Monday, January 13, 2014

Jan. 13 2014 Midway Call of the Champions Citius, Altius, Fortius!!

Jan. 13, 2014
Call of the Champions. Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Feliz Cumpleanos:
Cute Madi, Baby Ryan Kate, Scott Kidd, Greg, Matt & Stuart!!!!

Hola mi querida familia!

 It was quite the week. Quite the week, but let me start at the beginning:)

 Lunes- Well, because it was -50 with wind chill we got the message that we must not leave our casas unless we have a cita AND we have a car, well we had neither... so we had to stay inside, but honestly it was FREEZING it was horrible! But, I must say pretty epic tambien! We did A LOT of studies and A LOT of Area Book! (putting the paper area book to the ipad (its horrible)

 Martes- Well this day we got a text (like 7 different ones) from president telling us that a missionary got frost bite because he stayed out for 5 minutes without wearing a hat, so we had to be confined to the house today.
 We did have one cita with Jennifer (WHO YOU NEED TO MEET) She is Guatemalan and less active and going through some really hard things, and she is amazing! We had a wonderful lesson and she cried and we almost cried and it was the best. BUT before the lesson I asked to go to the bathroom because she had three dogs and as we all know, my immune system doesn't love dogs, so I said a prayer to help me in this cita, just to be okay until we got out. Literally the second the last prayer ended my allergies picked up, by the time we walked out of the house I could hardly breath, we had been there 2 hours because she fed us food as well... but I was SO grateful because it was literally at the end of the lesson.
Then when we got home I took some Benedryl because.. well it was bad, and we had to do Area Book, but I just couldn't. between Mission Tired AND Benedryl, I couldn't stay awake for Area Book so I went to bed at like 9. But MIRACLE! The dogs didn't affect me literally everything was over! Awesome!

Miercoles- Was kind of a hard day because everything fell through, our backups of backups of backups. So it was a day full of knocking with cold hands and feet.

 Jueves- This day, we did weekly planning and finished and then we tried to find a family, and you should have seen us, trudging through the snow, SO funny, my companion was dying, (not too athletic.. poor thing) (That was mean I don't mean to say it was SO funny that my companion was dying, but it kinda was... ESTOY BROMIANDO)

 Viernes- Well, we had a Zone Conference and we were.. chastened I guess you could say. It was good, and our President said some really good things o bring us to repentance because, well, gotta repent ya know.
 Then we had a cita with Angeles, and it was really sad and really intense. Because she was crying and we were almost crying because, she was feeling pressured by her boyfriend (who is Mormon) and then she dropped us. Hard. it was literally the hardest thing that has ever happened. My companion and I felt so sad, its really interesting because you start to really feel the Saviors love for your investigators. Over and over I told her that the ONLY reason we were there is because we love her, and we do!
 I am not going to lie, this day was horrible, so we went to ice cream:) we deserved it. But when we got back to the casa I was feeling SO down. Like horrible. My thoughts were literally this (here is the words from my journal)

""Why am I here?" "people don't even want to talk/see me" "Why am I knocking doors in the freezing cold, with freezing hands trying to give people cards they are just going to throw away? "What am I doing in the horrible place Chicago, where people are mean?" "Why am I here where I don't get to work out, or do the things I wanna do?" "Why do I keep knocking doors knowing a drunk man will open the door and yell at us?" "Why Am I with this companion who treats me like dirt, who wont help me do anything, who I am trying to love" "Why am I here when I am not even making one difference " Why am I here?" "Why do I even try." While I was saying all of these words, we got home, and I went into the bathroom and just started to cry. Asking myself these questions over and over, then a voice came to me. Like I have never heard ever in my life, a voice so distinct it literally it shook me said, "Oh Brittany, you know exactly why you are here." And that was it. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have had, and that I may ever have in my life, because I do know why I am here. I am here, because I love my Savior, and that's the only reason. "
 
Those were all the words in my journal that day, it was a life changing moment for me.

Sabado- This day was.. a day, ja ja. We had a Skype date, (where we teach people over Skype) with Hna Jones best friend who isn't a member. I don't have much time to say everything but it was SUCH a good learning experience for me. She has taken the missionary lessons before (a lot!!) and she told us she came to her conclusion about the church (although she wasn't positive yet) she said, "I believe Joseph Smith was a liar. I hope he gets condemned and not you all for following him." and it lasted and she went on and on, even so, it literally made me question my faith. (which dad I have some questions for you) She brought up Such good points, that it was almost scary to listen to, but honestly EVERYTHING came back to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon wasn't true. The Book of Mormon IS EVERYTHING! Well, SO interesting, because we testified! Sometimes that's literally the best we can do.

 Domingo- Today was a day that made this week worth it. We had church and it was SO wonderful because Angeles CAME! WHAT! It was a miracle AND she invited us back on Viernes! Yeah, that was amazing! Then after we went knocking and FUNNY things happened there, ill tell you soon I am just running out of time and then we had THE BEST lesson with Ricardo and Carmen, we brought the Garcias and THEY ARE A POWER COUPLE! He is a convert and she was a missionary like a year ago so BAM combined they were AWESOME! and we committed them to baptism, yeah the Spirit is the MAN! It made ALL of the hard things of this week worth it!

 Well, very quickly this week I read a talk by James E Faust and he talked about The Call of the Champions. Because I tell myself I am a champion everyday (because I am jaja ;) I thought it applied. Apparently its like the Olympic Theme or something, but Citius means Swifter, Alitius means Higher and Fortius means stronger. These ALL apply to missionary work AND in life because as we move swifter and act with more urgency, as we reach for higher goals and do ALL we can, and as we work with ALL of our strength we will be a successful missionary NO MATTER HOW LOW OUR NUMBERS ARE! This will help us as we become champions! (and not gonna lie, Call of the Champions is a pretty epic title and theme)

I love you familia! Thank you for your prayers for me this week! I really needed them and could feel them. I love you!

Con amor

Hna Hammond

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