FAMILY!!! I love you... SHAQUEL!!! Happy Birthday my dearest. I love you so much and hope you have the best day ever. Sorry I can’t do much for you from here. But I’ve been thinking about you all day and all week, since it took me that long to get this sign made with the little spare time we have. (gosh can’t believe you’re 20!)
This week has been somethin’ else. Oh my gosh. I have felt the stresses of taking care of these people here like never before. No wonder missionaries mature so much: we’re like the ultimate babysitters, psychologists, and bishops. uh... I can’t even believe the things we’ve been faced with this week. Crazy stuff .
We did intercambios, which in English is exchanges, I think... it’s where you and your comp split up with a different set of sisters. I went and stayed with Hermana Watkins in Santa Lucia and her comp came here to San Jose with Hermana Hite. We did it after district meeting on Tuesday and stayed until Wednesday afternoon working there and then switched back. It was SUCH a good experience! So Hermana Watkins, as you know, is younger than me, by one transfer. So... I got to be senior comp for a day. It was interesting. She freaked out because she still doesn’t understand any Spanish... she told me I’d have to pick it up. And pick it up I did haha. We pretty much rocked it. I know so much more than I give myself credit for. It’s hard to see that while leaning on the Hermana Hite crutch. I don’t actually lean on her, she just babies me cuz I’m still young in the mish. It was cool to see I can totally do this. It was a real eye opener. We got to go to the young men’s activity and give a devotional before they played soccer. Wow... 25 youth, just young men. There is hope here in Uruguay! You want to know the coolest part? NONE of them were members...yes, I said it. Not a single one. The Young Men’s leader actually went out... found a ton of kids who like to play soccer and invited them into the huge church with an indoor soccer court and said, "Hey, every Tuesday at 7 we will play here. The deal is, we’re gonna teach you something every week, then to keep playing you gotta come to church on a Sunday." Alright... someone who does their calling, and does it well. It made me so happy, I was almost in tears looking at all these kids who were being taught by someone who loves the work and loves them. So cool. And they’ve had major success! Six of them showed up at church last week. They have nowhere to play after dark so it’s a golden thing to do. Too bad we don’t have the facility here in San Jose to do that. It was just really cool to see another side of the work, ya know? So we got to teach them about prophets. I did this really cool activity with them and they started fighting over who would do the activity with me. That was cool. Afterwards I told Hermana Watkins, “Let’s go and talk with these kids.” So we did and made friends with them. It was so fun. Awe... love this work!
Hermana Farr with little Naomi
Then, when I got back here, we had a really bad day. We had a lesson with this lady we are teaching... oh man, good news is, she accepted a baptismal date. Yeah! Bad news... like dad said, she really has to trade her entire life in for the gospel. But, she’s willing to do it. She’s a mom... and she has been receiving "help" from someone to pay for her house and her kids. When I say help... oh man, she has been selling herself to a married man for 13 years to receive this money. I couldn’t really understand completely what was going on and my comp went completely speechless. That NEVER HAPPENS WITH HERMANA HITE! Not ever. I knew I didn’t get it completely. When we walked out she told me that, and in the middle of the street, I felt the weight of her pain on my shoulders and just broke down. I felt a TINY smidge of what Heavenly Father must feel... just a smidge. This is going on all over the world in every country, every city... oh my gosh... it’s unreal. I never in a million years thought I would be dealing with these things here. It’s no wonder missionaries are so stressed! This is a hard life, having to care for these people. I read in Jesus the Christ this week (which by the way I’m loving dad), that we are NOT babysitters. We have the seeds of faith and we are responsible to disperse them to the people of Uruguay. That is the responsibility we have as missionaries. Then we are to do everything we can to pull the weeds from around it and water it, but we are not responsible for the sunshine... that’s the responsibility of Heavenly Father and the investigator. They gotta pray for that sunshine and then if it is His will, He will pour down rays of sunlight and make the seed grow. If they don’t do their part... it’s not gonna happen. I thought that was interesting, because Hermana Hite and I have been running around, trying to do all these extravagant things for our investigators. That’s nice... we are supposed to care for them, but we can’t make the seed grow. It’s been frustrating because no one is progressing over here. But we’ve taught them and like dad says, we’ll find those who are willing to trade their lives in for something better. Pray for her... she needs it.
On the same day that we found that out about her... we got verbally attacked by some lady we contacted... she accused us of so much stuff. First time that’s ever really happened to me. I had to suppress my angry feelings because that’s not what Christ would have done. But man, she said some hurtful things. She said Joseph Smith was made up. She accused us of preaching false doctrine. She said it was a huge shame that we were wasting our youth on something that didn’t exist. She even went as far as to say that when Christ comes to the earth, we are going to find out the truth and it’s going to be a real shame because by then it will be too late for us. We tried bearing testimony but she just yelled at us more. Thank heavens for fences on every house here, cuz we just walked away and she would have followed, if it wasn’t for that. It was so sad... Hermana Hite reminded me that Christ said our names or image will be "dirtied" for his sake. That was definitely how it was. But I KNOW! that what I’m here for is not a lie. Christ gave his life for me, and so ... who cares if people accuse me of false preaching. It’s sad for them, but I would suffer anything for Christ’s name. I would. (P.S. someone spit on one of the Elders this week too. Can you believe such horrid things go on?) It was a growing experience that’s for sure.
