Hellooo Familia Fors,
I don't know where the time goes and here I am with just a few minutes to write to you. Thanks for your emails! I think my family is just getting more and more jet-setter with every week...Dad's in Paris. Not just that, but the kitchen is going to have granite counter tops! The Fors family is moving up in the world hahaha :).
Ok, so, to explain the subject line. Yes, Elder Bednar came and talked to us. And, yes, he referred to me as "Elder" instead of "Sister" in front of the entire mission. Hahahaha....I won't lie, I'm not embarrassed, rather, I think I'm honored.
Ok, so, the morning with Elder Bednar was SO good. So good. I guess I won't tell you everything, in part because he specifically advised us against writing home every single detail to have our moms publish it on a blog for the whole world to see, but I'll still tell you about it. So, I'm not sure if you all know, but Elder Bednar is huge on doing Q&A sessions when he speaks with people. He does it everywhere, and he did it with us! So, we had two talks of his that we had to read before he came..."Ask in Faith" and "Seek Learning by Faith". So, we had all read those, and for the 1st half of the 3 hrs he was asking us questions...basically just like "What did you learn?" along with follow up questions. He did this all in what he calls "the pattern", which is basically the form of learning by the Spirit as we're in this open discussion. Then the 2nd half of the session we got to ask him questions. He was basically like "Never again will you be in this closed setting where you'll get to ask an apostle of the Lord anything you'd like with this few of people." and he gave us some guidelines and we asked away. So people asked questions like how we could have a more powerful temple experience, how we could apply the Atonement as missionaries, his definition of a "consecrated missionary", how keys work, stuff like that. So, I will say I participated a bit in the 1st half...hence why he called me elder. When I first raised my hand he was like "Elder!" and I laughed and stood up and everyone laughed and he was like "Now, I know the difference! Sister!" So, what an honor. Anyways, it was SUCH a cool experience. He taught us how to teach as he taught us. And all of us received completely different insights, many of which were completely unrelated to what was actually verbally being said. He talked a lot about treating people as agents, rather than objects. It made me think about how I need to learn that Heavenly Father respects our agency and wants us to use it, he trusts us, and we should trust ourselves and others as well. I've been thinking a lot about trust recently, and I realize that on my mission sometimes I feel like I'm quick to not trust people, which is sad. So I'm trying to learn how to get that back. Anyways, such a great experience. Made me so excited for General Conference. And I just know that Elder Bednar is an apostle of the Lord! You can just tell the difference between him and our leaders and the leaders of the world, and the difference that priesthood authority makes.
Ok, besidesss that. Well this week was good. So, we had a great great week last week, adn then this past week kind of started slow. Sister Watkins thinks it's because we became Zoramite-esque and got too prideful, and so then we had to be humbled again...that's a missionary explanation for you :) Anyways, Sister Watkins is really great. One thing about Sister Watkins that I think I've realized, is I'm pretty sure she is one of the most genuinely happy people I've ever met. Being with someone 24/7, you normally see the up's and down's, but she is the type of person that has really made the choice to be happy 24/7, and I'm learning a lot from that example.
So, Paz family is the update. So...they're a family that comes from such humble, humble circumstances, and they've turned out to be this unexpected miracle. Leticia was actually a TTI that I did in my last area...it lasted all of 30 seconds, a miracle street contact in which she just accepted missionaries whole-heartedly. Didn't think much would come from it, but now we're teaching her incredible sons and they're so great. They don't have more than like 2 or 3 shirts each, and they come to church in whatever they have. Their light has been cut from their house for about 2 weeks, and they read their BOM in the dark with a flashlight.
We had a great lesson with them this last week...we went with a member, and Leticia has had an injured foot since February. The member told her she had a boot thing she could borrow, and so the member decided to go get it for her in the middle of the lesson. The member comes back liek 15 minutes later, with not just the boot, but also water, flashlights, juices, shampoos, soaps, everything for this struggling family. They were soo grateful, and us as missionaries were so grateful, because we can't always do that stuff, but members can. And it just showed the love that the member had for them, and they were so receptive to it. The next day, we were going to the VC with them, and we show up before the lesson adn they are all ready to go, so excited. Leticia got all dressed up for it. We had a member take them in his car, which is this like decked out suburban, and the little boys hop in the car and start yelling "We're going to Hollywood! We're going to Hollywood!" sooo precious and heartbreaking at the same time! So, they went to the VC and we did God's Armor and they loved it.
THennnn...on Sunday they came to church! Except Leticia had to work which makes me so sad because her sons are awesome but they're going to need to support to make it (makes me think of 9 yr old Cesar all over again). But the boys came, and guess what...it was the primary program! And they got up and sang with them and they loooooved it! They were sooo happy. And it was so cute, they were there in their like shirts and shorts, surrounded by this sea of white shirts and ties, and they couldn't tell the difference I dont think. So cute (and we'll work on the shirts haha)
Anyways, so that's that. There's much more I'm sure. OH, Jose, our golden investigator, went like 100% different and we're not teaching him any more...I'll tell you the story some time haha. Anyways, that was a poor choice of what note to end on, but I must be off. Ok, love you all! Thanks for your support, be safe and have a great week! Love, Sister Fors
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