We just finished an awesome week! Missionary work is truly the greatest work of all time. I am so grateful that I get to do this all day every day! I have very exciting news to report to you all today. I'm tempted to go in chronological order, but I'm all for having dessert first, so lets just get to the good stuff! Yesterday we had 65 PEOPLE IN SACRAMENT!!!!! We looked really good in the chapel and the testimonies were amazing. I was so grateful to not only have been there, but to have been a part of it. Not only did we have 65 people in sacrament, but six of those people were investigators.
We have worked with one man who was there since last April. He has only recently started coming to church and actively listening to the lessons (his wife is a less active, and most of the time we could only meet with her). Not only did he come on Sunday, but as several members were bearing their testimonies he asked if he was allowed to go up there as well. I told him of course he was. (Although I was slightly trepidatious!) After one or two more people he stood up and made his way to the podium. He started by introducing himself and telling everyone about his history with the church. He then said how grateful he was for us teaching him. He apologized to the member who had gone to his very first lesson (an exchange with Hermana Dollahite back in October that did not go well, although I wasn't there so don't know the details) for his behavior. He told everyone that even though he had only been to church three times, he knew it was a special place, and that he felt something very special each time. I was shocked, amazed, and humbled at the pure love and humility that this man showed yesterday. He is a new person, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. I promise if he gets baptized to share the whole long story!
In addition to this amazing sacrament, we had a great meeting with our bishop. Also, two of my recent converts, Judy and Elizabeth, received their very first callings (actually Elizabeth got two!). It was simply an amazing day all around. We had the opportunity to watch the CES fireside that night to finish the day, and Elder Jensen gave an amazing talk on the power and unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost. I highly recommend watching it on lds.org
My birthday was wonderful, probably the best of my life. I got to e-mail my family, and almost all of them were actually on-line while I was, so I got practically live wishes of Happy Birthday from all of them. It was almost as good as talking to them. I also was invited to Elizabeth's house for dinner. They made us a traditional Peruvian dish called Aji de Gallina, which was really good, Inca Kola, which tastes like bubble gum, and Cheesecake, my FAVORITE!!! It was awesome.
We did have one sad event take place this week. One of our most faithful members decided to move back to Mexico to be with her family after having some health problems. Virginia had been in the church a little over a year and a half, and if you remember, had finally worked up the courage to bear her testimony on Fast Sunday in December. We will miss her, but it was amazing to see the branch rally around her and support her through all that happened. Here we are telling her goodbye.
Also, one thing that struck me personally this week was a letter I received from my dear friend B in Tucson. She talked about some of the heartbreaks she has had in the public school system, especially with the children of Hispanic parents, as they often don't understand English and are unable to really help their children succeed in school. I was shocked at some of the circumstances she described, and deeply saddened as well. I have to say once again how grateful I am to be a missionary. Instead of seeing that hopelessness and not being able do anything about it (Legally, there is nothing these teachers can do). I have the opportunity to teach not just the kids, but the parents and children together as a family. I get to see their lives change from bleak and hopeless to full of light and possibility. I get to see the happiness that comes into families and homes as each person feels the spirit and follows its promptings to the waters of baptism, the temple, and eternal life. Of course there is sadness, hard days, problems with companions and members. People still have their agency. However, I can honestly say that I have never been happier in my life, or seen people find such happiness in their own lives than I have on my mission.
I think often on the great scripture found in Alma 31: 5 "And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God." I bear each of you my personal testimony that this is true. The gospel fixes lives. It brings a light into an utterly dark and hopeless existence. It is more powerful than any of the remedies that the World could ever hope to find. No doctor, psychologist, or teacher will ever have as much success as the word of God and his army of angels.
How I love you all. How I love my mission and being a missionary. I truly have the greatest and most blessed existence of all the children of God on Earth today. I could not possibly tell you all what my mission means to me. I hope you can feel it with these letters. I apologize for each instance or comment that has been negative or less than completely grateful for the time and circumstances I have been given. I can't even begin to guess what I did to deserve the blessing of being here, but I am eternally grateful for it.
I love you all,
Hermana Levanger
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