TREE OF LIFE

Tree of Life

We decided weeks ago that we wanted to do the Tree of Life activity with the ward, and we finally had the chance to do it.  We chose a tree outside, we decided the path we wanted to mark, we prepared all the materials we needed and when the day arrived?  IT RAINED! I guess this shouldn't really surprise me, but we just watched the sky fall in dismay.  So, what did we do?  We improvised!  We set up everything in the chapel, and our tree of life ended up being the three foot tall plastic tree that we´d bought for Christmas.  

When we finished our preparations we looked at our work, and the others sisters were extremely pleased with themselves.  The only thing I could think was:  This is the single most ugly/terrible/pitiful/etc. tree of life activity I have ever seen in my entire life. 

 I was seriously disappointed, and I dreaded the start of the activity.  But, the time came, the people came, they followed the rope to the tree of life, we had our debate about Lehi's dream, and guess what?  Everyone loved it.  I was seriously shocked.  I had to learn a lesson about how it´s not the details of the activity that are important, it´s the knowledge and spiritual experiences that we have.  I went into the activity with the idea of how I thought it should be, and when that expectation wasn't met, I was super disappointed and was sure that everyone else would be as well.  I was focused more on the physical part than the spiritual part.  It was kind of a Charlie Brown moment because that dang little tree actually became pretty for me when I saw how much the people who had come appreciated it.

Burger King: Part 1, Que isso Raquel?

Once upon a time, last pday to be exact, we decided that we wanted to go to Burger King to eat lunch.  When her turn to order arrived, the poor adolescent who was taking the order asked what name Sister Vuyk wanted to put on it.  She said Vuyk, naturally, and the poor kid didn't understand.  She pointed at her name tag and repeated her name, but even this didn't penetrate the confusion that had descended on the kid.  They were both getting nervous, and Sister Vuyk panicked and said, "Put Raquel!"  

Raquel is not her name, it was just the first name that popped up in her mind and we have been teasing her about this all week.  

Burger King: Part 2, Luis the Baptist

So, after we finished eating, we asked this guy who was eating at the next table over if he had the Uber app and could call one for us.  He stared at us for a moment, looking at our name-tags carefully, and slowly put his food down.  He told us that he didn't have the app, but that he would download it for us if we had a few minutes.  He started asking us about what we do, and invited us to sit with him while the app downloaded and teach him.  We were delighted, and we taught him the third lesson, which is the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He told us that he was Christian, and that he had a lot of doubts about the doctrines he had already studied, and wanted to talk to us more.  The four of us marked for later in the week and took our Uber home.

When Sister Ugarte and I arrived at the lesson with Rafael (a returned missionary who offered to come to the lesson with us), Sister Mareski and Sister Vuyk had already arrived and I could tell that something was up because Sister Mareski was super tense and trying not to show it.  Luis greated us cheerfully and presented a stack of papers that he had prepared that contained what he said was his questions about our doctrine.  Tons of alarm bells went off in my brain, and apparently in Rafael´s as well, because he asked if Luis followed a specific church and Luis informed us all that he´s Baptist.

Let me just clarify here that there are many wonderful people who are baptist that are very kind to us and receive our message gladly, whether they decide to follow what we teach or not.  But, this is not the first experience I've had where someone from this church has doctrinally attacked us, and it´s never a fun experience.

I swear, my heart fell into my stomach.  I already knew how this ´lesson´ was going to go, and it was just as bad as I thought it would be.  The papers he had prepared were random paragraphs from President Joseph F. Smith´s books ´The Doctrines of Salvation´ and he spent the next hour attacking the true, though extremely out of context, doctrine.  It was almost funny, because his interpretations of what he had pulled from the internet were so wildly off base that we couldn't tell if he was being serious a lot of the time.  

He accused of us of promoting suicide, of blasphemy, you name it.  That was naturally upsetting, but that wasn't the frustrating part, the frustrating part was when we tried to clarify his interpretation of our doctrine, he told us we were wrong.

To put a cherry on top, he asked if he could give the closing prayer when we finally managed to close the lesson.  We naturally consented, as Sister Mareski had given the opening prayer.  He thanked God that he had been put in our path so that he could teach us the true way.  I didn´t know if I wanted to laugh or cry, it was seriously one of the most annoying encounters I have ever had with anyone on the mission.  We left him a Book of Mormon and told him that if he wanted to have an idea of the basics of our doctrine he would be able to learn more by reading it, so we´ll see what happens.

Transfers

Yet another transfer has come to a close, but we received the phone call this morning and no one will be leaving tomorrow.  Sister Mareski will continue training Sister Vuyk and I will stay with Sister Ugarte for at least one more transfer.  There are only four full transfers left of my mission, how wild is that?

That's all I've got for this week!  Love you all and I hope you have a good week.

P.S. 

So, a ton of members call President Nelson, `Tio Nelson´ and I think it´s adorable.  I tried drawing him with sharpie, and it turned out okay.  I messed up his eye, so he looks vaguely demonic, but whatever.