This week we were able to see some small progress with our investigators. I’ve never had an area like this one where we just go through so many investigators each week. It seems like a never-ending cycle of finding, teaching, and then dropping people, due to the fact that they can’t complete simple commitments like prayer, reading, or coming to church. It’s been a huge struggle lately, but we’ve got to just keep working and sifting through all the sand and dirt to find those precious pieces of gold. We’ve just got to be patient.
On Tuesday I was asked to teach an English course to a group of members and other people in the stake center. Here in this area the church is implementing a program called English Connect to help anyone here in the stake, members or nonmembers, learn English. It’s really a good idea by the Church to offer these classes considering how valuable it is to know English here in South America. It can really help anyone here in their careers and in other aspects of their lives. It was pretty fun to see some of these people learn and practice English, even though some of them really struggled, haha. It totally reminded me of my days in the CCM (MTC) when I couldn’t speak a lick of Spanish and swore I would NEVER learn the language. Now sometimes I feel as if I can express myself better in my second language, lol. Learning another language is definitely a challenge, but with practice and time it’s not impossible.
Another highlight of this week was our family home evening with Genesis’ family. I showed them how to make one of my favorite foods of all time: french toast. They thought it was absolutely bizarre that I put the bread in egg and cinnamon before toasting it, but they thought it was pretty tasty. While cooking for them I thought to myself that I was an American cooking french toast while in Peru. How’s that for globalization?
Lately I’ve really been trying to develop the Christlike attribute of patience. It’s really been an attribute that I’ve been working on my whole mission. I’m naturally an impatient person that needs things when I want them, and I don’t like to wait. Being on a mission really puts one’s patience to the test. There are so many things that happen that are just completely out of your control, and you really have to learn to wait. You can’t alone do a certain number of things in order to convert someone to the gospel. In fact, we are not even the ones who convert. It is the Holy Ghost. All we do is prepare ourselves to deliver the message in a way that is understandable, and in a way that one can feel the spirit and testify that it is true. After that, all we can do is have faith, hope, and patience that the people will accept the message.
As President Monson put it: “Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.”
Let us be more patient!
And don’t forget to #LightTheWorld!
Avanza Su Verdad!
Elder Bailey
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