So Sister Laiti and I got to experience our first Filipino hospital this week. She had been having some chest pains and a pretty constant cough so we finally asked Sister Martino what we needed to do and she told us to go to the hospital and get an x-ray. So we did. The hospital, although very different from a hospital in America, was actually pretty nice. And most of the nurses could speak English-ish. So it wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. But still scary. Neither of us really likes even the really clean and sterile type of hospitals so... but we survived! And now Sister Laiti has some anti-biotics that should help her with the infection in her lungs. We shall see.
Also we had companion exchanges. Sister Laiti went to a different area with Sister Reyes (who is now at the mission home getting ready to fly home!) and Sister Davidson, from Utah, came over to our area. It was pretty fun to have two white sister missionaries together. Usually there's only one in a companionship, and now I know first-hand why. It was kind of nuts. Filipinos just love white skin. That's a fact. But it was really cool to work with someone for just one day and still be able to feel unified with them through the Holy Spirit. We were teaching our investigator, Maverik, Sister Davidson was explaining the importance of prayer and how important it is to talk to our Father in Heaven. And then she handed it over to me to continue. I felt like we needed to go back to the experience of Joseph Smith and how he had received an answer to his prayer. Later, after our lesson Sister Davidson told me how she really felt like we needed to talk about Joseph Smith but she didn't bring it up because she felt like she was talking to much. And then the next thing that I said was exactly what she was thinking. This really is the Lord's work. All we can do is try to be worthy of the Holy Ghost so that we will be able to know what we need to say and do. I really do feel so humbled that He trusts me to teach His children.
In my person study earlier this week I was reading in Alma and one verse really stuck out to me. verse 38 in chapter 32 it says, "But if ye neglect the tree and take no thought for its nourishment behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out." I don't know if that verse felt especially applicable to me because the weather is starting to warm up over here and the sun sometimes feels scorching...but I know that if we don't take the time to be healthy we will have to take the time to be sick. Like Sister Laiti's lungs. We were working hard and we didn't realize how serious it was. And now she has to take gross medicine. For me, I know that if I don't continue to do the little things like read the Book of Mormon and have real, sincere prayers then I will not be an effective missionary and the Lord will "pluck me up and cast me out." In Jacob 5, the allegory of the Olive tree the Lord of the Vineyard says "Behold the tree" every time I read that I imagine the my Savior saying that about me. Am I doing those little things everyday that are going to help me grow into the tree that He needs me to be? What can I be doing better to help nourish my testimony and those that I am serving? Am I helping others deepen their roots in the gospel? If I stood before my Savior tomorrow would he be proud of the tree of testimony I have nourished? Just a little thought for your week I guess :)
Anyways, I love you!!! Talaga. Love na love ko kayo!!! Ingat po doon.
Sister Larson
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