August 23, 2013 - Nurse!

Hola a todos ustedes!

Cheke pues. Ésta semana ha sido una semana de bastantes cambios. 

There are two bits of news you´ll probably want to be privy to. To tell you the truth, I knew about both of these last week, I just couldn´t announce them because they hadn´t happened yet, but my mission president wanted to make sure I was ok with it before he heaped my plate with too much stuff. 

1. I am officially the nurse of the SPS Honduras West mission. Cheers. That means I help anyone who has any ailment in the mission. I take a lot of phone calls, prescribe a lot of medicine and treatments, and go to quite a few doctors´ visits. I´ve only been nurse 4 days now, but my phone has been ringing off the hook.(Eileen will be interested to hear that our connection here in the mission has been one of my primary callers... there were broken bones involved.) Sadly, as nurse I lose a little bit of prosyliting time and have to carry a cell phone, but I can take care of most of the nursing business in non-pros hours and I´m really careful about keeping the cell phone hidden, so it shouldn´t be that much more dangerous. 

2. I´m training. I was technically supposed to train back in the days of Pres. Veirs, but several things happened in the lives of other people that prevented that possibility, and then I was being trained to be nurse, so here we are. haha. President asked me if I could train as nurse and I told him yes, but it would be better if she was a Latina because we lose a lot of language study time to nursing. Anyway, I´m training Hermana Cardona from Guatemala, who has officially been a missionary for 2 and a half weeks. Jajaja. It´s so different. I forgot that not everyone knows everything there is to know about missionary work. For example, not everyone can just go teach any lesson off the cuff without extensive preparation. I forgot what a blessing it is to have all the lessons down pat. 

Anyway, those are the two biggest changes in my life. Other than that, today Rolando is getting baptized! And next Saturday, Ricardo is getting baptized! (finally). He´s technically a baptism for the elders since we had to turn him over to them a week or two ago because he fell in like with my companion, but seeing as we´re the ones who found, taught, and converted him, I´m counting it as sister power. But really I´m just so happy for him. He´s known the truth for so long, he´s just been putting it off and putting it off, but his time has finally come. :)

 

Everyone expects me to tell them that a baptism or a confirmation is my favorite mission moment, but for me, the most special moments are when everything is quiet and still and you just look at your investigators (or menos activos) and for a split second, the eternities flash before your eyes and you see them as God sees them, with all the love and tenderness of Father of all. My favorite moment is Marina looking at me and smiling, Yahir peeking through his eyelashes in the middle of the prayer, Norma and Jeysi laughing on the banks of the river behind their house, Ricardo biting his tongue to hold back a laugh as he smiles behind my companion´s back, Ramón doubling over in silent laughter, Concepcion looking at her grandson with an eternity of love in her eyes, Maria hugging us then hanging on as she looks into our faces, Rolando looking into the baptismal font as he suddenly comes to realize the importance of what we preach, Edil looking up from the scriptures open-mouthed after receiving the answer he´s been searching for for years, Edy stretching back quietly in the hammock as he feels the overwhelming power of the spirit for the first time, crazy-old-abuelita Ana taking my hand and leading me down the hallway of the church as she tells me in what her deaf ears thinks is a whisper how special I am to her, the look on my companion´s face when we´ve just walked away from an extremely powerful lesson. The mission is a mixture of a thousand moments that mean nothing to los demás, but will forever be burned into my memory. I´m convinced that the mission is not here to show non-members the truth; rather, the mission is my chance to see and love people as God loves them. I can´t imagine ever leaving these people, and then I get changed into a different area and all I can take is that moment in my memory. I don´t even know these people and they´re already my family. I love these people. So. Much. 

 

Hey all of you. I love you. I hope you all know I´m not writing those words like a high school bubble-gum-chomper writes them. I´m writing those words like that person who catches you off guard, looks you full in the face and tells you how it is. I really love you all. Really really. If you know nothing else about me or about my mission or about my life, know this:that I love you and I love the Lord, and that kind of love lasts for more than forever. Take care of yourselves and I´ll see y´all on the flip side.

 

Hna Pilas (así me llamen, jaja).