Food Poisoning

This last week was really good.  It didn’t end as well as we wanted it to, but that’s just the way things go sometimes.

What made the week super great is that we were able to teach lots of lessons - and well more than that, we really felt the Holy Ghost working through us to reach the hearts of those we taught.  That is probably my favorite part of being a missionary - feeling the Spirit work through me as I teach.

We taught and worked a lot with Magali this week.  We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she told us the same day we taught her she shouldn’t smoke that she had already cut in half her number of cigarettes per day!  Woohoo!  By the end of the week she had gone 2 full days without smoking.  So we are seeing progress with her.  She was the shining light that helped us get though the week.

Cuz on Wednesday - I woke up with familiar stomach pains - food poisoning - and my comp with the flu.  We went out to work all the same, and even though it wasn’t done with lots of energy, we did it happily (sorry Mom I don’t know how to express myself in English) and we saw and felt lots of blessings.  We got a less active to agree that she should probably come to church before ‘deciding’ to go inactive after a month of being sick and we met lots of people with lots of potential.  We truly felt the Lord sustaining us through the day, we didn’t have the energy to teach so the Spirit kinda had to take over - and He is the true teacher.  The day ended with a few blessings of health, lots of sleepiness (my comp) and lots of throwing up and crying (me).  But we survived - I literally lost 5 pounds in 24 hours but we survived.

Thursday we got up early and after my breakfast of jello #flavoredwater we headed to Banfield for a leadership meeting.  From what I remember it was good, I was really tired from being up all night in the bathroom.  Hermana Calquin was nice enough to get me crackers and a water bottle to eat for lunch.  Woohoo.

Friday we worked a little, but my comp got worse so we had weekly planning and stayed inside out of the cold.  And Saturday we had a really productive happy day.  Really despite being sick we had a really good week!  One of our best and we were super excited for Sunday.  We had a ton of people who had promised and committed to come to church and it didn’t rain like everyone thought - so no excuses.

And Sunday we get to church… and there was just about no one in the building.  We called and got a few “no I’m not coming because (fill in the blank)” and lots of voicemails and well there were 35 people in church yesterday.  It was really sad and it kinda got us super down.  Not a single person we worked with all week came.  We felt really kinda bad cuz we had such a great week and then, nothing.  Grrrr.  Sometimes it is really frustrating that everyone has agency.  Talking with Hermana Besieger yesterday we talked about how frustrating it must be for God sometimes.  He teaches and gives us everything we need to succeed and we don’t obey him and he can’t bless us.  I wondered if he ever gets frustrated like us missionaries do and wants to throw the hat in now and then.  

But I learned something this morning studying the scriptures.  That Jesus Christ will never give up on us.. his hand is always stretched out still (2 Nefi 19).  How many times in Jacob 5 does the Lord say to his servant “let us go down AGAIN to tend the vineyard, even though it keeps giving me bad fruit”  The Lord of the vineyard had lots of faith and hope and love for his trees and our Lord has perfect faith and hope and charity for us.  Even when we disobey, and He suffers and sorrows because we can’t be as happy as he wants us to be, he keeps helping us.  So I’m gonna have a little more faith and hope and charity (Moroni 7: 40-48) and I’m gonna go back out with the Lord again to tend his vineyard.  Because this is the last time He will nurture his vineyard and blessed are those who work at his side.  (Jacob 5:71)

Hermana Walker