Dec. 9, 2013

Hello, Family!

Transfers can be so nice, but hard. Bittersweet. 'Nah mean? Friends come and friends go. That's life. It's a hard knock life, says my lifelong friend, Shawn Corey Carter, aka JayZ. He knows what's up. He always knows what's up. 

We have an investigator who is a little nut. Her name is E, she's 13, and she says the strangest things at the weirdest time. I'm always telling her to focus, haha. Yesterday we were picking out hymns to sing, and I was like, "Oh, I don't know that hymn." She told me "Ah, man, me neither. What was I thinking? I can't sing today. I don't know how to sing or dance on Sundays, it's really weird." Then I later on asked her what she is going to do on Christmas..."I don't know, but you're coming over and going to straighten my hair, and I am going to look Mamichoola." Then she started dancing and I had to tell her to focus :) She's crazy.

We're working with a bunch of less-actives. Everyone is less active, it's greeeeat. I jokingly told Wilbur, "Look, if I hear that you went inactive...I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill you." I don't worry about him. He and I are always talkin' deep doctrine and reading talks and stuff. He's the most dedicated person I've ever met, and extremely king. Hna Bush and I are having dinner at his house on Christmas. He told me, "Hna Buhrley. You are my family. Your real family might be far away, but you have family here." A guy in the ward and I got Wilbur to the temple, by the way. The way he likes describing his experience and how happy he was brought tears to my eyes. I was so happy for him....and I was also jealous of him that he is able to go and I can't. haha. 

Last night, to cap off my week, I started with a shower because it had been a dang-hot-one. After tearing my flip-flop in the shower because it somehow got sucked on the bottom, I found myself sitting at the head of my head, staring at the wall, singing God Bless America as loud as I could. After, as I laid down in bed, with what little dignity I seemly still had, I proceeded to wave my back scratcher in the air, all the while proudly and loudly playing patriotic songs on the red, white, and blue kazoo I got in the mail this week. We´ve learned two lessons here kids: 1) You´ll never truly appreciate the US of A with your heart, mind ,and body without living in another country. 2) Missions do weird things to your personal definition of ¨dignity¨.

On a more typical missionary note; this week was difficult with a side of fun and interesting. I got complimented on how well my Spanish is. I also got complimented on my eyes. Double positive. Nice. 

I testify sincerely that we all live our lives with less love than we could have. It´s very easy to realize what more we always need to be doing better, and to let that get us down. The truth is that we always do need to be trying to do better, but our best is all that is asked. Sometimes the circumstances of life are compromising. But we can´t despair, rather, as children of the Most High we have the obligation to do all we can to turn our circumstances into blessings. We have the responsibility to not focus on the negative, because if we truly are ¨Children of Light¨, and if we do understand that, our job is then to help others realize it too. Divinity never degrades. Even at our worst, Christ would only lift us up. I hope we can all invite more love into our lives, and the way we can do that is through divine truth. Let us do what is right and let the consequence follow. Do what you should, obey the commandments, pray with all your sincerity and heart, and let the love of your Savior and Creator enter in.

Also. I also thought of something this week that my other dear friend, Phil Collins, said years ago, "In learning you will teach. And in teaching you will learn." It's so true. What you share, you keep, and in doing so, you will learn. 

Have a good week, y'all.

Hermana Buhrley