Written by
Sister Rebekah Avery,
training in the Provo Missionary Training Center in preparation for her
service in the Portugal Lisbon Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Story time: Irmao Cannon struggles. A lot. So I decided to point out
this fact in Portuguese by saying "Ele luta" and when no one except me
and he understood, I translated it to "truggle" instead of "struggle",
and that pretty much summarizes my life at this point in time.
Moral of the Story: Don't point out someone else's flaws, especially if you have the same ones. Amen.
In
all reality, this week has been an amazing one. Sister Van Buskirk and I
have had the privilege of meeting so many new people and help the new
sisters in our building with the difficult adjustment to the Missionary
Training Center. I love all of the sisters SO MUCH. My heart feels like
it could burst from all of the love in it, so it's a good thing I can
serve and bequeath it to others instead.
Wednesday
was a really busy and wonderful day, because we got to teach a NATIVE
Portuguese speaker via Skype, be examples in a workshop for the new
missionaries, and also take part in our Branch's orientation (a Branch
is a group of missionary Districts/Classes, which comprise of multiple
languages and destinations. Our Branch is composed of Portuguese
speakers, Italians, and Romanians). The experience I'd really like to
focus on is when we taught the native Portuguese speaker.
The
woman we taught was named Vanessa and she's a recently returned
missionary, so we didn't need to worry about teaching her any new
information. The topic that we had chosen for our lesson was serving as
Christ served, particularly within your family. As we got to know her, I
felt prompted to speak about my experience having non member friends
and family, and how serving them and loving them has helped to build our
relationship, despite differing religious views. By the time I was done
she was crying, and she explained that she has been really struggling
because she and her mom are the only members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints in her family, and she was just feeling
really alone and unsure of what to do. It was a wonderful moment to be
able to bond with her and remind her that God is mindful of her and her
family. He truly does answer prayers, even through two Americans who
barely speak Portuguese.
I have such a strong
testimony of the love of God for His children. I encourage all of you to
find something in your life that you maybe have a question about or are
struggling with and take it to the Lord. Get down on your knees and ask
for help, then look for an answer with an open heart.
Sometimes
when God doesn't "answer" our prayers, it's because He's allowing us to
try for ourselves. If we always got the answer that we were looking for
on the first try, then we wouldn't ever really learn or grow. It's
amazing to think about all of the times when a still, small, quiet
voice, or a gentle feeling, have been the true guide in my life.
Last
night I randomly felt upset, so I did what I always do: I tried to push
my feelings aside by helping someone else. I went to a room with the
idea of serving a trio of sisters who have been feeling really homesick,
but ultimately was led by one of the people in the room to help another
sister that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I'd been told that
she was struggling with her bank account information, but when I asked
her about it I was guided to go in a completely different direction. We
both ended up having a really deep, powerful, and much needed
conversation about the love of God in our lives and I was able to
comfort her in a rough time.
I truly know that
the timing of the circumstances that led me to help that sweet sister
were not an accident. God was trying to push me out the door and into
her path so that she could receive the help she needed, and I am so
grateful that I was able to be the Lord's hands in her life for that one
moment last night.
Thank you all for you love
and support, and I hope that you know how wonderful you are. You are all
loved children of a King, a Heavenly Father who is anxiously waiting
for you to turn to Him. He's so close, just have the faith to ask and I
promise that as I live and breathe, He will hear and respond.
Tchau! All of my love!
Sister Avery
To the family:
Being an STL is probably my favorite thing right now! I love the sisters that we're serving and the miracles I get to witness. This week I’ve been praying to develop the ability to look at people and know how to help them. It’s not an instantaneous thing, but I’m finding
that the Lord is blessing me with the questions I need to ask in order to learn their needs and build their trust.
I’ve decided if I could have any superpower, it would be that - knowing exactly what people need. But it’s amazing because I know that
it’s a gift of the Spirit that I can develop with work and faith. Yes, it’s hard and won’t come all at once, but the end result will be so
worth it.
