This week was so great!
On Thursday we were able to have a mission conference with Elder Evans who is basically in charge of missionary work - which means he has to coordinate for 88,000 of us missionaries all over the world! We got a lot of advice and instruction from him about how we can teach better and really just help more people with the resources that we have. We also learned that our mission will be receiving iPads! Yep, Redlands is going digital. He didn't give us a ton of details but he told us we'd be using the mini-iPads and how we'd be able to use them to share the gospel with more people in more places! Like showing videos, helping them do family history, things like that. They are asking all those who have more than 6 months left to buy their iPad but since I will have less than 6 months left it will be an option for me. It's something that I'll have to think about though since iPads are pretty widely used from what I understand and it will probably be nice to have for school and what-not after the mission. Anyway, that's the news we got! Hello technology!
Hermana Southwick and I are still working hard! We were able to put a baptismal date with two more investigators this week and these girls are so great! One of them is the only one who's not a member in her family and she's decided after meeting with us for a while that this is something that she'd like to do.
The other is someone who was learning from other missionaries in the past but never really wanted to change. Hermana Southwick and I thought we should go meet her and see how she's doing and she welcomed us with open arms and while we were talking to her she shared with us a lot about her life. She told us about a lot of bad decisions she's made and how she's still suffering the consequences even though it was years ago. She told us last night that she needs to change because she wants her life to be better. So she set a goal to be baptized as well! This area and these people are just so ready to accept the gospel and I absolutely love it!
We also did exchanges this week and I went with a sister who has only been on her mission for 3 weeks. It was really cool and really humbling to remember where I was at and what I was like at that point of my mission. She's way ahead of where I was! And I feel like I've come so far and learned so much since then!
My mission really has made me better than I was and I've learned so much about myself, about others and most importantly about the Savior.I was reading today and I came across the parable of the unprofitable servant. Jesus Christ was instructing His disciples and He said that when they go out to preach and teach and serve they should do just that - serve. They shouldn't expect to rest or to receive any type of reward. That they are to do what they are sent to do. Be a servant. In a way that's what we're doing as missionaries. We are here to serve and to help in any way possible. And along with painting and cleaning and yard work and picking up trash, we know that the best way to help is to teach the gospel, so that's what we do! But the difference is that even though we are to consider ourselves unprofitable servants, we're not unprofitable. Members feed us dinner, we have a place to live, I have AMAZING family and friends behind me supporting me and most of all I have endless blessings from the Lord as I'm here doing His work. And I've come to realize that the more I serve Him and the more I sacrifice, the more I'm blessed. So really I'll never make it up to Him, I will always be in debt to our Heavenly Father for the countless blessings I receive day in and day out.
Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Don't forget to recognize all the blessings you're receiving too!
Love,
Hermana Granado
