Katie's Mission Blog: April 30, 2024-May 6, 2024-Week 52-David

Letter to everyone:

Well on Wednesday, I official hit a WHOLE YEAR in the mission!!! I can't even believe it. One year of blessings. One year of miracles. Of conversion. Being a representative of Christ and coming to know, love, and learn from Him. The mission is THE best decision I have ever made in my life. And the Lord has blessed me for my sacrifice. There is a line in my mission call that reads, "Greater blessings and more joy than you have yet experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children." SO TRUE! What a promise.

Anyways, in this week, I really am growing into the principle of God blessing us after the trial of our faith (Ether 12:6). This scripture is the one written on my plaque at home, and I think the Lord is working hard to have it written on my heart. The week was a little longer...we are on the grind to find new people who are really ready and willing to make and keep covenants with God. Because a little problem that we have been having is anyone keeping a commitment. Especially just being able to meet with them. Like they tell us to come by at 3pm, but then aren't there and forget to tell us they left. So that's been a little bit of a challenge. But for a God and Christ of miracles, there is no challenge too big or too small that He cannot overcome. He created the world, healed the sick, walked on water, was resurrected, and makes it all possible to come back to Him, so there is nothing that can really get in His way. But, the week was a little bit longer, finding inactives by their spotty directions, and then teaching the parts of their families who aren't members. On Saturday, we were able to witness many miracles of the priesthood blessing someone who was sick, finding people we had been looking for all week, progression in our friends, and a free ride at the end of the day (we thought we were flagging down a taxi, but it wasn't. They told us to "hop in" and we started talking with them and turned out he was an inactive member. GOD IS IN THE DETAILS). God invites us to obligate Him to work miracles by our faith. So, never lose the faith and keep seeing and seeking and expecting MIRACLES. I think I have also come to learn, the miracle we expected or wanted, might not be the miracle God will give us. But His miracle is the one we NEEDED. We might not understand the whole picture now, but we will one day. For example, with all the hecticness of trying to help our friends progress, we have seen the miracles of...

--> Jhon: random street contact while he was digging an irrigation ditch in his yard. Literally only video called him, put him on baptismal date and he showed up to church and we DID NOT recognize him. He got up and shared his own testimony and the whole time we were thinking "wow the elders [that we ward share with] have a great friend! let's go!!", but all along it was our friend Jhon! We had a lesson after and he was just like, "ok what do i gotta do to be baptized?". What more could I say than GOLD! Baptism pending for the 18th.

--> Shirley: her dad is an inactive member and we have been visiting her and she reads everything we give her and puts cute little sticky notes of the scriptures up that she liked. SO PRECIOUS! GOLD.

--> Laura: we are going to visit an inactive and this girl is her nanny. She is like "yeah i've been thinking of being baptized and i've always wanted to, but i just never knew how. how do i do it?" GOLD.

--> Rosmyra: we were looking through our area book yesterday and decided to call everyone who had ever come to church before in this area. We end up calling Rosmyra, who we have only texted like one time before (actually side note she texted us and was like, "why didn't you come over today. i thought you would" and i texted back "what led you to believe that" and she just said "idk"...haha anyways God was trying to get us to do this before but we did not listen obviously). She says she has always wanted to be baptized, and she already has the lessons and practically remembers everything, she just always got sick when her baptism arrived. GOLD.

Amidst all the hard days of walking in the sun, just trying to find the chosen ones, we can't forget what God has already given us. I think I have a hard time always remembering Him and the GOLD that He has given me. But I know He is there!

On another note, we had maggots in our house. That was a fun way to wake up. I was praying and then I saw little rice moving around and thought "here we go again" because this has happened to me before. So we hurried and cleaned and they haven't been back since. We got to do some CPECs this week of the hermanas, and we even surprised one of them for her birthday!! So, we had some really early mornings traveling to Bugaba and to Volcan, but it was well worth it to see the hermanas and hear and see all the good things that they are doing. We also have zone conference tomorrow, and we get to give a workshop and achieving our goals.

Overall, being a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ is so good! I only have six more months left, so I am going to drill in and focus and as Troy Bolton said "getcha head in the game" and stay here, 100% here in Panama, focused for six more months of miracles.

To Family:

this week was really good, i think the thing that has been the best is seeing little miracles. life is allllll about retrospect. you gotta look back and see all the good and hope for more and trust that God will give it to you. because i have been struggling with being like, "well God truly is a God of miracles, why isn't He giving me these miracles of baptism??". Because Hermana Rhodes and i put the goal to have 5 baptisms this transfer and we are at 1...and there are like two weeks left in the transfer....basically, kinda crazy. and we have a few good people who have come to church who have their two attendances, but they basically put their own limits on themselves why they can't be baptized. basically, here's the run down

- evelyn: great house to house contact, come to church the day after we contacted her but is busy and we can only meet saturday's

- marisol and angela: their brother was baptized but they don´t want to be baptized until they are older, kinda with the mentality that i will sin until the very end. they cannot seem to grasp repentance very well

- shirley: family part member, her dad is way inactive, but she is cute but she can only meet once a week because her dad says she needs to study more

It's so sad and hard!!! It's like we are sooooo close, but still so far....

but then, hermana rhodes had a good faith moment and was like "we should just do all the filters in the carpeta and see what happens". we called one up and she wants to be baptized but has just always had health problems that have inhibited her. we went yesterday and are going back today, so i am hopeful that that will be one of them.

but like on the bright side, i think i am getting really comfortable in my spanish, tomorrow is zone conference, and i love my comp. we have a lot of fun and laugh in the streets. she has taught me to trust with all my heart. the Lord will work miracles and give us the miracles that He knows that we NEED. maybe it's not the miracle we initially wanted or thought it would be, but even better and we will only understand in His timing. but i am so inpatient. ahhh haha i am working on it.

also i feel crazy that i am hitting one year and only have SIX MONTHS left.stop. not real. and then i also feel like, wow i've got a year and i am still such a sinner, complainer, and wow i gotta ship shape up. yesterday something very traumatic happened. i was just eating lunch with the elders, my comp, and the sister who was giving us the meal and she's like "you guys don't have the pure love of Christ, and you least of all" looking right at me. man that hurt. i can't help but think of the savior and His charity. how He loves despite. I am still working on that. Despite them not keeping their commitments. despite the fact they reject me. despite the fact that they said something rude. despite the fact that they don't come to church and realize what Christ was offering them. He loved in spite and despite. she just kept saying it over and over again and saying how i was impatient. so i really now feel like i have a lot to work on. it was really hard because in that moment all li could say was "thank you for the food hermana"and i couldn't leave since the elders were still eating and they can't be in the house alone with her. and she just kept saying it. but it was hard because i just couldn't think of anything nice to say. i just wanted to walk away. but i couldln't. i think a lot about the video of elder holland where he talks about the atonement and missionary work saying ¨it was never supposed to be easy¨. and he is right.

other than that, life is pretty good. my word for my last six months is FOCUS. imma focus up and get on my six months to sexy, be better in my studies and prayers, and better at listening. and a whole lotta other things but little by little.

Waking early for cpec