One Year Mark: Why am I a missionary?

Hello hello!!

 

The highlight of this week was interviews with the Mission President!!! They are just literally the best things ever. Also he brought with him letters!! So I got the letter from mom with pictures of you guys, yay! Also the letter with the pictures of my grandpas, thanks dad!! Also a sweet birthday letter from grandma and grandpa rowe. Love you guys!

So my interview. I sat down and President goes, "Well Hermana, you've certainly had quite some interesting places to serve your mission. I think you're the Queen of Small Branches" (branches are smaller LDS congregations) And I was like, "well, that's where you keep sending me" Just kidding I didn't say that :) 

I think you guys know that in my whole mission I haven't served in a single ward, just branches, but did you also know that I haven't even served in a stake?? I've only been in districts. Woot! 

So President and I talked about lot and lots of things and it was just great. He's the best. One of the things we talked about was serving in different missions. Because in reading Emily's letters, Ive really realized that missions are crazy different. (Amanda's sister Emily is serving a mission in Pocatello, ID) I'm down here in branches where on a reeally good day 40 people come to church, where the missionaries have to do almost literally everything, and we're not even going to talk about numbers. So I was like "President, whats the deal with that. Its the same church, the same work, but how can it be so different??" And he talked about planes and how each plane has its own design. Its the same with people. We all are designed a little differently - we are designed for different work. He pointed right at me and said "Hermana, you wouldn't like it over there. It's not the work you are designed to do." And I was like, you know what? That's true.

 This, here in Paraguay, is the work I'm designed to do, the slipping around and laughing in mud, the weird bug stings, all of it, is exactly the work the Lord designed me to do. And I love it. I love these people. Paraguay feels like home. Actually, it IS home. 

And then there was Conference. I wish I could say I got a ton out of it... but as much as I prayed and pleaded and bugged and begged for computers and modems and mercy, the set up to watch it in English just didn't work. So I had a pretty rough time Saturday watching it and their mouths in English and trying not to cry because I wanted to see it so bad in English. I think the other American elder thought I was crazy. Whatever. Its not that I don't understand it in Spanish, cause I do, its just that I have to pay serious attention. I understand, pero no me llega. (ironically, I have no idea how to say that in english...). It doesn't really sink in so I cant think or apply or ponder while they're talking. The best part was during Sister Esplin's talk about the Sacrament when she was at the part where the Saviors hand is the one reaching out and offering us the sacrament, the translator totally choked up and couldn't keep talking. So that was touching.

Anyway, that was that until Sunday morning when we FINALLY got it working just in time to hear President Monson speak in English. Miracles. And then I got to watch Sunday Afternoon in English too!! So that was the session I got the most out of, haha. I loved Elder Scott's talk, super good! Also Elder Bednar's. That was my favorite. 

He talked about WHY the church has missionaries. Why do we do this all? Why am I here walking around in the mud in Paraguay? Whoever is reading this, you have to watch this video. It's worth your time.

So why am I a missionary?? At my year mark in the mission and this blog, I think its a good question to review. Why am I here? Like he explains in the video, the little boy "intuitively wanted to share what had helped him when he was hurt". 

That's what I'm doing. I am here because I want to share what helps me when I feel hurt. And that is the relationship I have with Jesus Christ, thanks to His Church on earth today.

 

Love you all so much!!

Hermana Rawlins

 

Ready to go for the day!

coming home one day. They pretty much stayed like this all week

The kind of work I was designed for (see email)

 

 

 

here's me, corrupting the next Paraguayan generation one by one. No date face! :O))))))

Hey mom, look what I found!?!?!? :D

This picture is a lesson in pride. My WHOLE mission, I have not wanted to use a sombrilla. (so I dont know that word in English. ITs an umbrella, but for the sun. NOT to be confused with paragua, which is an umbrella for the rain. That was very specifically explained to me. Anyway, so I have not wanted to use one. Just no. I mean, I'm already the white girl walking around the street, do I really have the be the white girl walking down the street with an umbrella? Like the girl in Hidalgo? No thanks. 

BUT, I've humbled myself and succumbed. I decided that it wasn't worth it to be prideful now and to have cancer later. So, now I have a sombrilla. I picked the haiwaan one, cause if you've gotta use an umbrella you might as well do it right. Also, the backpack. I haven't wanted one at all. Now I have one, because 1 year of walking around with a shoulder bag kills your back. So there, that is my lesson in pride. Don't be prideful children. It hurts in the end.

 

 

good turn out for conference