I love this gospel. I love you all. Can’t wait to hear from you again. Be so good! Keep the faith! I love you!
Love, Ash
This week has been somethin’ else. Oh my gosh. I have felt the stresses of taking care of these people here like never before. No wonder missionaries mature so much: we’re like the ultimate babysitters, psychologists, and bishops. uh... I can’t even believe the things we’ve been faced with this week. Crazy stuff .
We did intercambios, which in English is exchanges, I think... it’s where you and your comp split up with a different set of sisters. I went and stayed with Hermana Watkins in Santa Lucia and her comp came here to San Jose with Hermana Hite. We did it after district meeting on Tuesday and stayed until Wednesday afternoon working there and then switched back. It was SUCH a good experience! So Hermana Watkins, as you know, is younger than me, by one transfer. So... I got to be senior comp for a day. It was interesting. She freaked out because she still doesn’t understand any Spanish... she told me I’d have to pick it up. And pick it up I did haha. We pretty much rocked it. I know so much more than I give myself credit for. It’s hard to see that while leaning on the Hermana Hite crutch. I don’t actually lean on her, she just babies me cuz I’m still young in the mish. It was cool to see I can totally do this. It was a real eye opener. We got to go to the young men’s activity and give a devotional before they played soccer. Wow... 25 youth, just young men. There is hope here in Uruguay! You want to know the coolest part? NONE of them were members...yes, I said it. Not a single one. The Young Men’s leader actually went out... found a ton of kids who like to play soccer and invited them into the huge church with an indoor soccer court and said, "Hey, every Tuesday at 7 we will play here. The deal is, we’re gonna teach you something every week, then to keep playing you gotta come to church on a Sunday." Alright... someone who does their calling, and does it well. It made me so happy, I was almost in tears looking at all these kids who were being taught by someone who loves the work and loves them. So cool. And they’ve had major success! Six of them showed up at church last week. They have nowhere to play after dark so it’s a golden thing to do. Too bad we don’t have the facility here in San Jose to do that. It was just really cool to see another side of the work, ya know? So we got to teach them about prophets. I did this really cool activity with them and they started fighting over who would do the activity with me. That was cool. Afterwards I told Hermana Watkins, “Let’s go and talk with these kids.” So we did and made friends with them. It was so fun. Awe... love this work!
Hermana Farr with little NaomiThen, when I got back here, we had a really bad day. We had a lesson with this lady we are teaching... oh man, good news is, she accepted a baptismal date. Yeah! Bad news... like dad said, she really has to trade her entire life in for the gospel. But, she’s willing to do it. She’s a mom... and she has been receiving "help" from someone to pay for her house and her kids. When I say help... oh man, she has been selling herself to a married man for 13 years to receive this money. I couldn’t really understand completely what was going on and my comp went completely speechless. That NEVER HAPPENS WITH HERMANA HITE! Not ever. I knew I didn’t get it completely. When we walked out she told me that, and in the middle of the street, I felt the weight of her pain on my shoulders and just broke down. I felt a TINY smidge of what Heavenly Father must feel... just a smidge. This is going on all over the world in every country, every city... oh my gosh... it’s unreal. I never in a million years thought I would be dealing with these things here. It’s no wonder missionaries are so stressed! This is a hard life, having to care for these people. I read in Jesus the Christ this week (which by the way I’m loving dad), that we are NOT babysitters. We have the seeds of faith and we are responsible to disperse them to the people of Uruguay. That is the responsibility we have as missionaries. Then we are to do everything we can to pull the weeds from around it and water it, but we are not responsible for the sunshine... that’s the responsibility of Heavenly Father and the investigator. They gotta pray for that sunshine and then if it is His will, He will pour down rays of sunlight and make the seed grow. If they don’t do their part... it’s not gonna happen. I thought that was interesting, because Hermana Hite and I have been running around, trying to do all these extravagant things for our investigators. That’s nice... we are supposed to care for them, but we can’t make the seed grow. It’s been frustrating because no one is progressing over here. But we’ve taught them and like dad says, we’ll find those who are willing to trade their lives in for something better. Pray for her... she needs it.
On the same day that we found that out about her... we got verbally attacked by some lady we contacted... she accused us of so much stuff. First time that’s ever really happened to me. I had to suppress my angry feelings because that’s not what Christ would have done. But man, she said some hurtful things. She said Joseph Smith was made up. She accused us of preaching false doctrine. She said it was a huge shame that we were wasting our youth on something that didn’t exist. She even went as far as to say that when Christ comes to the earth, we are going to find out the truth and it’s going to be a real shame because by then it will be too late for us. We tried bearing testimony but she just yelled at us more. Thank heavens for fences on every house here, cuz we just walked away and she would have followed, if it wasn’t for that. It was so sad... Hermana Hite reminded me that Christ said our names or image will be "dirtied" for his sake. That was definitely how it was. But I KNOW! that what I’m here for is not a lie. Christ gave his life for me, and so ... who cares if people accuse me of false preaching. It’s sad for them, but I would suffer anything for Christ’s name. I would. (P.S. someone spit on one of the Elders this week too. Can you believe such horrid things go on?) It was a growing experience that’s for sure.
I love this gospel. I love you all. Can’t wait to hear from you again. Be so good! Keep the faith! I love you!
Love, Ash
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