A great week herein Torrejón. This week we have really been focusing on our relationship with the members. Due to a couple of incidents with missionaries of the past the members do not have a whole lot of confidence in the missionaries right now. We are working to show them that we are here to serve them and be obedient to the Lord. Really the members are the the key to success as a missionary. We can spend all day in the street talking with people and without anyone accepting our invitation to learn more, but when members invite their friends who already have seen the light of Christ through their friends than we find success.
This week is a lesson in love. Love really is the key to all that we do as missionaries. We show love as missionaries by taking the time to serve others by listening. An example, we went to a lesson with one of our investigators but her husband wasn't home and we could not enter. We asked how she was doing and we learned that really she was having a tough time. We went and sat on the steps and just listened as she talked through what was going on in her life. As we just listened she talked and we shared a scripture and our testimonies with her. In that moment the love that I felt for this person that I have talked with for probably 2 hours in total, is the miracle of sharing our time and in that way show our love for her. As we show our little bit of human love that we can the Lord fills us with His love for that person. Charity is the pure love of Christ.
Another experience this week that was miraculous. I was on exchanges with my District Leader this week and we taught a lesson to a recent convert who feels the difficulties of being the only member in her family and trying to leave on the mission. Once again I learned the importance of listening and teaching with the power of the Spirit. We went in with a lesson prepared but threw it out as we started to talk with her and she told us again how she was feeling. As we listened to the Spirit we were able to talk with her and share some experiences from our lives and experiences from the scriptures to help her. We shared with her the story of Job. Job was a man that was very righteous and even though he had many riches he still put God first in his life. Still he had a trial of extraordinary measure, he had everything taken from him, his family, his wealth, and his health. When he questions God, Job is advised in the following manner: "17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole." (Job 5) And after all of this in chapter 19 Job says: "25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."
Sometimes we seem like Job where we feel like we are not receiving our just treatment but God will always reward those that are just and in the end Job received more than he had before his great trial. God loves us to make us who we can best become. In this lesson she began to feel the love of God for her and left happy ready to keep fighting the good fight.
Really love is something mysterious. It is something that I am just at the very beginning in my understanding but I know that it is what binds us together and what should motivate us in life. Our responsibility is to make sure that we have our love based in the right things and in the right priority. I know that God loves each one of us his children and that our Savior performed the atonement in the greatest act of love ever shown. I love my God and my Savior.
I love you all and hope you all have a great week filled with miracles.
Elder Gustafson
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Yummmmmmm. Mystery meat lunch at the Kebap. This is one of my favorite foods here! |
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