Hola a todos <hello everyone>!
I think you could officially call me an islander because let me tell you, it is FREEZING cold in this sunny little part of Southern California. Temperatures of 75-85 degrees just aren’t cutting it for me, and I think I know why: I’m missing the warm blanket of humidity.
I am constantly wearing sweaters and I sleep with like four blankets (think ones, mind you) because the rest of the girls in my house are crazy and have the AC blasting because they’re too hot. I think it’s because they’re from Utah and are used to the cold. Puerto Rico has ruined my basic body temperature and I cannot wait to get back to the welcoming embrace of 90+ degrees with crazy humidity.
Speaking of Puerto Rico, don’t even ask me how I’m doing because honestly, I think I’m still in shock. I miss that tiny little island so much and the people on it too. There’s no way to describe the emptiness I felt fill my body as I watched the island slide out of view when we left.
It’s odd to me because I can’t say I’ve ever experienced something so rough in my entire life, but I have a feeling that God has been preparing me for it. Nothing crazy like dreams foreshadowing the hurricane or prophetic omens appearing in my life before the evacuation. But I can look back at my mission and say that all the hard times and all the rough trials I’ve had have been to teach me something important: that I needed a very strong testimony to carry me safely here. Here to San Bernardino, California.
God knew I needed to be here even before I was called to Puerto Rico. I’ve woken up just about every day with the question ¿Why did I have to go through all that if only to come to SoCal halfway through my mission? I’ve been struggling with my feelings of adequacy since I’ve come here.
I have exactly 9 months on the mission. I spent 9 months learning the life of a missionary in PR and I just barely started to feel like I was getting it. I was starting to feel like I understood my calling and the work, but I’ve been casually uprooted and placed in a completely different place just now.
I think this is God telling me not to get comfortable in my life. Comfort brings about laziness and laziness brings about ineffective work. I have the blessing to learn even more now and become even more knowledgeable about how missionary work is done with different people. God has blessed me in this aspect, even if I don’t like the feeling of not knowing anything. (Really. I feel absolutely dumb sometimes).
This reminds me of the talk by Elder Rasband, ‘Por Designio Divino’ that says:
‘el señor ama estar con nosotros; no es coincidencia que, al sentir su espíritu y actuar con conformidad con los primeros susurros, sientan lo que él ha prometido: “iré delante de vuestra faz. Estaré a vuestra diestra y a vuestra siniestra, y mi espíritu estará en vuestro corazón, y mis ángeles alrededor de vosotros, para sostenernos.”….Cuando somos rectos y capaces, y estamos dispuestos, cuando luchamos por ser dignos y estar calificados, progresamos hasta lugares que jamás imaginamos y llegamos a ser parte del “designio divino” del Padre Celestial. Cada uno de nosotros tiene divinidad dentro de sí. Ruego que cuando veamos a dios obrar mediante nosotros y con nosotros, nos sintamos alentados, e incluso agradecidos por ese guía. Cuando nuestro Padre Celestial dijo: “esta es mi obra y mi gloria: llevar a cabo la inmortalidad y la vida eterna del hombre”, se refiera a todos sus hijos, y a usted en particular.’
Sorry it’s in Spanish. I don’t have it in English, but I doubt that Google Translate will mess it up too badly if you want to read the quote.
“The Lord loves to be with us. It is no coincidence that when you are feeling His Spirit and acting on first promptings that you feel Him as He promised: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up’ (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88).
“When we are righteous, willing, and able, when we are striving to be worthy and qualified, we progress to places we never imagined and become part of Heavenly Father’s “divine design.’ Each of us has divinity within us. When we see God working through us and with us, may we be encouraged, even grateful for that guidance. When our Father in Heaven said, “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man,’ He was talking about all of His children—you in particular.”
(https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/by-divine-design?lang=eng).
Everything happens for a reason, and I honestly don’t understand a lot right now. I don’t feel great when I think about Puerto Rico. But there is one thing that I know God needs me to feel and know right now. And that is that He lives, and does everything He can to help me with this mess I am right now. He loves me and I can feel it every time I pray and ask for help to feel better about this. I know I am supposed to be here in San Bernardino, California. I know it because I feel it in my heart, and when I feel like I don’t know anything else, I have that testimony to fall back onto.
P.S. I’m also now learning how important members are to the work in stateside missions, I challenge you to find your local missionaries and give them a name or two of your friends they can visit. Trust them, they’re probably really cool missionaries that can only help your friends. Maybe even go out on a teaching visit with them to help out the investigators they have coming to church now. God is hastening the work for a reason and you can be a part of it too! Be a member missionary.
Con mucho amor <with lots of love>,
Hermana Thelin
Enviado desde mi iPad <Sent from my iPad>