March 24, 2014 - Behavioral Health Dept.

I dont know how it is the end of March already! My Spanish has improved immensely this week. It is really exciting.

On March 20th- the first day of spring it was 94 degrees (plus humidity) :/ To quote Sister Chiou, "I know you are thinking how could it get any hotter. Springs not leaving any room for summer. But trust me it will." And Im not even getting tan because we spend all of our time in the car and in houses, and we go out walking when its later. So I roll down the window and stick my face outside when we are at red lights, hopefully some color will come! 

This week was really valuable to me as a missionary. I learned so much, most of it I cant even put into words yet and I am still processing things. Last night Sister Chiou and I were talking about these things we learned and knew the Lord was teaching us these things so we could be better missionaries. I realized that I am so lucky to be learning these things so early on in my mission, but that made me also realize that the Lord expects a lot from me. 

Again another Sunday that none of our investigators came, but we were surrounded by struggling recent converts and less active families we are working with. When we got home from church I had a mix of emotions. Then we got a phone call from Elders in our zone asking if we could go visit one of their investigators in the hospital. Because the hospital was in our area it was easier for us to go. This investigator is married to a member and is in the hospital because he tried to commit suicide mixing alcohol and drugs. 

So later that night we went. We really didnt know what we would say or do. He was in the behavioral health department. We were nervous as we walked there. The BH department was in the back section of the hospital away from everything else. The place is on full lock down. When we were let in we were led into a visitors room, where it was loud and full of people. We told him who we were and he was so excited. He told everyone around him "these are the sisters from my church." He was talking to us and I couldn't really hear or understand him. But we knew we just needed to let him talk. We sang a hymn with him and said a prayer and then left. He told us that we were his miracle. Leaving the hospital last night I felt the spirit so strong.

 I felt so blessed to have taken part in that experience in the smallest way. I gained such a perspective for this work. That it is truly about love. Leaving the 99 to go get the 1. I understood the true feeling of doing this work out of love and charity than for numbers of new investigators and baptisms. And I thought back to sacrament meeting. That I had a small part in getting those less actives to church because I love them but most importantly because the Lord loves them. That is what this work is about, showing people they are loved by someone greater then ourselves, by a heavenly Father. I wish I could explain it more and better, but like I said the words aren't there yet. But I am so thankful for that experience.