Fire

 

This week we spent a lot of time fixing the apartment and converting it from the 6-man mess it was to a nice, clean, open 2-man. I've tried so hard to get rid of the smells yet they still prevail.

There's a sweet lake near our apartments with a 2 mile sidewalk that goes all the way around and we started running around it in the mornings. 

We found a few more Indian member legends! First was Aparna. She gave us a culture dump and some background on what the Hinduism beliefs really are. Then we met Tracey and Twinkle. They are super Indian and converted from Sikhism! Their first language is Hindi and that's what they speak at home, so they're mega helpful and important for us. Tracey called us her sons and then hugged us. . .so that was cool.

We took our car to Wheel Works and then sat outside for 4 hours. I destroyed our flashcards and Elder Holladay managed to fall asleep. 

We were invited to a Diwali party up in Dublin (far away from where we live) and that was fun. All the Indians there knew Hindi but had a very “white” culture- so it was really weird. All the food was Indian so that was an epic. We counted dinner as our language study. Elder Holladay and I saw an ancient Indian woman sitting on a couch and thought surely she's Indian Indian and knows Hindi and we went to talk to her and she replied in full-on english! We had more of an Indian accent than she did! 

So- anything can happen and every person is unique I guess. 

Sunday was incredible. We had a friend who had been telling us he was going to come to church and then teach us some Hindi after church and then right before church started we got a text saying that he had a sudden change of plans but still wanted to meet with us. So we left that church and headed to Dublin becuase we had some indian friends potentially showing up there too. Right when we're about 1 ⁄ 2 way through the canyon we got a text from the elders in the first ward saying our Indian friend showed up to church. We thought we had really messed up- turns out it was actually a completely different Indian friend and he's also not an indian! Just a guy we had talked with on the streets! Crazy.

In Dublin a recent Indian convert had brought his cousin to church with him and so we sat with them at the Linger Longer and pulled as much Indian culture and Hindi as we could. Then we had a lesson with Brother Neff and his neighbor and just chatted about Hindi, Temples, The Word of Wisdom, and Indian culture. 

That evening we had a choir practice for “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" which is actually my favorite song. There's a mega interfaith choir thing happening and we got pulled into the choir!

Then, since Sunday was the height of Diwali, we went to the sikh temple and there was hardly room to hold your hands out. Every single place people could be was full. There was no parking anywhere- even the entire neighborhood surrounding the Gurdwara was absolutely full- every conceivable place a car could fit, had 2 cars. So- we didn’t get any food. But we chatted with a few people, read some posters. got a map of Punjab. 1 girl came up to us and started getting kind of heated. She thought we were there to proselytize which makes sense cuz we are missionaries lol. She went off about how many of her people are killed and all the oppression from other religions that Sikhs get every day. Honestly, we were there to learn about sikhism and Diwali and hopefully get a bite of curry. Eventually Elder Holladay got us out of there and we headed straight for our car which was a considerable distance away. 

Monday was San Jose day. We got training from the Social Media Sisters for some new ideas for FaceBook finding indians. We tried to visit a few Indians in the area but just met Spanish people instead. 

Tuesday just didn't exist. Elder Hollday had one of his mega migraine days so he stayed in bed and I tried to be productive and ran out of motivation fire real quick and ended up doing basically nothing.

We had a district council this week and I led a discussion about the Provo City Center temple and how we're all city centers right now, which is a very good thing. Many blessings come from the city center. But God plans on us becoming temples so He's gonna burn us down with life and trials and pains so through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be rebuilt into a beautiful temple. 

I know for me the process of being burnt down and rebuilt was my experience with addiction. Addiction is so harmful and destructive to a person's mind. It degrades the way you see yourself and others as well. It changes how you see God and convinces you He doesn't love you. 

Feeling all of that and so much more for a few years really burnt me down to almost nothing. 

But when I made the choice to talk to bishop and read the Book of Mormon every day and start praying for real- everything changed. 

Turns out, I'm not worthless. I'm worth everything to God.

I also learned I can make my own choices regardless of how I'm feeling and whatever happens around me. 

Most importantly, I learned that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He has power to free you from anything. 

I am for sure not a temple yet but I do know I am on my way. 

I am thankful God loves me enough to burn me down.