Week 19: “I know that my Redeemer lives,”

“What comfort this sweet sentence gives.”

MY COMPANION IS AMAZING. WE ARE WORKING SO HARD OUT HERE IN FEDERAL. WE ARE ON FIRE. IT FEELS SOOOOOOO GOOD TO WORK AS HARD AS WE ARE WORKING. I  FEEL LIKE A MISSIONARY YESSSSSSSSS. Change is always hard, but we have something to learn from each of those changes.  Hermana Tinsley has changed my mission for the better. She has taught me so much. She already loves the people here so much and has so much excitement and motivation to work! VAMOS NUEVO COMPAÑERISMO!

Anyways this week I wrote a very long poem that I would like to share with you all, so sorry if there aren’t a ton of details here. But one of my goals for this year (which I will spend all of here in Argentina which is crazy) is to use my talents and hobbies to share my testimony….

An eight-year-old girl
Steps cautiously down
The slippery tile stairs,
Feeling the skirt
Of her new white dress
Fill with water
As she reaches out
And grasps her father’s hand.

Maybe she knew
Whose footsteps she was following.
Maybe she knew that
Her big Brother
Went to the River Jordan
And that He too walked
Into the water
To make the same promise.

A twelve-year-old boy
Adjusts his tie
And fixes his collar
As he follows
The other deacons
To the Sacrament table.
He grasps the handle
Of the bread-filled tray
And passes it to the congregation.

Maybe in the back of his mind
He recalled his mother
Telling him of a thing called
“The Last Supper”
Where a perfect Man
Likewise passed the
Sacrament for the first time.

A nineteen-year-old girl
Slowly opens
A big white envelop,
containing an even bigger calling.
Tears run down her cheeks
As she reads,
“You are hereby
Called to serve…”

Maybe she thought of
The humble Teacher
Whose name she would
Wear in the dirt streets
Of a foreign country
As she preached His gospel.
Maybe she recognized
That His calling was a bit bigger.

A twenty-year-old boy
Knocks on a door
And silently pleads
For someone to answer
Because he has a message
That’s worth more than gold,
And for now all he wants
Is to share it.

Maybe in this moment
He saw His Master
Knock on a door
With no handle
And wait for
Someone to answer
With more longing than
This missionary can imagine.

A young couple
Walks out of the Holy Temple,
Smiling bigger than ever,
Because they, just seconds before,
Made the promise they had been
Preparing to make
For their whole lives.

Maybe they remembered
That their Savior too
Kneeled in a garder far away
To make a different promise.
However as He kneeled,
He suffered,
But perhaps He also smiled
As He looked towards the future
And saw a young couple
Kneel at an altar
And receive the promise of forever.

A new father
Holds up his baby son
After giving him
A name and a blessing.
His wife sits in the congregation,
Thinking that, really,
She has no idea
How to be a mother.

Maybe they both said a small prayer
Closing in the name of
The Innocent son
Who was lifted up on a cross.
Maybe they asked
For the strength to raise this child.
And maybe they heard
The Father’s Only Begotten say,

“Behold I am Jesus Christ…
Suffer the little children
To come unto me.”
Maybe during that prayer
They finally understood
That after all this time
Christ was always there.
He had already felt that
Newly born baptism feeling
And watched as those He loved
Partook of the emblems
Of His rapidly approaching sacrifice.

He knew what it was like
To be called to a work
That seemed too much,
To the point that He pleaded,
“Remove this cup from me!”
He too was rejected,
When all He did was
Offer the greatest gift of all,
An eternity to spend with
YOur family and God.

He also was given names,
Some not so kind,
ANd others filled with praise.
He lived a life
Full of prayers
Even up to the last moment
As He cried to His Father,
“It is finished,
Thy will is done.”

Undoubtedly He remembered
His little brother and sister,
Felt their fears,
And lived their sorrows
As He knelt in Gethsemane
And hung on Calvary.

Maybe today
We will confidently say,
“I know that
My Redeemer lives.”

Maybe one day
We will kneel
At His pierced feet
And bathe them with tears.

Maybe we will hear
Him say,
“Welcome home
Thou good and faithful servant.”

I hope this 2017 we can all grow closer to our Savior! I know that He lives and loves us all. One of my other goals for this year is to follow His example more exactly!
I LOVE YOU ALL. HAPPY 2017

 

Lisi said at Christmas that it is “hotter than the sun” in Argentina right now… that must be why there are so many pictures with ice cream.  This is her district with 2 new missionaries, one Elder and one Hermana.