Haupei!
Hard to believe it’s already June, this year is already flying by. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, time is convoluted on a mission. This week zipped by, while other weeks crawled. I tend to notice the weeks that go by faster are the weeks that I’m really dedicated and pushing my hardest to work and help others, and the other weeks that go by slowly are because I’m lacking in my effort and diligence. This week Elder Reynolds Myers and I thankfully worked to fulfill the description of the former. We have taught all the lessons to our friend Laura, and all that is left to do is her baptismal interview and she can get baptized this week! Only problem that may occur is that she isn’t feeling too well and so she is getting tested for COVID. So keep her in your prayers!
We are also working very hard on our Spanish. I’m fairly confident with my Spanish right now, and I am working hard to help Elder Reynolds Myers get comfortable and confident as well. Over the past few months I’ve been having weird experiences in the sense that I’d be talking to someone and realize, “Holy Cow I’m having a conversation with this person in Spanish” or, “Holy Smokes I can understand every single word this person is saying.” It’s cool being at that level, and I can tell that Elder Reynolds Myers will be at that level too one day if he puts the time and effort into it.
Yesterday while Elder Reynolds Myers and I were walking home at around 6:30, the power went out in all the surrounding area. All the streets were pitch black, and it was really creepy and bizarre, even dangerous as we continued to walk home. Finally after a hurried walk of about 20 minutes we got home and studied and worked online. Eventually the power came on, but this relatively small experience made me think of a talk that Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave called, “Sunday Will Come”. In the talk he speaks of when Jesus the Lord was crucified. It was a dark Friday for his followers, who suddenly were all pushed into darkness and uncertainty after the apparent death of their Master. Certainly we all have moments of darkness similar to this in our own lives.
Elder Wirthlin said,
I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest. But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.
He continues to relate it to our own experiences:
Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.
Although it may seem that we are in darkness in our lives, without the help and influence of our Lord, it’s important to know that he is there. That he loves us and that he wants us to be happy. A power outage isn’t nearly as difficult as the feeling of spiritual and emotional darkness in our lives, but the principle of perseverance until Sunday is the same. I hope you all can remember a time in which the Lord reached you out of the despair of Friday, into the glorious light of a Sunday.
I hope you all have a good week!
Elder Watson
