A Day in the Life...
Hola hola mis amigos y amigas!
I hope you all had a great week and that time is moving faster for you all than for me haha! Some weeks feel like years as missionaries! But I'm learning to love my Ecuadorian-life as a missionary more and more everyday! This week was my first normal week as a missionary--no birthdays, holidays, events... so we were just out working hard all week! And we had some great experiences!
One of my favorite things out here on the mission is learning how to teach more effectively and really help people understand why the commitments and steps we invite them to take are important! This past week we had a training with our District on how to: 1) really stress the importance of being baptized the way Jesus Christ was baptized (by immersion and by someone with proper authority from God), 2) effectively contact people daily (by helping people remember their daily commitments and what they are working toward), and 3) set valid dates for baptism (by making sure people will be ready by that date)! It was super awesome! I really learned a lot! Hermana Daurio and I have been setting goals to really apply everything we are learning! The day after our training, we did just that! The next day was a Saturday and we were booked with people to visit from 10am to 8pm (which NEVER happens on a Saturday btw because everyone cancels on you haha).
Let me take you through a day in the life of Hermana Leonard as a missionary in Ecuador...
As you can see... very loco day, but wonderful! Not everyday is like this one, but we really do see miracles and answers from God EVERY SINGLE DAY. It really is incredible and we truly feel God testifying to us every day how much He is aware of and loves His children. It was especially wonderful to see the principles we had learned in our District meeting really WORK since they were inspired direction from God!
Other fun things this week: A road got blocked off, so Nayon was CRAZY lined with cars on every street and we waited for an HOUR for the bus to get home! I was on exchanges this day with our Hermana Leader, too, so that was fun, got to speak spanish all day:) I got to celebrate my birthday again! Members here are SO nice to me and another one bought me a cake for my birthday this week and also sang to me (she sweetly asked me, with tears in her eyes, if it was hard to be away from home on my birthday, which of course made me teary too. People have so much love for missionaries. wow!!)
I really hope each one of you feel the love of God more personally in your lives this week. I truly testify that when we reach out to God for comfort He will bless us with what we need. There truly is opposition in all things-- when we come to know deep sorrow, we are then prepared to feel even greater joy. Also... do me a favor and if you see missionaries walking down the street (two guys in white shirts and ties, or two girls in dresses with black name tags) PLEASE say "Hi", give them a smile, or talk with them for at least a few minutes. You have NO idea how much it means when people are just nice!
Love you all, my wonderful people!
Hermana Leonard
Study: This week I really enjoyed Alma chapter 37. My favorite verses (40-41, 46) talk about small and simple works leading to large miracles. I particularly love verse 46 as it talks about "looking" to "live." All God asks us to do is look to Him in all we do and we will live a life like His; a life with more joy, more purpose, and more understanding. Let us not "run faster than we have strength" but let's just do the small and simple things daily, like exercising faith, so we can look to God more fully and live the joyful lives He wants for us.
I hope you all had a great week and that time is moving faster for you all than for me haha! Some weeks feel like years as missionaries! But I'm learning to love my Ecuadorian-life as a missionary more and more everyday! This week was my first normal week as a missionary--no birthdays, holidays, events... so we were just out working hard all week! And we had some great experiences!
One of my favorite things out here on the mission is learning how to teach more effectively and really help people understand why the commitments and steps we invite them to take are important! This past week we had a training with our District on how to: 1) really stress the importance of being baptized the way Jesus Christ was baptized (by immersion and by someone with proper authority from God), 2) effectively contact people daily (by helping people remember their daily commitments and what they are working toward), and 3) set valid dates for baptism (by making sure people will be ready by that date)! It was super awesome! I really learned a lot! Hermana Daurio and I have been setting goals to really apply everything we are learning! The day after our training, we did just that! The next day was a Saturday and we were booked with people to visit from 10am to 8pm (which NEVER happens on a Saturday btw because everyone cancels on you haha).
Let me take you through a day in the life of Hermana Leonard as a missionary in Ecuador...
- 6:30am--wake up, hear 5 million car alarms, work out for 30 min, get ready while listening to EFY music, make breakfast, plan our day, call people, plan lessons and get our studies in (1 hour of personal scripture study, 1 hour of companionship study, and 1 hour of tutoring me in all the things I need to know as a new missionary as well as learn the language!) whoosh!!
