Sister Michelle Christine North: Perfect Timing

At the beginning of our week we had one of those days on the mission where every plan that we made, A,B and C, fell through. No one seemed to want to hear our message and on top of that, it was SO HOT outside- casi 100 degrees. I sang that song that goes like this, “the pioneer children sang and they walked and walked and walked and walked…..” to Hermana Reyes all day long, she didn’t think that I was very funny. I tried to be positive and cheery for my compañera, but I couldn’t help to think to myself as we were walking, “Why does God let us make plans that fail?” As missionaries, every day we meet people; we teach them; we schedule another day to come teach them more; we go home and pray for them; we study and plan for them; do practices to teach them; w e go back to teach them and, after all of that, when they aren’t home we are left disappointed. So of course, when every appointment that we made on this day fell through, I could help but think, “Why couldn’t God tell us that this person wasn’t going to be home before we got here so that we could use the time to visit someone else that was going to be home?” And maybe this sounds ridiculous to you guys, but I’m learning and I learned something so important this day.

At the end of the night Hermana Reyes and I had to go visit a family that the elders passed off to us because they both left the sector when we had cambios. The only problem is that they didn’t give us a house number, only the street name. The street that the family lives on is about 6 miles in length. To find that house was going to be an adventure in and of its self. Before going to find the house Hermana and I said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to lead us to the house. After taking the bus, guessing a good place to get off, asking neighbors if they knew of the family, WE FOUND THE HOUSE- all in about 30 minutes. That was an absolute miracle. But when we started talking to the mom, she told us that it was too late (only 9PM) and that we needed to come back another day. In that moment, in my head of course, I thought “WHY, GOD?” We received and answer to our prayers, but forgot to ask that when we found the house, that we could teach them as well. So, on we went to the bus stop. At the bus stop we started to talk to a man named Luis; he told us about his life and we found that, after all of the struggles that he has passed through in his life, he was the most optimistic person. It made me happy to see the faith and trust that a non-member had for God. Talking to him made me think immediately about the Plan of Salvation and since the bus was taking a long time to get to us, I pulled out the folleto [pamphlet] to start teaching him, thinking to myself this was the miracle that we were looking for, but before I could get too excited he told us that he wasn’t interested, he didn’t have time, and that we couldn’t have his reference- in a nice way of course. So by this point you could probably imagine how cheery and positive I was feeling. ;) We got onto the bus and our day was over. We hadn’t taught one lesson nor helped anyone. I felt useless and exhausted. However, I still had faith that there was a reason for everything that had happened in our day. I said a prayer to my Heavenly Father asking him to help me see the bigger picture of what happened in our day. I just knew that that those feelings weren’t what He had planned for me to feel. When I opened my eyes (and it happened just like that) I started talking to some jovenes that were sitting in front of us- the words came out of my mouth before even realizing what I was doing. One of the jovenes said, “They are Mormon missionaries.” And I responded “Yeah, we are!” to my surprise he said, “I’m Mormon too.” He told us that he had been inactive for about a year, him and his entire family, and that he just moved into our sector. He said that he had wanted to come to church; but that he didn’t know where it was (hearing this was Taylor Swift to my ears). We took down his address and phone number and told him that we would pass by the next week. The Lord answered my prayer, and taught me a HUGE lesson- That even though we had a day full of failed plans, on our part, that Heavenly Fathers plans worked. He has a plan for each one of His children and it will be completed in His own way. So I shouldn’t be so disappointed if my plans fail because as long as I am doing my part (being obedient and diligent) then every day will be a success; no matter how many lessons we teach or how many people receive us.

Quick update: We didn't get to see the Vera family this week, but Jexis and Rodolfo are continuing to progress! They are so awesome, my heart melts every time we visit with them.Yesterday was Jexis' birthday (40 years old...there is no way that she is that old) and we celebrated at church and then at the end of the night together.

xoxox, Hermana North

pic 1: Did I mention that we have a grave yard in our sector