I would like to inform you that I, Elder Twede, have again received strength and can return to work!
Yep I said it! After nearly 3 weeks of not being able to go out and teach, I am up and about again with a spring in my step! Thank you all for your prayers and support. I know that I'm not better just because I started eating healthy, but because the Lord does actually listen to prayers and he does answer them!
This week was a crazy one! (So I guess that means it was just another normal mission week) We had a baptism of a nine year old girl who´s family has been inactive, we have been working with getting them active since we got here. Because she was nine we taught her as an investigator instead of the ward taking care of the baptism. Well... The baptism day came and it felt like the world had turned against us. We started to feel up the baptism font late which lead to problems later, we couldn't find anyone that had keys to the boiler so the water was freezing, the only people that showed up on time were Esther (the girl getting baptized) and her family, we realized that the water wasn't ready so we started filling up buckets in the custodial closet and dumping them in, the service started an hour and a half late, the stake president randomly showed up (Elder West said that he has never seen a stake president at a baptism his whole mission) the water still wasn't full enough and an older lady from the sister missionaries that was getting baptized couldn't get under the water all the way... *deep breath in* The stake president told them to stop after the fourth try, the same thing happened to Esther, but they got it on their third try.
All I can say is it was a pretty stressful baptism. But she was still baptized and that's what's important! I'm just going to make sure that everything in our baptisms from now on are super planned way ahead of time.
On Sunday the bishop asked me to do the confirmation, I don't know if he realized that I still don't speak Spanish, but I was grateful for the opportunity! I say that it probably wasn't the most profound blessing ever, but I definitely felt the spirit super strong, especially when I said "receive the Holy Ghost".
I was still stuck inside this whole week so I had a lot of time to study. The most influential and powerful thing that I learned during my studies this week came from Mosiah 3:19
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
I realized that I needed to humble myself before the Lord before I was ever going to get better and be able to get back to work. Not that I ever blamed God for any of this, but I never submitted myself to the conditions that he had given me. I was fighting it, I was praying for him to take it away without ever thinking maybe he wants it this way. I was so caught up in having it the way that I wanted it, and it was easy to get lost in that because I thought it was what the Lord would want. I never paused to really ask what his will was in all of this, I just assumed I knew. After reading this verse everything changed, I truly feel like I experienced a change of heart in that moment.
This whole time that I haven't been able to walk I've been wondering what it was that Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me. It really was right in front of me the whole time, He just wants me to trust in him! I can't do this work on my own, but that's what I've been trying to do. I kept questioning my own abilities though and that brought on a lot of doubts about how capable I would be in serving in Mexico and learning the language. It's true, on my own I am incapable of learning the language, but that's the beauty of the gospel, we don't have to do it on our own! The Lord qualifies who he calls, but we have to put our trust fully in him in order to receive that blessing.
Thank you for all of your prayer and support! I'm excited to be able to start writing home again about my experiences in teaching lessons! Mostly I'm excited to just not be inside anymore! I love you all!
Elder Twede
P.S
Next week we are moving to a bigger house. I don't know how much time I'll have to email... or if I'll even have the chance. But I will try, just don't think that I died or anything if I don't.
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