This past week has been a pretty wonderful week filled with
a ton of great experiences! Earlier this week Elder Silva and I headed up to
Needham, Massachusetts for his knee surgery which went incredibly well. We were
in and out.... it seemed like. While he was in surgery, I got to get a little
bit of studies in with President Packard in the lobby which was great. The only
bad thing about the surgery was that I wasn't able to video Elder Silva right
after he woke up and was a bit out of it, like he wanted me to. After the
surgery we got to spend the night in the mission home and most of the following
day as well. It sure was a different experience, but a great one nevertheless.
We got to see a video of one of the Packard's Family Home Evenings that they
had previously when his brother came to visit. We got to see President
Packard rapping with his brother and son Michael. He told us that back in the
day his brother and one of his brother's friends use to rap all the time at
school and their rap name was "Bread and Butter"... Haha. I love that family so
much. It is amazing to see how talented they all are and how they support each
other in everything that they do. We got to witness Michale doing a head slide
as well in the middle of the floor. That was pretty sweet. Since Elder Silva
was walking around pretty good we ended up getting a ride home to our apartment
and went to a dinner that night before heading home to take it easy. The next
few days we spent a good amount of time in the apartment until Silva was
feeling we could go out again. I am grateful for that time that we had to do
that because I was able to get a lot of studying and pondering done as well as
getting caught up in my journal.
We had two GREAT lessons with Jose Rosas this
week as well as we finished the lessons with him and got the Branch Presidency
to come out with us to the lessons! Because they went so well, we feel that it
really helped our leaders feel part of what we were doing. We went over the
Interview questions with him and he is all set other than finishing planning
his baptism which we are doing with him this next week. I am so excited for
him.
We picked up 3 people this past week that we're going to be teaching
now. Melvia y Isaac y la familia de ellos y, this lady named Caroline who is
Pentecostal who is already going out on the streets sharing what she believes.
I hope everything goes well with her. She is pretty cool and would be a great member.
This past week, Silva and I have been fed like crazy! We also had a
pizza show up at our apartment that his mom ordered over the phone for us. Along
with that, we have been having some pretty random/funny experiences as
well. Ones that would take me forever to explain because they were just ones
that you had to be there for.
We have a lot of great things coming up and a
lot of Low-Lying Fruit (people who have already had some sort of contact with church before) that we are starting to collect finally and so a lot of
potential. This past week as we were with President Packard I had asked him
how he does it. For those of you who don't know much about him, he is over all
the missionaries in the MBM mission, so over 200 missionaries. He and his wife
are pretty much like our parents away from home. Elder Silva and I had asked
him about how many hours of sleep he is able to get every night and he said about 5. He receives revelation for the mission as a whole, including all
the missionaries, and works very closely with ALL the Stake Presidents and
leaders in the mission as well. It really is remarkable when you think about
it. I know how exhausting and yet spiritually invigorating seeking revelation
is and as well as giving blessings, but on a very small scale compared to his.
So, back to the question, "How do you do it President?" His answer
was short, he said, "Love." He then quoted Matt 16:25 "For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it." As I have pondered this in my own life and the
times where I am most happy, guided and seem to be able to accomplish a whole
lot, it is because of this simple and yet profound truth. I think it is interesting
that as we look at the Life of our Savior, Jesus Christ, ALL that he did was to
please the Father. I know that as we but strive to do only those things that
will please our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Father in Heaven, we will better be
able to come to realize who we truly are as sons and daughters of God. It is my
prayer that we all may look for ways to lose ourselves in the service of our
fellow beings and come to realize that when we are in the service of others we
are really only in the service of our God (Mosiah 2:17). I know
this will bring us more joy, happiness and blessings that we stand in need of in our
life. I say these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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