Katie's Mission Blog: September 19-September 25, 2023-Week 20-Guadalupe

Title: The bus of miracles!!

This week was my first full week of training. I am not going to lie, it was a harder week for me. It is hard to be the one to plan the whole day, the only one who can (and only slightly) speak the language, who is still trying to figure out how to be a missionary, to teach and lead by example all the time. There were some really hard moments, but we had phone interviews with president this week and he said whenever I am having a harder time to think what the Savior would say if He walked into the room. What came to my mind when He said this was, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the rest of the Lord" (Matt. 25:21). The Lord speaks to me through scripture, and I know this is what He would say to me. This does not take away the stress and the urgency to be a missionary, but it gives me the reassurance that the only person's opinion that matters is that of our Savior. He sees our every little effort, and He is our rest. He will make up the difference when we fail and falter and stumble.

One day, it was a little harder day. A lot of our lessons had fallen through and the lessons we did have were with people who are not really as interested. We were waiting for the bus and walking in the direction of our lesson when it finally passed. I said before we got on "we are getting on this bus to see miracles!", and honestly only said it half heartedly, hoping and doubting a little that it would be true. We get off the bus and enter a neighborhood, and lo and behold, an actual miracle! A friend we were planning to visit canceled because she was going to be in the city, but she had gotten home early and she was on the corner of her street and welcomed us into her house. We had a good lesson with her and she gave us cookies, so really MIRACLES! I am learning more and more that the Lord just needs us to keep going, keep walking, and to especially keep trying.

We continued to see miracles this weekend after that bus ride with the baptism of our friend, Isaac. This was really cool and special because I have been able to be apart of all his lessons and we are going to watch general conference with him! He was so excited to hear that we get to listen to the prophet this weekend. Another miracle was the brother of a convert in our ward, Jair, who is going to leave for his mission tomorrow, and his brother, Yosmar, literally coming to US asking us to teach him so he could serve a mission like his brother (side note: he is 24 and to serve a mission you have to have your papers in before being 25, so we are going to GET ON THAT haha, but we have three set appointments AND are going to watch general conference with him). Yet another miracle, going into the home of a single mother, Virginia Nicole, and her understanding the significance of the BOM and asking us to keep coming back and we are going to watch general conference with her. This was such a special lesson, and the spirit was strong, we were all crying by the end. She was so focused and excited to hear this message of hope! And extending many baptismal invites to friends and them wanting to be baptized and prepare for this step!

To top it off, we were taking a taxi ride home last night and Taylor Swift was playing on the radio. So, got to listen to Delicate and sing with the windows down in a country I love, doing something I love so much. “The greatest decision I ever made in my life was to give up something I dearly loved to the God I loved even more. He has never forgotten me for it.” (Pres. Monson, In Search of Treasure, April 2003). He will never forget you.

Funny moment: I am literally eating something at the church for a ward activity and a beloved Hermana, Angeli, of our ward comes up to me in the kitchen when I am hanging out with the Elders and our ward mission leader and says: "hermana christensen, you're looking fatter than when you first got here". I really wanted to respond "well when you only feed me a mountain of rice and fried chicken for two meals for the past four months and I haven't seen or tasted a vegetable either, what do you think is going to happen??" I guess it is a cultural thing just to tell people they are fat, but I am glad it is not in the states. Oh the sacrifices for the mission. Also we had a GRINGO FAMILY move into our ward haha. They show up with their broken Spanish and I end up having to translate for them, but they are very nice but probably having a wholeeeee lot of culture shock here. Everyone in the congregation just thought they were passing through, but nope, they are here to stay with the lovely traffic, power outages, mornings without water, cold showers, and hora Panamanian (Panamanian time) to get accustomed to.