Tender reflections, miracles, and humbling experiences

 Well it's starting...Luke's "lasts" in the mission.  This week was his last Mission Leadership Council.  In fact President Barlow asked him if he wanted to bear his testimony since it was his last and it caught him off guard so he said he would wait until his last Zone Conference instead.  This is getting real!

Another week of miracles.  One day Luke and his companion were walking down the street and Luke saw a guy and had a prompting to go talk to him.  He ignored the prompting and kept walking.  He thought about that afterward and was a little bummed he didn't follow the prompting.  So then when they saw the guy AGAIN in the street you better believe Luke ran to catch up with him and talk to him.  He told him he felt prompted to talk to him and asked if he had a minute.  Come to find out the guy is an inactive member that was baptized in Formosa about 5 years ago.  He has since moved to Resistencia and is living with his sister.  So they made an appointment to go visit him.  They went and his sister is actually interested too and went to church!!! His name is Brian and his sister is Joanna.  I can't wait to hear how things go with them!

Another girl they started working with this week is named Dianela.  They found her from a member referral.  They had visited this member family and shared the Restoration with them and then asked them if they knew anyone that would want to hear the message.  The 17 year old girl said that she had a friend that had taken the discussions 7 or so years ago but her mom wouldn't let her get baptized back then.  They went to visit and she was interested in listening again.  This time they were sure to ask the mom if it would be ok to teach her and she said that was no problem!  Dianela even went to Manuel's baptism!  I'm excited to hear how she progresses too!

They also found a family they are going to start teaching....funny way they found him is Luke needed to go to the bathroom so bad, so they stopped near this wall and he went right there.  (somethings will never change with him! :) ha ha ha!)  Anyway he realized he hadn't recognized the street and so they decided to try to knock on someone's door.  So they went and found a nice family that wants to meet with them!  Funny thing is they had a little lamb just sitting there on their porch.  AND....a marijuana plant on the porch too!  ha ha ha, interesting stuff - you never know what you are going to see!

Luke is experiencing what it's like to have different Presidents with different styles and focuses.  They decided to change the mission schedule to fit that of the suggested mission schedule.  He realized that President Reber was like a military sergeant and ran a tight ship on their time.  They only got 1.5 hours for meals a day and that included travel time!  So they were only getting about 30 minutes to eat once they had walked to their dinners.   Not much time!  He felt like they were always running to everything!  Now they have 2 hours to eat in the day and that doesn't include travel time.  So on fast Sunday they even had time to take a quick nap!!!  That has never happened before!  He is loving the new schedule and can't believe he went almost 2 years on a military schedule :) ha ha ha!

We asked Luke if he is liking ending his mission as AP and he said he likes it but he really would have liked to train his last transfer.  When they were working on the transfer board President Barlow said "ok we need one more trainer..."  Luke piped up and said "I'll do it!!!!"  President said "You are training...you're training me!"  ha ha ha.  I think it's a great way to end the mission :)

One sad thing, but also had some cool moments....there was an Elder that just got to the mission that went home this week.  He struggled in the MTC and then when he got to the mission he had a rough start when they didn't have power in their apartment for 5 days, etc.  President Barlow had to take his daughter to the airport and so he asked Luke and Elder Suarez is they would stay with this Elder.  They went to the office and were hanging out.  Luke could tell he was very down.  It didn't help being there in the office where everyone was speaking Spanish and he couldn't understand much.  So Luke sat and talked with him and they started bonding over their love of basketball.  Soon the Elder felt comfortable opening up to Luke.  He told him he was having a very hard time but that the time he felt the best was when he was teaching.   So Luke invited him to go to their teaching appointment and he went and seemed to have a good time.  Luke was lifting him up telling him the mission isn't the only place that he could serve and make a difference.  The whole goal in life is to become Christlike and he could go home and have experiences there that would bring him closer to Christ.  Luke felt like it was cool to have such great discussions and hopes he felt a little relieved and will go home with a little less burden.  What a hard thing to deal with.  Missions are hard and these days they seem even harder mentally.  I hope we can all open our arms up and welcome these missionaries home when they come home early!

Toward the end of the call I told Luke that I have loved on his mission when he recognizes the miracles that God has provided.  So many times there are miracles around us and we are too busy to recognize them or we think of them as "coincidences."  Luke said that the best way to develop humility is gratitude.  He shared Moroni 10:3 that talks about how they recognized the miracles that had been performed all the way down till the time of Adam.  

Then I loved when Luke pulled out the letter that I had written when he left.  He was in  awe that so many of the things I talked about have come true.  I talked about how I used to get bugged that he had to find things our for himself.  I wished at times that he would just take my word for things.  But then I really learned to appreciate it about him.  He has a sincere desire to know truth.  But I did warn him that he had a tendency to question authority and he had to be careful to be obedient even at times that he didn't totally understand why.  He felt like he had changed so much in that way.  He realized how important obedience is and now sees the same tendencies in younger missionaries and is able to have patience and understanding of them.  I just LOVE how Heavenly Father teaches and changes lives through missions.  You really go through so much that helps to change and convert in ways no other life experiences could!  The Lord can make more of you when you are willing to take that leap of faith and go and serve a mission!  The mission really makes you vulnerable, you see your weaknesses and go through so much to make changes.  That's what repentance is all about!  

I love my boy and our amazing discussions.  It truly is miraculous!