to go on a mission, to receive the
priesthood, whatever it may be. It is revealed to him by the Holy Ghost.
Anyway, I felt the exact same way as I pondered upon these three interviews,
two of which were passed, and one that was not. As I sat down with the
candidates I could already feel if they were going to pass or not. With the
ones who passed it was a joyful experience and there was a happy feeling in the
room. With the one who did not, it was somewhat of a sad experience and I could
just feel that something wasn't right. It was pretty incredible how the Spirit
was guiding me and due to the guidance of the Spirit it was really easy to find
out what it was that was holding her back from being baptized (turns out she
was separated from her boyfriend, who is the father of her child, but the very
night of the interview he was going to move back in with her). Anyway, it was
an incredible experience.
Aside from these awesome experiences, the week was somewhat
difficult. We talked with a lot of people, found a lot of new investigators,
and Andrea was to be baptized on Sunday. However, we haven't seen Andrea since
Wednesday (she wasn't baptized), and we had to drop all of our investigators
because they weren't progressing. One of them even dropped us. As a
companionship we set some baptism goals for this month that are pretty high, and
without investigators, it is pretty hard to baptize. Being a District
Leader as this year comes to a close, and as a mission, we are trying to reach
our yearly goal of baptisms has also been quite stressful. By the time Sunday
came around and we didn't have as much success as we wanted to, I was feeling
pretty frustrated, stressed and confused as to what I had been doing wrong. I
was feeling like I had failed my Heavenly Father in something. However, it was
in this time that I was pretty depressed that my Father sent me a sign to let
me know that He loved me and that He is aware of me. After our Stake Conference
ended yesterday I walked out into the hall and received quite the surprise.
There was a sopping wet woman waiting to see me. It was Olga, my convert from a
year ago in Constitución, who had traveled to Chacabuco in the pouring rain to
see me. I hadn't seen her in quite a while, and it was so great to see her and
know that after a year she is still a very active member of the church,
and her son Dani is preparing to serve a mission. What I learned from this
experience is that my Heavenly Father is very much aware of me and how I'm
doing and how I'm feeling. He also knows exactly what we need. He sent me one
of my dearest converts to come and cheer me up on a day that I was feeling
pretty down. I know that He knows and loves each and every one of us.
I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. I
know I'm not a perfect missionary, and there are probably lots of things that I
don't do well and that I need to change and improve upon. However, I also know
that God loves me anyway and that with His help I can improve each day. My mom
shared something with me today that helped me a lot. It comes from President
Uchtdorf's talk in the General Women's Meeting, that I feel applies to all of
us:
"You are loved. You are dear to your heavenly parents.
The infinite and eternal Creator of light and life knows you! He is mindful of
you. Yes, God loves you this very day and always.
He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your
weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your
struggles. He is aware that you reach up to Him in heartfelt and hopeful
prayer. He knows of the times you have held onto the fading light and
believed—even in the midst of growing darkness. He knows of your sufferings. He
knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And still
He loves you.
And God knows of your successes; though they may seem small
to you, He acknowledges and cherishes each one of them. He loves you for
extending yourself to others. He loves you for reaching out and helping others
bear their heavy burdens—even when you are struggling with your own.
He knows everything about you. He sees you clearly—He knows
you as you really are. And He loves you—today and always!”
Que la fuerza les acompañe.
Love,
Elder John William Garrett
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