This week has been...adventurous. There were many things that took me out of my comfort zone, and I LOVE THAT. Sister Ganbold and I got to go give trainings to the different zones in the mission about social media missionary work and how to help families/individuals share the gospel and invite people to learn more. A big focus of ours was the NEW CHRISTMAS INITIATIVE - Called Light the World. Go here to see a teaser video/website, then starting on the 25th of this months you'll have access to the WHOLE video (which is beautiful and gives me goosebumps each time without fail) AND you'll have access to the In 25 days, in 25 ways advent calender the church is putting out, helping us find ways to be more like the savior by LIGHTING THE WORLD.
I'm pumped about it, if you couldn't tell.
One of the BYUI organizations (not sure which one, some kind of service/missionary work oriented one) invited us to come to a TRC role-play kind of missionary activity, where students would volunteer to be taught or teach us. The idea was to give them opportunities to practice in-person missionary encounters since there has been such an emphasis on social media missionary work on campus. It was fun to role-play the kinds of missionary opportunities that don't happen too often in Rexburg, Idaho.
One of our investigators (Brandon) got baptized this past weekend. He's a student. Something we always have to be cautious of as BYUI missionaries is making sure non-members aren't getting baptized JUST for the discounted tuition... which is lame and silly, but still a problem we face. Tbh I was kind of worried about that issue for Brandon because he came out of NOWHERE and was like wanting to get baptized asap.... which isn't SUPER common around here. But a couple weeks into taking the lessons with us, he calls us on the phone and said "So, how can I prepare now for the next steps on my journey, like my patriarchal blessing? When can I do baptisms at the temple? Am I able to get my endowment after a year because I really want to serve a mission" etc etc. That phone call totally wiped away my fears because he was looking so far ahead about SERVING A MISSION EVEN. How cool is that?
Another great thing - we have a new investigator named Chiamaka from Nigeria. She's shy, but very nice and politely laughed at a couple of my lamer jokes, even. Her roommate was this nice girl from Chile who got baptized a couple years ago. And my comp, as you may remember, is from Mongolia and got baptized when she was 16. For the first time during my service here at Rexburg, I, a Mormon-born, white, American, was in the minority, and how fiercely refreshing it was. I absolutely LOVED the fact that each of us grew up on a different continent - North America, Asia, Africa, and South America. I loved that we each were raised with different religions - Mormonism, Protestant Christian, Catholicism, Atheism. I loved that were native in all different languages - English, Spanish, Mongolian and whatever Nigerian dialect Chimaka speaks. And what I loved the most was that the four of us somehow found ourselves gathered in this tiny apartment bedroom, sitting in a circle on the floor, talking about who Jesus Christ is to us. We learned a lot from each other.
Happy Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for Heavenly parents that love me. I'm grateful for an earthly family that loves me. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to tell others about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oxoxoxox
Sister Mc
No comments:
Post a Comment