Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The Time is Far Spent

Hola! It's been another great week in Bellevue- Crossroads Spanish branch!

Once upon a time, we have a missionary choir. Whoever wants to be in the mission choir meets at the Stake center right next to the temple every Monday at 11am, and we sing songs like, I am a child of God and A child's prayer, and of course, The Time is Far Spent (our mission song. LOVE.) It is so fun to go to choir because we get to hear from President Choi and his wife, and it is so fun! They're both hilarious. haha! But today at choir we sang The Time is Far Spent and it just had so much more meaning to me all of the sudden. (*Kari Lynn Gardner, please look at the last 4 words hahahaha *inside joke*) I'd suggest y'all read it when you have time. "Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you. The weight of your calling he perfectly knows. Your path may be thorny but Jesus is nigh you." (Thanks for pointing that out in your letter, Dad!)


So there is a recent convert that we're working with who is AWESOME named Teresa, and we're helping prepare her 8 year old son for baptism. His name is Orlin, and he's SO great. haha! He can stand on his hands. And say the 10 commandments in 12.56 seconds (thank you very much). 
 
 
Anywho, he knows more about the Gospel than I do basically, but... he stole a candybar from Walmart the other day. So after General Conference at the Stake center, Teresa took me and Sister Laney and Orlin into the kitchen and had us talk the situation out with him. He was so... distraught I guess you could say. He was completely silent and angry and resentful. Poor kid. Sister Laney is the best companion ever. She crouched down and looked him in the eyes and talked to him about what he did, why he did it, and what he could do to fix it. I can't really explain why I thought she did such an amazing job, but I just know that something small like that really changed Orlin's life and perspective on sin. Teresa and I were teary-eyed as we listen to Sister Laney explain this to him in childlike, simple terms.

The Doctrine of Christ is centered around having Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentence, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I'm here to tell ya, that these things are just as relevant, or more relevant, to us than to investigators. We are cleansed from sin every Sunday when we partake of the Sacrament, and we renew our baptismal covenants to always remember Christ, take His name upon us, and to do what He would do in every situation. We constantly need to develop and strengthen our Faith in Christ and His Atonement. We need to repent daily, in order to become like Him. That's something I've realized so far. That I have SO much to repent of every single day. I am so grateful for that aspect of the Atonement. Because we have the Holy Ghost, we are more able to make correct choices and know and feel bad when we make incorrect ones. How we "endure to the end" is by repeating this process constantly throughout our lives (It's our Missionary Purpose, the 4th Article of Faith, 2 Nephi 31, Alma 7, 3 Nephi 11-18, and so many other places in the Book of Mormon.) This, my friends, is how we are all going to be able to return to live with Heavenly Father again. So important.


Also, once upon a time, Sister Laney, me, and Hermano Garcia (our branch mission leader) were at the mall having our weekly correlation meeting (we have it at the mall because we can't meet with a man alone, and because Hmo. Garcia likes smoothies). We were talking about our investigators and less-actives in the branch that we were working with, etc. and then all of the sudden this man (hispanic) sits right down next to Hmo. garcia and right in front of us (facing us) and says, hola amigos! Que pasa? We were thinking, ummm who is this? And what does he want? haha it was SO random. His name is Ambrosio. But long story short, we got a smoothie with him, got to know him, and invited him to General conference. AND HE CAME! and loved it! We have a lesson with him tomorrow. Um, tender mercy?! So awesome.


We were tracting the other day in some apartment homes across from the Stake center the other day and we knocked on the door of this man from Pakistan. He goes to the mosque right across the street next to our Stake center. (The Church lets the people that attend the mosque use our parking lot every day). So this man and his wife let us in and introduced us to his kids. He let us sing a hymn for them and pray with them! haha then he said "We did your request, now you must accept ours....." We were like, ummm. Then he said "you must stay for lunch!" haha! He had just gotten home from playing basketball with his kids and now they were making an awesome lunch. He and his family are AWESOME! haha I love people.


Okay, I love you all! Remember who you are! If you forgot, refer to.... Page 301 in the LDS hymnbook. haha! Really though. :)


Keep the faith!


Hermana Gardner (Jardinera) haha :)

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