Friends and family,
This week was exciting, mainly for one incredible reason: um... actually, I'll mention it a bit later.
[Suspense kills the audience.]
Dangit, suspense! We talked about this!
...Anyway,
first off, Mom, in your email you asked me if I have had the chance to
go back to Winter Quarters since the first day when I arrived in
Nebraska. Sadly, I have not. I also don't think the visitors center is
open right now, so we would only really be able to visit the grounds of
the Temple if we were to go. But honestly, that would be worth the trip.
Maybe I'll do it sometime soon!
Now,
there was something amazing I forgot to mention last week: on
Conference Saturday, Amy Barron was baptized in Grand Island. This is
significant. I'll tell you why. I taught her from the start, and she has
been golden the whole time! She was baptized within only about five
weeks! She had moved to Grand Island without preparation, due to some
emergency I don't remember, and she ended up in a homeless shelter
because for a while she had no job or connections or friends. One day,
soon after moving in, she saw an ad on Facebook from one of our
missionary pages, and she requested a visit from the missionaries. We
called her up, and she said she had just moved, and was looking for a
church to join! Those were her words! She drank up everything we
discussed, and was baptized, as I said. And, the most unique thing about
it all? She was the first person baptized in this mission who was found
through our current virus-spurred Facebook initiative!!! Sure, she was
baptized after I left, but I don't care! I'm so happy for her and her
progress, and for being so ready that she took the title as the first
successful "Facebook baptism" in this mission!
Now,
for the moment you've all been waiting for... [hopes there's still
someone left alive in the audience to appreciate the grand reveal] ...
WE ARE NOW ALLOWED TO MEET IN PEOPLE'S HOMES. President Ence announced
it to the mission on Saturday morning.
You
have to see this from my perspective. I had been teaching in person
from January 2019 through mid-March 2020; and then I was stuck inside,
then sent home, and then I simmered down for six weeks in Arizona. Then I came back out, and the current normal was to do
lessons on video calls. That was normal. The past seemed so far away
that I basically forgot the joy of my previous missionary life of
meeting people face to face.
Then,
last night, we met with Hno. Taboada in person, in his house. He is a
hardworking man who was separated firmly from his family by country
boundaries closing, with his family still in Colombia; but he calls them
EVERY night to talk with them, read a chapter of the Book of Mormon,
and pray. He is a good example of faith and diligence in these hard
times. He even has no furniture in his living room, so we sat on the
floor together, but all three of us left his apartment buzzing because
we were so excited to be able to be with people physically, again! It
was like an itch that we had ignored long enough to forget about it...
but then it was suddenly scratched. My companion Elder Murdock explained
it well when he said that it gave him renewed hope. I finally got to
associate closely with someone who wasn't a missionary -- a revolutionary
new concept, indeed!
THAT is what characterized my week. The lesson was short, sweet, and energizing. I loved it.
But
one more uber-important thing happened, too: Jacob Hill, Elder Hill the
Younger, left his Home MTC early today for the mission field in the New York, New York City mission. His first area is in Staten Island, and he will still be
learning Samoan in a trio, with one companion learning Mandarin and the
other learning Italian. What a diverse companionship!
"And
it came to pass... that they separated themselves and departed one from
another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close
of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they
had undertaken" (Alma 17:13).
God speed, my friend. I'll see you in two.
With much love,
and a new energy for the work,
Elder Hill the Elder
Fotos:
el bautismo de Amy, la lección con el Hno. Taboada anoche, un buen
ejemplo de las calles locas de esta ciudad, yo con mi Blizzard (para
festejar el cumpleaños de Rosalie, obvio), Taco Bell después de la
reunión de distrito esta semana, yo mirando adentro de un cañón en un
cementerio, el Presidente Ence un auto desde atrás (es asombroso, ¿no?), Y yo, resplandeciendo por la luz de la ventana.
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