So so so many things happened this week. Not gonna lie, some things were stressin both Elder B and I with a bunch of appointments and baptisms lined up. But Heavenly Father´s hand was in everything that happened this week.
At the beginning of last week we were planning on having 6 people baptized this Saturday. Throughout the week, people started talking about not being prepared enough, or they hadn´t kicked their Word of Wisdom addictions yet, but we both prayed a ton this week that before the transfer was over, that we could have at least one person baptized, but if it´s the Lord´s will, we´d wait. We both felt that we´d focus more on the people who had the most likely-est chance of baptism.
Out of all that, Jessica came out of the crowd of investigators. She was found through the Bishop´s 2nd counselor, Gilberto. She had some doubts in the beginning, but after going to Church the first time, the Spirit did the rest. She´s not married but has two younger girls. We got pretty freaked out when the girls were fighting chicken pox all this last week, but come a couple days before Saturday, they were perfect! It was great seeing the ward support her. She said that a huge weight was taken off her shoulders, she felt so great. Gilberto baptized her, and the day after I did the confirmation.
Sunday night was a roller coaster too. We had the ward activity, the CTM&M (Member-Missionary Training Center), and it hit off so well. All the returned missionaries dressed up in their original tags, while the rest of the ward wore little FUTURE MISSIONARY tags. There were about 10 RM´s who had returned recently, so they each split off into `companionships` and we did a rotation between the ward. And then, to top it all off, (Mom, you´d be proud) I baked cookies for the whole ward! Took some creativity and bought all the stuff the day before and put M&M´s. The ward LOVED them!! All of the sisters had me translate the recipe. Your cookies are going global Mom! We had so many people there wanting to help out with the activity, and the work´s really gonna acelerate here!
The only thing.....President called me right before the activity. Looks like I´m followin the same path that I did in California - I´m going ZONE LEADER!!!! Which means, I´m being transferred. Tomorrow´s the swaps. All I know is that I´m going to Perdizes (the other side of the mission, and it´s a lot richer area too), my companion is gonna be Elder O (a Brazilian!!). I´m pretty stoked but sad at the same time. I told the ward after the activity, and man was it hard to say goodbye. I´ve spent the most time in Macedonia than all the other areas on my whole mission. Elder B is a little afraid, having only 3 weeks in the area, and now with a Brazilian companion that he´s getting. But it´ll be good for him too. Tonight after packing I´m gonna go visit some other members to say goodbye (and to give them the cookie recipe). I think the hardest thing about a mission is saying goodbye. But it´ll be a great experience in this new area, new companions, new everything. I´m excited to see what the Lord has in store for me to learn with all this.
A mission´s amazing. I´ve learned so much already, and I´ve changed so much too. A mission wants you to be a better person, and it makes you that.
Loev you all a ton. Got some good pics comin today. The LAN house is going on a lunch break in about 15 minutes, but I´ll be back if you want to chat. Take some good notes of General Conference. It´s gonna be awesome!
Love Elder Nissinen
No comments:
Post a Comment