HEY GUYS!
Everything is great! Seriously!
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This week was so amazing. I have seriously been able to see the hand of the Lord in my life this week in a powerful way. It's been truly incredible. I am so blessed.
Things started off wonderfully when we happened to miraculously run into Kathy again as we were running on the track one morning. She asked if she could walk with us and she confided in us some of the things that she was going through and struggling with. We told her that we'd love to come do some service for her, and she actually stopped and thought about it and said that she would try to think of something that we could do for her. So she was going to let us know!
BUT THEN I GOT SICK! D: I was so sick and running this awful fever and I just felt awful. So we didn't do missionary work all day one day this week cause I was just so gross and sick. We went to the church to get a blessing from the elders because I was so sick... did I mention how sick I was? It was awful! The worst part of being sick is that you feel guilty for being sick because you're not doing missionary work and then it's just even worse because you can't do anything about it but sleep so that you can get better so that you can do missionary work sooner but then when you're sleeping you feel bad cause you're not doing missionary work!
The cycle!
It is just awful.
But anyway, the blessing was super awesome, even though I don't even feel like Elder Ekins was talking at all about how I was going to be healed and get better. He talked more about the importance of the work we were doing and how I am here for a reason and how the people need me and I need to be here and there was one point of the blessing where Hermana Davis and I were just SO SURE that he was going to tell me how much longer I am going to be serving in the area, but then he changed what he was saying mid-sentence and it was awful!
But anyway. So I finally got better and then we went and had interviews with President Johnson and that part of the blessing was just tearing me up, so I made sure to ask PJ if I'll be staying for another transfer and he said YES!!
YOU GUYS!!
HE SAID YES!!
I GET TO STAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am literally the happiest sister missionary en todo el mundo!!
Anyway. The interview actually went super well. We talked about some awesome stuff. I love being able to have one on one time with my mission president. He makes me feel like I'm the best missionary in the whole world and that I can do anything!
I bet that's how interviews would feel like if we were face to face with our Heavenly Father!! The best!
Well, I guess unless we were wicked. Then we'd probably want the depths of earth to swallow us up and the mountains to cover us and the whirlwinds to carry us away and buildings to fall on us and crush us to pieces and grind us to powder.
Either or.
But anyway, at least I'm not wicked so I didn't have to worry about that sensation in my interview. It just went good and we both cried together and it was really nice.
I told him again of the love I have for this area and the people and Hermana Davis and how I don't know if I've ever been happier in my entire life. Everything is awesome.
Some awesome things that happened this week specifically was that we were able to do service for an inactive member who is really struggling with her testimony right now and has been thinking about leaving the church. It ended up being really good and we thought of the perfect idea to invite the relief society president to come with us since she is a professional painter. Maybe some fellowship will help this lost sister feel loved and important and have a desire to come back! Who knows what will happen.
We were also able to get a team up with one of my favorite people - Hermana Mateo! She drove us ALL the way out to columbia - a 30 minute drive one way - drove us all over the town looking for potentials, and walked around with us while we knocked on doors for like a whole hour. And then when we were FINALLY about to leave, thinking that the whole evening was a failure, I saw this young mom unloading stuff out of her trunk. We went over to see if she needed help, and we offered her the gospel and she was super interested and she said we could come back! Now we have a return appointment for this Wednesday and Hermana Mateo is planning on coming again! The Lord blesses us so much! We have the best members in the whole world!
We've been following the prompting that the Lord gave us to spend a lot of time with the members whenever we can. This week we were able to stop by and visit with a family that is struggling right now that we didn't know very well, and now we're super close! We found out that they've been wanting to do family history for forever and didn't know how, and now we have an appointment with them to do it at the church with another member! We also found out that they have two less active sons, and that we can work with one and try to help to reactivate him! It was such a good visit. The spirit was really strong! And now we have a great relationship with that family, they called us a few times this week and we just love them so much and are super excited to get them to the temple to do the work for their ancestors!
The best day of the week, however, was fast sunday.
Honestly yesterday just changed my life.
We had the opportunity to go to SPC which was the first and probably only time any sister missionary in this whole mission has and/or will ever go to that meeting so that was crazy. Our stake president just asked us to be there to talk about the branch and it was insane. We had to wake up at 5am and drive an hour to get there, though. Crazy. But it seriously changed my life. He was talking about the reason they decided to organize the branch after YEARS of trying and how it had never been right in the past but they had FINALLY gotten the ok from Heavenly Father to go ahead and try it. But he told us that if they do not see SIGNIFICANT GROWTH in the branch, that they'll just dissolve it back into the wards and that was it. It just got so real after he said that. And I think right then it finally clicked how important this work is. Like... Not only do I feel the urgency for the branch - if we're not baptizing at least one family a month, they're going to close it down. But I feel the urgency for everyone. For like missionary work in general.
Guys! THE LORD IS COMING. Like we are preparing the way. This is the only dispensation in the whole history of the earth where we will not fail. Literally all the other prophets in every other dispensation of time knew that eventually the gospel was going to be taken from the earth. But THIS is the dispensation of the fullness of times. This is the one and only time where it will not fail. We are literally destined to succeed. And these people need to know that! They need to know that this is the way to live in God's presence again! If we don't tell them, who will!?
Wow.
So anyway.
But yeah so then we had church which is always great. Somehow we ended up not having anyone signed up to feed us for dinner which is SUPER unusual, not only for a Sunday but especially for a fast Sunday, so we were really sad. But we had some leftovers from dinner with w member from a couple of days ago and we figured we could just eat that. So we were leaving the church after sacrament meeting with heads hung low and ALL THE SUDDEN this member (the Martinez family) just put their van in reverse and called us to come over and talk to them and get said "Hermanas, where are you going right now." And we said we were just going home cause we didn't have a dinner appointment. Then they said "Hermanas! Eso es apostasía. Ustedes tienen que venir con nosotros a nuestra casa" so they invited us over and we had dinner with them and it was amazing! They made us authentic Colombian food and I was drooling it was so delicious.
Then we had a miracle! One of the sisters in the relief society called Hermana Martinez (cause we have an elderly member that was checked into the hospital on Saturday - grampa Arocho) and she was looking for someone to go to the hospital with her because she wanted to visit him but she didn't want to go alone. Luckily, we didn't have any set appointments, so we were able to help her out! She expressed how grateful she was because she had called like 4 other people and no one had been available. But honestly it was just such a good experience for us. We got to sit and listen to him tell his conversion story and we sang hymns together and talked about the gospel and it was super spiritually uplifting. It was a great blessing.
So basically missionary work is the best thing ever. I can't believe it took me 13 months of being a missionary to finally start to get the full importance of being a missionary, and the urgency in the work. I do not want to let one single person pass me by without making sure that they have a real chance to understand and accept Christ and His gospel. This is way too important.
I love this work!
I love you guys,
Have a good week!!
Love,
Hermana Bills
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