Sister Dustin Phelps- Chile Santiago West Mission
December 2014-July 2016

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Yummy Substance

This week included a lot of really random things. But first things first, we had a really awesome devotional with Elder Bednar, it was a satellite broadcast from Argentina, but it was in spanish so it counts. I learned sooooo much, holy cow, we have some very great and wise leaders. One thing i really like that his wife said was ``be the kind of missionary that your mom thinks you are.`` it was kind of a wake up call, kind of funny, and made me think a lot. Would the K-Kat kristi be pleased with the kind of missionary i am? what would i do if she was on of the 100s of flies on the wall when i was teaching. I hope that one day i will be that kind of missionary that a mother could be proud of. Then i realized that my mom is a very important person, but someone a lot bigger and better is always watching me and participating in every lesson i teach. Am i the kind of person that heavenly father thinks i am?...just some food for thought. We learned a lot about the holy ghost and the way we need to take advantage of him being the teacher. The people will never remember what we say, but they will always remember how they feel and it is because the power of the spirit testifies so strongly to their hearts.
Another lesson i learned this week was while we were contacting ( i think every good story starts about like that). We saw two little boys playing. one thing about Chile is there are LOTS of dogs. You can also do the math and find that this means there are lots of dog presents on the ground as well. Anyways, one of the boys had a stick covered in this yummy substance and was chasing the other with it. The boy finally got tired of running, and went to the other boy and depants him so he couldn't run anymore. I was laughing so hard at the clever tactic and we had to stop and help the little guy up. I learned that sometimes its easier to just stop running and face the trails we have, and things will usually work out in our favor. We also were visiting an investigator and she decided to share her home grown grapes with us. Apparently, the flavor of the grape reflects their master and she asked us if we could taste the sadness in her grapes. What kind of nostalgic wine her grapes would make? it was one of the more awkward things that has happened, but it made me think, what would the taste be of my grapes? i hope they would bring joy and hope to the eater. What kind of flavor will the grapes you are planting have?....Chile has taught me in very strange ways but i am thankful for every lesson.
Sadly, this week, during sacrament meeting, we got news that the recently released bishop had passed away in an automobile accident. As you can imagine, the ward was a little uneasy and there were lots of tears. However, powerful testimonies were shared and i was able to think a lot about Stella`s words and testimony of time in her last email. I am so grateful for every bit of time i've had to learn, to make mistakes, to preach, to be with my family, to learn from my companions, and to come to know better my savior.