Chapter 38: The End of Monument

 

3/16/2021

Today was a lot of fun! We had an unusual treat for dinner tonight: A child made us our dinner, and it turned out really well! Well, it was actually pretty burnt, but the kid was really cute, so anytime anyone said anything about the burn marks on the food, the rest of the missionaries told them to be quiet and stop being ungrateful because this was the best dinner they were ever going to get. We also had activities at the church tonight, and Elder Gomez and I were very needed. We went around the whole night bouncing from one group to another as leaders asked that we share a quick thought, or participate with their group, or help them get their activities up and running. It was very busy, but one of the most effective nights we’ve had in a long time.

3/17/2021

Today we had a mission meeting and got to talk in our Zones about recent miracles that we’ve witnessed. We then had the opportunity to go do service for Sister Thompson. We cut her bushes back a bit and then pulled a lot of weeds from her garden and cut her grass back as well. We talked to her and decided that we would go over for a funeral service for Anabelle tomorrow. We had a couple of lessons tonight and got to have Ward Correlation with our Ward Mission Leader, so today just had a lot of meetings. The sun has finally started to come out more in Colorado, though, so at least it doesn’t feel like we’re sitting in a dreary office all day.

3/18/2021

Today we had a funeral for Sister Thompson’s dog, Anabelle. We listened to a hymn, went for a walk with Eli, her remaining dog, for a bit, and then we buried Anabelle’s ashes. I presented Sister Thompson with a drawing of Anabelle’s reception into heaven and it made a great impact on her. We then had a lesson about the beasts seen in Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 1 and the vision of John the Divine from Revelations 4 to talk about the Celestialization of animals. This also seemed to bring her a lot of comfort.

3/19/2021

Today we met a man who served in Manaus from 2000-2002. He was so happy to meet Elder Gomez and myself that he brought us Cafe Rio, and we ended up talking for the better part of an hour. We felt bad that we took up so much of his time, but it was a lot of fun to reminisce about all the fun and dangerous things that there were in Manaus. It was also fun to hear how similar our experiences even 20 years apart were. He stated that it was nice but sad that so little had changed. Nice to know that he could always return exactly to the mission that he served, but sad to see that different stories of politics and poverty were playing their course with different puppets who were doing nothing but setting up future generations for more of the same. Brazil has so much potential, and we both hope a lot that one day people will start to want more for themselves and their children.

3/20/2021

Today Elder Gomez and I had a couple of lessons. One of the lessons was really fun because right away afterwards we got to walk to the church (man, I miss walking everywhere, but all our lessons are too spread out now to walk in person, you can only make it from one appointment to another by car). Because we were walking, naturally we ran into a lot of people that we knew. One family was out flying kites, and we told them that we needed them to think about their favorite verses from the Book of Mormon for our lesson with them tomorrow. One girl immediately volunteered her favorite verse, she said it was from the book of Judges, and Elder Gomez and I immediately raised our eyebrows and looked at each other in concern, because we know what the book of Judges contains. Sure enough, the girl recounted that her favorite verses were those describing the murder of a very fat man (Judges 3:12-22). I’m glad that these children remember what’s important from the Bible

3/21/2021

Well, today was a major letdown. We got transfer news and I’m being transferred. Since I only have a few transfers left it’s likely that wherever I’m going is going to be the area that I end my mission in. The area I’m being transferred to is called Cedaredge. I was heartbroken when we found out transfer news, as was our Ward. They have really loved having two sets of missionaries here, and they’re now only going to have one; No one is being sent to replace us. Of the nine months that Monument 2 was open for, I got to be here for seven and a half of them. We had what we realized would be our final lessons for a lot of families, and when we told them they were more sad than we were. We got a lot of nice compliments tonight, and it was really moving to feel everyone’s love for us.

Today for a spiritual thought I want to share a truth that's been very important to me in this past week about the nature of God. One of God's many titles is "Heavenly Father", the father of our spirits. Nature teaches us an incredible lesson about offspring: They always grow up to become like their parents. Seedlings becoming great trees, the puppy becoming a dog, and the baby becoming an adult. We don't just have a physical seed within us waiting to grow, though, we have a spiritual child within each of us as well. Everything in this world grows to be like the parent, and the reason why "Heavenly Father" is our God's greatest title is because that Fatherhood, our sonship and daughtership enable us to become like Him.