Elder D!
Subject: Well...awesome news!!
This week has been a busy one every single day. We had at least one lesson scheduled that did not cancel! I am so stoked!! I have to say that I am really really glad that we are actually gaining trust in both the wards we are working with! This has been something that has been more far reaching than anything else that we do! I am not kidding, the trust of members is really all that it takes! To be honest, that is what is making the work here a little bit easier every single day! For example we did not have a dinner appointment for tonight, but yesterday during a ward's correlation meeting, 4 people in the room offered to feed us! YES!!! The small thing we do as missionaries is nothing without the help of the members. (probably a lesson there for his parents :) )
Now another example of trust comes from a referral from a member that is going to be baptized on the 15th of August. This man is so excited about getting baptized. He bore his testimony on how he wants to have his kids say that what he did helped them to be apart of the church...this baptism will be the first in over 8 months for this particular ward. This is a very long time. In the other ward we are working with, they are treating us differently than when we first came. I think we are really gaining their trust too. One thing we are really trying to do is treat our missionaries as "GOLD" so the members can see that we are not wasting their time. We are spending less and less time on how we can better ourselves and more time trying to become an asset to the wards. The bishop in this particular ward told us "the ward sees that you Elders are trying really really hard! We all are now praying for inspiration to help." It felt really good to hear this! I am not going to lie, I am LOVING this area a lot...I guess that will mean I will most likely get transferred to a different area! Please pray that I don't. The more I am here, the more I feel at home.
Love you!
Elder Christian James Delis
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Hermana Kate Delis
Subject: HI FAMILIA!
Buenos tardes familia :) Feliz dia tres de Agosto!
Okay. Well. Missionary work. IT ROCKS! This week was hard, but way good. I just knew that my three weeks as a "zebra" was going to be my "Bountiful" as a missionary, which sounds so BACKWARDS, but is proving true. I learned a ton, and I just felt so blessed the whole time. And I am still so blessed, don't get me wrong. But right now is just a HARD time as a missionary. The branch is SO very small, and we feel a lot of responsibilty to help them. We are trying to provide structure and stability where there isn't much. Also, they need a lot, a lot, of love. I don't think most of them now their great worth, and it breaks my heart. Trying to help people to come unto Christ (missionary purpose) is hard, and it makes me feel crazy some days. Like my ideas to fix problems are dumb, or they won't work, or are foolish or something. Luckily that is never true. They work just fine. And in fact, I have great examples in the scriptures of people who had these crazy tasks ahead of them and everyone around them, even their family sometimes, thought they were dumb. Or that they couldn't do it. Or that they should just not even try. I have no idea how those prophets actually felt when people told them that. But I know that they did it--whatever thier "it" was--anyway. It was probably so hard. They were human, they felt every emotion we do, too. But they do it.
I know the Lord knows us individually, and that same power that worked to do something wild like part the Red Sea can work in us too. And it is just as powerful as parting the Red Sea. He loves us so much. We had this awesome lesson with a woman and she was just confused. She had been praying and praying and she thought she wasn't getting answers, and that she just wasn't doing anything right. I felt so so powerfully that those inadequacies were not from God, and I looked her in the eye and told her that I knew Heavenly Father knew her so well, she is successful, and He loves her. I felt it, too. SO strongly. She started to cry, and I just know she knew it too. Heavenly Father loves us so so much, and we see miracles every day just as powerful as any other you read about in the scriptures. But they're so personal sometimes, because the miracle is in us. I feel like as a missionary I get to help be the tools to recognize that love in thier life. How cool is that? It is beyond cool. It blows me away. I love these people so much, and I will show them that the very best I can. But my job as a missionary is to give them the ability to recognize a love that is so so so much greater than any love I have for them. I am so lucky to have this time. This is everything I have ever wanted, and I can't believe I get to have it. It is so hard, but I love it so much.
Okay, I love you very much, and I hope your week is GREAT. Keep having fun and tell all the fam that I love them so much. Talk to you soon!
Hna Delis
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