November 24, 2014
Holaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
So this week has been INSANE! So much travelling and feeling the Spirit, it was kind of awesome. The only downfall was that I only really had like one full day to work in my area, but after all of the amazing notes and personal revelation I received, I’ll have to say that it was worth the sacrifice.
(I feel like this picture captures my zone better than the formal one of us)
On Tuesday, we had zone council and it was my first time giving a training as sister training leader and holy cow was I nervous. Luckily, my zone leaders gave us sister training leaders (there are two companionships of us in the zone) the doctrine section, because I have no idea what I would have done if I had to talk about numbers.
Anyway, we spoke on D&C 20:37, which are the baptismal requirements. There are like 8 different points in that scripture and so we each got two. And holy cow. I am like 250% sure that every word which came out of my mouth was all from the Spirit. Because before it was my turn to talk, I literally had no idea what I was going to say or do. I studied the entire bus ride to Celaya and like half an hour before hand and yet my mind was blank. So as soon as my zone leaders passed the time over to us, I just said a quick prayer in my heart about how I was leaving it all in the Lord’s hands and just went for it. And I’m not going to lie, it kind of went amazing. As soon as I started speaking, my nerves went away. I could literally feel myself being guided by the Spirit and it was awesome. Scriptures began to come to my mind that I hadn’t thought of before and I was asking questions which I never could have come up with on my own.
It was probably one of the most amazing experiences of putting myself in God’s hands that I’ve ever had while here on the mission and my testimony has grown so much because of it. I know without a doubt that the Lord will never leave his children alone. That he will always be there for us when we need him. And above all, that there is literally no better feeling than to take a leap of faith and find yourself being carried by the Lord. I’m still not over how amazing everything turned out.
At the end of the council, my new zone leader Elder Arvanitas shared his testimony and I just have to say, I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me with some amazing leaders in the mission. Something he shared really got to me. Like, it ‘peirced my soul’ it was that inspired. He was testifying about Joseph Smith and the first vision, about the part where as Joseph began to pray, the adversary attacked him with all of his might. And he said ‘right before the most spiritual experience a person can have, the darkest of darkness comes’.
When he said that, I immediately began to think of all of those really hard and ‘dark’ moments in my life – both before and during the mission – where I felt like there was no way out or that the trial was too much to bear. And how, it’s always right after those really tough times when my testimony really begins to grow. Where I can feel my Spirit stretching and getting stronger and I can feel myself becoming more and more the person which Heavenly Father wants me to be. It was pretty amazing.
Then after he finished, he asked my companion Hermana Miguez to share her testimony, since this was her last zone council. And wow, what a perfect way to end the council. We left on such a spiritual high and I honestly felt like I returned to San Miguel a different person.
And this was only Tuesday! Thusday night we travelled to Celaya so we wouldn’t have to get up too early for the tour on Friday and that was a ton of fun. We stayed with the other sister training leaders in our zone, Hermanas Nielson and Rodriguez, both of which are really good friends of mine. And it was so much fun!
Here’s a picture of us on Friday after the Mission Tour. And yes, I am holding a dinosaur pillow pet. I had stolen it from Elder Arvanitas the night before because it’s kind of the most comfortable thing in the entire planet.
As for the tour with Presidente DeHoyos, that also was a really cool experience. We talked a lot about Family History work and also being Self-Reliant and how missionary work is now going to be involving those two principles. I accidentally left my notebook at home so I don’t really have much to say but I’m just super excited about the direction of this mission and that there are so many things I want to put in practice now. Also, it was way awesome seeing a bunch of missionaries which I haven’t seen in a while again. Especially my old companion, Hermana Kitchen! My old district leader Elder Lima and his former companion Elder Dreesen were also there so we just had to do a ‘Tejeda District’ reunion picture.
After the tour on Friday, since no one in my district had food for that day, our zone leaders planned so that we could eat with them that day. And they just so happened to eat with Presidente Avila, Presidente Mejorada’s second counselor. And holy cow. SO MUCH FOOD. There was steak, quesadillas, soup, chorizo, and key lime pie. We were kind of all in heaven. It was also really nice to eat with the whole zone and just spend time together. And afterwards, we sang Christmas carols to Presidente Avila and his family, because they already have their decorations up. After lunch, my companion and I went on divisions with Hermana Nielson and Rodriguez because Presidente Avila was going to give us leaders a ride to Queretaro tomorrow morning (which saved us like $120 pesos!). So that was a ton of fun. I went with Hermana Nielson and it was like a flashback to my second transfer, when we both had our divisions for the first time. I love working with her and I’m kinda crossing my fingers that we get to be companions some day.
Saturday we closed the tour with another leadership council which was awesome, as usual. It was basically just a summary of everything we learned on Friday but we also got to put goals as a mission and that was really cool. They talked a lot about leadership and our responsibility and just a lot of cool things that I wrote down in my journal which I forgot to bring. So maybe next week. But here’s a picture of me with my zone leaders in front of a Christmas tree.
And that’s kind of it for now! Hope you all have an amazing week!
Loooooooooooove,
Hermana Sanabria
Called To Serve 