For those of you not familiar with the term "to whitewash," it means to come into a brand new area without any potentials or investigators, and starting from the ground up. It is one of the most dreaded things to have to do as a missionary. And we did it to ourselves on purpose.
After about 3 hard weeks of working our brains out, investigators not progressing, potentials leading to nothing, and doors being closed, and having to hand over every interested person to English elders, Elder Watts and I prayed a long time, and decided to wipe the board clean and start from scratch. It has been one of the coolest things I have done on my mission.
We just dropped everyone, stopped trying to set up appointments that would just fall through, and hit the pavement. We just needed to find spanish people to teach, and said a number of specific prayers. We spent every waking hour of the day knocking doors on Tuesday, and almost every other day until friday, and it has been a miracle week. People have come out of the woodwork, our plate is full, and it has been awesome. On Sunday, out of the blue, and old investigator that we had fought for tooth and nail to help him stop his addictions and get him to church, who we hadn't seen in two weeks because he had been avoiding us, just showed up to church, dressed to the nines in a white shirt, polished shoes, a tie, and every gold ring or cross he had! He had an amazing experience, we have an appointment tomorrow, and I can't understand how great the Lord is.
These last 3 weeks had been pretty ruff, and we were forced to take a long look at ourselves and try to do everything to improve, from our teaching skills to our own study. God gave us a ruff time so that he could build us, and holy cow, how he has blessed us. We have encountered many people who never had time, but for some reason or another were able to finally meet with us, and are now taking the discussions. The Lord waited until we were tempered enough to be able to teach them. I am kinda nervous, because I know how infinitely far I still have to go, but it is great knowing that Our Father will get me there, eventually. It all comes back to one of my favorite scriptures, Ether 12:27 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them theirweakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humblethemselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weakthings become strong unto them.
Love you guys tons, and thanks for your prayers.
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