- 10am--visit with our favorite Venezuelan friend Mai, the one I talked about a few weeks back. We shared the message of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ with her, practicing what we had learned the day before by stressing the importance of someone having proper authority from God to baptize! As we talked about families and the love of God, tears were visible in her eyes as she felt the Spirit of what we were saying. She promised to read the Book Of Mormon and pray, and if she felt it was right, to get baptized! Amazing start to the day!
- 12-1pm-- talk to people on the street about our message and get in any studies we didn't have time for that morning.
- 1:30pm--lunch with a member who has a local eatery in Nayon (HUGE blessing for our busy day because usually lunch is in another area since more members live over there. Our travel time takes a lot out of our days, so God was really watching out for us today!)
- 3pm--we walk down to our friends, Denise and Walter, to see how they were doing with praying about the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ which they said they would do the night before. (We thought we were going to lose them until we had an AMAZING lesson with them and a member who changed their whole perspective about things). They were the happiest we had ever seen them! Walter, who had previously been very hard-hearted, had prayed and told us he wanted to continue learning! Denise had yet to pray but seemed just as happy and sure as Walter about progressing. What a miracle!
- 3:50pm-- we had a little extra time before our next lesson, so as we walked by a full restaurant of people, we decided to contact the whole restaurant! Just like the buses, we stood in front of everyone and presented ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then handed out cards with our info! Little nerve wracking, but super fun!
- 4pm--lesson about God's plan of Happiness with a family called La Familia Cañar! They told us at the beginning of the lesson they had already prayed about Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ and they believed it was true! This was the right path! We continued to have a great lesson and committed them to be baptized on the 22nd of February using what we had learned yesterday about setting valid dates! We left so excited for them!
- 6pm--traveled to an outlying part of Nayon to teach a man named Fabrisio. He said God told him that the Catholic church wasn't right for him and that he needed to keep reading the Book of Mormon! He is a very exuberant person and is convinced that when he prays about the Book of Mormon he'll get an answer from God which will then allow him to move forward and accept our invitation to get baptized. Of course, we're confident he'll get an answer, too!
- 8pm--traveled to Montesserin, a different part of our area, to visit a woman named Paumela to teach her about the importance of worshiping and consecrating the Sabbath day.
- 9pm--travel home--the bus lady doesn't make us pay (another tender mercy) and we arrive back at our home in Rio Coca.
- 10:30pm--go to sleep wondering how we are so lucky to see so many miracles in one day?? God really does love and guide His missionaries!
As you can see... very loco day, but wonderful! Not everyday is like this one, but we really do see miracles and answers from God EVERY SINGLE DAY. It really is incredible and we truly feel God testifying to us every day how much He is aware of and loves His children. It was especially wonderful to see the principles we had learned in our District meeting really WORK since they were inspired direction from God!
Other fun things this week: A road got blocked off, so Nayon was CRAZY lined with cars on every street and we waited for an HOUR for the bus to get home! I was on exchanges this day with our Hermana Leader, too, so that was fun, got to speak spanish all day:) I got to celebrate my birthday again! Members here are SO nice to me and another one bought me a cake for my birthday this week and also sang to me (she sweetly asked me, with tears in her eyes, if it was hard to be away from home on my birthday, which of course made me teary too. People have so much love for missionaries. wow!!)
I really hope each one of you feel the love of God more personally in your lives this week. I truly testify that when we reach out to God for comfort He will bless us with what we need. There truly is opposition in all things-- when we come to know deep sorrow, we are then prepared to feel even greater joy. Also... do me a favor and if you see missionaries walking down the street (two guys in white shirts and ties, or two girls in dresses with black name tags) PLEASE say "Hi", give them a smile, or talk with them for at least a few minutes. You have NO idea how much it means when people are just nice!
Love you all, my wonderful people!
Hermana Leonard
Study: This week I really enjoyed Alma chapter 37. My favorite verses (40-41, 46) talk about small and simple works leading to large miracles. I particularly love verse 46 as it talks about "looking" to "live." All God asks us to do is look to Him in all we do and we will live a life like His; a life with more joy, more purpose, and more understanding. Let us not "run faster than we have strength" but let's just do the small and simple things daily, like exercising faith, so we can look to God more fully and live the joyful lives He wants for us.
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