Hi Mom,
I love you, I dont just mean that towards my mother. Who ever is reading this I want you to know that I LOVE you.
For this post I wanted to write about that glorious 4 letter word. We are taught as missionaries to love everyone we meet. This last week was a tough one for me in that department. And yet it is through that experience that I am feeling motivated go write about it. Because I have seen the difference it makes it a persons life.
This last week we had a lot of lessons drop. So as back ups we decided to visit individuallls that were formally taught or had been in contact with missionaries before. One experience in particular left me rather frustrated. I had lost all love for those we were visiting. Luckily that night, our only lesson that didnt fall through was with a pure angel of a woman. Who just oozes love. I knew this too, which is probably why I was so nervous to teach her. I started my lesson off very nervous I couldn’t string two spanish words together to make a sentence. So she stopped me and told me (in spanish) “dont be nervous, we are family here”. Family… I honestly, in that moment, hadn’t quite seen her as my family. I was so worried about the lesson, my spanish, and honestly trying to baptize her. That I forgot why I decided to serve a mission. It was in that moment that I remembered why I was there. I remembered why I need to love her. Shortly after hearing this the spirit had once again returned. I litterally felt the spirit blessing me with the right words to say. I began that lesson as a nervous wreck, I ended that lesson with a powerful testimony.
I know that the power of the spirit is real. I know that love, not just an “oh yeah I love that person” a true genuine LOVE. Its unfakeable, its unshakeable, it is powerful. There is a passage in Corinthians 13.
“4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
I have come to know this to be true, there are two different words I like to use instead of “Charity”. The first one being my name sake “Service” and the other being “Love”. To me they all mean the same thing. For if you have charity you love others, and if you love others you NATURALLY serve them!
That’s it. That’s my post. Yes it’s short, but I have some people to go love. So enjoy these pictures!
