flying golf balls

Mon, Mar 30, 2009

This week has been crazy. We were given a brand spanking new 2009 Chevy Malibu at the beginning of this transfer. It now sits in the parking lot outside with a plastic garbage bag taped down where the back windshield used to be. The car is also covered with dozens of little dimples. I never knew that hail could cause so much damage, but when they are the size of golf balls it makes a little more sense. Joshua was the one who warned of the upcoming storm so of course we thought we were going to die. He’s so dramatic. Haha. He thought he would have to bring a gun to stake conference to fight off all the mobbers who would try and attack the gathered mormons. He was slightly joking…but still.
Sigh. It has become extremely difficult to know what to write. I have one hour to sum up a week filled with so much stuff that it would take an entire book for me to really compile these events and my feelings into some plane of coherency. I can’t share the most significant stories and concepts that I’ve had to come to terms with because they are sacred moments and reserved only for those involved.
Bonnie and Blanca were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Those women have been through some of the hardest knocks life can inflict and they’ve endured it as gracefully as possible. Blanca is my age and has a cute 3 year old son who is out of control…seriously this kid is the smartest most energetic terror I’ve met and his life revolves around his mother. Blanca also has a two month old baby. We met her a month ago in a parking lot and accepted everything we taught her. She has a hard life. I feel like I’m back in my sociology classes being faced with an unanswerable social dilemma, only the statistics are replaced with three living and breathing souls. She has had the cruelest week and even after she was baptized we felt like the adversary gave her one last humiliating kick in the face to shatter her will. But amid her hardships and anguish she stands as a savior to her children because she has knelt before the Savior in tender humility.
Bonnie’s baptism was one of the most touching experiences I’ve had on the mission. In glowing excitement she entered the font and was baptized by water. It was just incredible the spirit that entered the room during the ordinance. And I just have to say that greeting my investigators/new converts as they exit the font is one of the most precious blessings I’ve been given. Their faces glow, their spirit sings and I thank the heavens for allowing me to play a part in their life.
I am so grateful for the Savior and for this opportunity we have to learn and grow. I’m so glad I’m here…not just on a mission but on this Earth. I want to serve him and give him everything I am and yet I am constrained by my own fear and inadequacies. I’ll pray for more opportunities to grow, but when they come I curse my bitter plight. The lyrics from a favorite song: “Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face, but then beg to be spared because I’m a coward.”
May we soar with the experiences set before us by turning to the Savior. He counts our every tear and sends angels to catch them.