I have also come to realize that I didn’t need to be given a blessing with the gift of tongues in order to develop it. Not gonna lie, I was
slightly disappointed when it wasn’t included in my setting apart blessing. Now, I am so glad because it has taught me to trust in and
rely upon the Lord. I think that this is a gift that I’ve had a lot longer than I realized. What with my love for words and knowledge, I
know it must be a gift from the Spirit to be able to for, these thoughts and say what the Spirit needs to be said. Every single time I
have participated in a gospel lesson or discussion, someone has come up to me after and said that they needed to hear what I said. Which is crazy, because half of the time those thoughts are in Portuguese.
My ability to understand this language is phenomenal. I can understand at least 70% of what Irma Miller says, and about 50-60% of what Irmão Cannon says. Yes, I’m not great at speaking yet, but the tutor seems to be really impressed with my pronunciation. Irmão Wilcox, a random teacher who will be subbing for Irma Miller when she visits her family for Christmas, doesn’t say he’s proud or impressed (neither does Irmão Cannon for that matter) but he pushes me and corrects me constantly. I count this as a
blessing, because it’s really helping me to learn, although I have a long ways.
We had a wonderful discussion the other day about trials and how they’re blessings in our lives, regardless of how difficult or
painful. I looked around the room and while my first instinct would have been to get irritated before I got to the MTC, I was just so
happy that I could bear solemn witness of the truth of that statement. Yeah, none of them have had to live apart from a beloved parent for years on end, or bury their brother, grandfathers, aunt, cousin, friends, neighbors, get uprooted and drive across the country, or battle crippling depression, but that doesn’t make their struggles any less than my own and it doesn’t make that principle any less true. I am so grateful for my trials, because they help me to serve and love as the Savior served. I can relate to people that no one can because I have faced trials that no one else has. I’ve gained witness after witness of God’s love for His children, individually, uniquely, and undeniably as I have walked through the shadows and waded in tears.
I know that my Savior lives, and I know that God sent His son to live, serve, suffer, and die for us. The Atonement was out into fresh
perspective for me last night, because I was thinking about how Christ is my brother, and how very very much I love my brothers. Whenever I see them in pain or know that they are struggling it hurts my heart. When I watch movies with similar characters, I’m a mess because all I can think is, “That’s my brother, not my brother, don’t hurt my brother”. So I thought about if it was Jared who atoned for me. Or Jacob. Or Josh. I have no doubt in my mind that they love me enough that they would do anything for me, just as Christ did. The tears flowed down my face as I was overcome with gratitude that my perfect brother, Jesus Christ, did suffer all things for me so that I might be saved and so that He might know me a little better, and love me perfectly. I am also so grateful that none of my brothers do need to go through Gethsemane, because I don’t know how I could watch that. I have no doubt that while Christ was in the garden, I was there. I was overcome with joy, love, gratitude, and concern for my dear brother. I watched with bated breath, wishing I could help, but knowing I could not, and fully trusting in Him to keep His promise. To return and live again.
To be on this mission I have sacrificed the opportunity to walk alongside you physically in your trials, but I know the Lord is with
all of us. I’m so grateful to know Him a little better today than I did yesterday, to understand Him a little more than before, and pray
to continue to trust in Him until the very end.
I love you all so very, very much. To the moon and back. You are in my thoughts and prayers always. I’m so excited to see who I become and who you become as we all continue to rely upon the Lord. He is going to to incredible things through each of us.
Give everyone my love! And Blanca, I’m telling every missionary I meet that is headed to Madrid to find your family. Sorry, not sorry! But I am glad that you’re safe and doing well. Remember that with faith, we can do miracles, for nothing is impossible to the Lord.
Take care, and I’ll write a mass email later! This one is purely for you :) it won’t be until later because I am helping some of our
Italian sisters first, and then a Portuguese sister who is going to be solo. It’s also her birthday, so I’m trying to figure that out.
