Sister Herrera's Adventures in Mexico : Lesson learned

Hello all!

It's funny, because whenever I think that I understand something from the Gospel fully I just give it a little time and the Lord will show me that I truly don't know that much. For example, something that I learned a lot about this week was the Christlike attribute of temperance. We had our interviews with our President and I asked him what temperance meant to him. He showed me Mosiah 4:27 which basically says that a man shouldn't run faster than his strength. He later shared some personal advice from Elder Oaks when he came to visit our mission a year ago. ¨ President, your job is hard. It will be impossible to accomplish everything that you need to do throughout the day. So I will tell you what I do, I get on my knees and pray that I can have the spirit to guide me to do the most important things, even if that means things that I didn't expect. ¨ So basically temperance is being diligent but according to the Lord's will. This made sense and I thought I understood it pretty well... but shocker I didn't and the Lord showed me why.

This Sunday was not what we had hoped. Our investigators didn't join us for church and we were pretty disappointed. During church we received a call that one of the older ladies who is less active was in pretty bad condition in a hospital about a half hour away. Thinking that is was possibly her last day here on the earth she specifically asked for the Hermanas to come and visit her. As we looked at our plans we were anxious to get to work and find our investigators in the afternoon. We decided that we would ask for permission, knowing it would probably be a long shot. To our surprise we received permission and this family arranged to pick us up to go to the hospital. Although I was thankful for this opportunity, I still was stressing about our day.

As we entered the hospital room, we saw Hermana Isabelle very weak and sad. It was also hard because she's blind. As we said hello and she felt our hands her eyes filled with tears. She expressed her fear of dying and the failure she felt that her children weren't active in the church. As we listened, we felt impressed to sing "I need thee every hour" and "Come come ye saints" to invite the spirit. Afterwards we spoke and gave counsel which I know was from the Lord because I don't remember anything that my companion or I said. As we said goodbye, I took her hand to introduce myself because we have never met before. She said, "I can't see your face and I don't know much about you but I love you! I needed my saviour and he sent me you."

That's when it hit me! We were literally messengers to give this daughter of God the peace her Heavenly Father wanted her to have. What an honor to be a representative of Christ and to minister to God's children! That's when I truly understood the meaning of temperance. Sometimes we fear man more than God. We care more about opinions of our fellow humans than we do of our Heavenly Father's. I personally was frustrated because we didn't have the ¨success¨ we expected but in return we did something more worthwhile. We did what the Lord wanted us to do that day and what a satisfaction and tender mercy. I felt the pure love Heavenly Father had for his daughter Isabelle and it inspired me to always follow the spirit in my doings because that is when we are truly doing the work of the Lord. My invitation is to do what Elder Oaks does, to go on your knees everyday and ask to have the spirit guide our day. I know that this is important and truly the way we should live our life.

I love you all and have a great week!

Hermana Herrera