I Can See Clearly Now...*Almost*
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| Sister Pennock and I at Crystal Caves last week! |
Aloha family a me friends!
I hope you all are having as Bermudaful day as I am as I look out to the crystal blue sparkling water and feel the sweet breeze in my hair and eat my banana ice cream. Nothing beats that now does it? Haha.
On to serious note...
We are constantly on the quest to "know", for things to "make sense", to see things clearly so that we don't have to strain our eyes more and more. We often may feel like the little currant bush asking the gardner "how could you do this to me? I was making such great growth". We often say once I see the blessings from God then I'll believe. But really God teaches us the opposite, once we believe in Him THEN we will see the blessings and feel the joy.
Come jump on a limb with me and lets make an analogy (or try to, bear with me). When one visits an eye doctor, the doctor uses that machine (think of the Justin Timberlake 'Experience' album cover...i think) to figure out the correct prescription. The doctor will continually change the lenses until you can see the letters and numbers clearly on the opposite wall. With each click, the picture gets clearer and clearer until it is crystal and perfect.
Right now...we can't see clearly. The things we do in our lives are like the lenses that help us see clearer and help things to make more sense. With each experience we have (the good and not so glamorous) help us to more clearly see our Savior. If we never had hard times we wouldn't fully appreciate the Savior and His atonement. But because of it all, we truly "become the sons [and daughters] of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure" (Moroni 7:48). If we are to become like our Savior then we need to experience the full realm.
Right now, quite frankly, we can't see clearly and things just do not make sense...but right now we can understand. We can understand why things happen, we can understand a portion of what the Savior must've felt when He suffered in the Garden, and we can understand a portion of the individual love God has for each of His children. And soon, just maybe, with all this experience and understanding will come clarity.
Don't quite have cool experiences this past week that relate to this. But these were the thoughts I had yesterday and today. Other than the small miracles I have witnessed...internal and external. And seeing the people that I have been working with truly progress.
But other than that...I've gotten several "Are you Bermudian?" while we've been out on the buses and streets. Greatest compliments I could ever receive.
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| Crystal Caves |
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| Fantasy Caves. Yes they look very similar but all in all worth it |
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| Found a big spider. Took a picture yup. |
Randoms:
1) One morning we got a message from someone on our Facebook Pages and he told us that he wanted to come to church. That evening at a bus stop, a man on his bike comes over and is like "Sister Ellis and Sister Pennock! I'm Rudolph!". Right place and right time...or small island? Or both haha
2) Members just crack me up. From being at crystal caves last week and running into members who insist on buying lunch and taking pictures of us like we are celebrities. To meeting with our deaf member to teach us ASL and then he starts break dancing on the ground. To going over to a members home for lunch and she decides to prick our fingers to test our blood sugar levels. Gotta love them.
3) Ate a delicious beet burger. Thought I'd just share that cuz why not.
4) Our entire teaching pool consists of people who have English as their 2nd language. Sometimes...I'm like same. English is hard. Haha. But its been good, we've been learning to teach very simply.
5) Little Indian that got baptized in India, Kiran, is back in town and just glowing with the spirit!!
6) Teaching a young mom from the Phillipines. When she can't express herself fully in English, she will often look at me and be like..."how do you say this in English" as if I can speak Tagalog. Haha its actually quite funny.
7) We started teaching a few people from Sri Lanka and we just so happen to have a Book of Mormon in Sinhala. Little miracles for sure.
Me ke aloha,
Sister Ellis
Believe, Love, Do