My experiences sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Concepcion Chile from September 2015 through September 2017

Monday, July 24, 2017

The last of everything...

Today marks the first day of my last cambio and I don't know how to feel about it. Thinking that I am one of the oldest missionaries in the mission is uncomfortable. I am going to soon begin to count how every different day will be the last of something. Honestly I'm not too excited for it but there's nothing that you can do. 

And about me, I'm fine. I'm really sad that this is my last of everything basically. It isn't fair and I don't want it to end even though I know it has to. I just have to end this cambio on a good note. If I can have a great last cambio I will go home happy, or at least try to do it. With my transfers, I am staying here in Andalien and I'm happy about it. I will be with Elder Couto, an elder Brazileño that I have already lived with before in the mission. Hes super fun so I'm happy. It will be a good cambio. And baptismal dates we weren't able to put this last week because of vacations but this week we are going to be able to put more people with dates and have a lot more good visits so we are pretty excited. And yeah lets fast that day then. And yeah the day that I get home I don't have any requests specifically. I want to see star wars though. That would be nice. And I would love to drive home from the airport. And yeah I'm not feeling a whole lot better. I truly think its just the desire to not let it end. But I know it has to. I am going to ask my president for a blessing this week in our zone conference. But just know mom that I love you and I want to thank you for everything that you have done for me during these TWENTY THREE months haha not twenty four yet. 


So this week I had the best, most spiritual experience of my mission and of my life I think and I wanted to share it with you guys. If you want to you can share it with other people but I didn't want to send it to the usual group email.

Last Sunday, we were working at about 8:30 at night when we found ourselves with a member who told us that he had received a prompting to go and share the message of the home teachers with an inactive member named Samuel. There were a bunch of roadblocks placed in his way but in the end he was able to visit the less active and share the message from Elder Eyring. Its something like "the blessing of carrying your burdens well" I don't know how you say it in English but its super good. He felt prompted to share that message with him and as he did it he found out that Samuel's daughter was recently diagnosed with lupus, a disease where the body's immune system attacks a part of the body. Sebastian, the member, offered to call us to give her a blessing but he said no not wanting to rush it. He said that another day with a little bit of preparation would be better. 

We called him and set up a day to go by. On Friday, we passed by and started to talk with them about what was happening. We met the little girl. Tiare, is 8 years old and is an angel. Honestly, my companion and I both said that when we looked at her we saw pure innocence. It was something that glowed around her. The mom, a non member, explained to us that this disease in two out of three kids is life threatening. She also explained how she knows that God can heal her daughter but that sometimes it isn't his will to do it. I actually shared my experience about my Grandma Liljenquist and how I prayed every day that she would be healed and how it never happened. But how in the end it has helped all of us to have a more perfect faith. At this moment the spirit was already incredibly strong. We began to give the blessing to Tiare. I did the anointing, my companion gave the blessing. As we put our hands on her head to do the blessing and as my companion began to speak he started with the words like, "I bless you Tiare to be healed." And in this moment I felt the spirit stronger than I ever have before in my life. It came all at once and was stronger than any other thing that I have felt in my entire life. I had felt the spirit before but nothing as real as this was and still is to me. It was the most incredible experience of my entire mission and my entire life I believe. I have no doubts that Tiare will be healed completely. After finishing, We gave a blessing to Samuel to help him to find his faith again after it has been diminishing with the problems with her daughter. The spirit continued with the force that it had arrived. We then gave a blessing to Carola, the mom, who asked for one as well. We testified of what we had done in that moment and left them with a prayer. That same spirit stayed with me for half an hour after having left the house and gone walking in the street. My companion and I talked about what had just happened and especially about what we had both felt. As my companion opened his planner to see that same Friday, he saw a phrase that he had written a few days earlier after having read about the history of the church. It talked about the 22nd of July, or the day after, as being a day titled by the church as a day, "When the power of God would be manifest." I know what I felt that day. It was real. I know that we have the Priesthood of God on earth today. I was able to experience it in that moment. I know that God is a god of Miracles. He lives and loves us. I will never forget what I felt that day.

This week though was good. We have a ton of really good investigators at the moment and now we just have to figure out how to get them with a baptismal date. There are two people specifically. One is named victor who is the son in law of a member who doesn't actually live here in the sector and doesn't even live in the mission so we asked permission to baptize him and got it so now we are just going to have to find some way to have lessons constantly with him. The other is a girl named Jordana. She has gone to church a few times but shes hard to meet with constantly but the next time we visit her she is going to have a baptismal date. Hope all of you are doing super well this week though! Have a good one.

Elder Parker

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