I just wanted to write about how much I love missionary work!!!! Oh how I LOVE IT!!!
At my job the past couple of days I have had the opportunity for some great missionary work. One of our newer resident's (Irma) husband comes to see her every day. He misses her, and the change of her being at the nursing home has been hard on him. They moved here with their daughter and son-in-law from California, but he and his wife are originally from Argentina. Anyway. So whenever I work I get to see him. We have become good buddies :) He's a way cute little old man! He's about 72 and his wife is 70, so they've been married a long time. Irma mostly spouts off in Spanish because she's starting to forget her English, so it's nice when he is there so he can help translate for us.
Whenever I take my dinner break I go and sit by them cuz they're usually chillin out in the dining room at a table. Ruben (Irma's husband) absolutely adores me! He says he always looks forward to the times when I work, and he dreads when I have to go off to college because he will really miss me, and the help I give to his wife etc, etc. He says I'm the best! He is such a funny guy.
So, it started yesterday. We got talking religion. Somehow I knew he wasn't LDS and later found out he is Catholic--well kinda cuz he's not active in that religion anymore. But we got talking and I told him about the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever, I explained the purposed of baptism. I told him about patriarchal blessings and the temple. I also explained a little about temple work. He asked questions here and there and I did my very best to answer as correct as possible. (Oh and btw his daughter who lives here is LDS and they've given him a Spanish and English BOM and he tried reading it years ago, but said it was really hard for him to understand and concentrate....) but yeah. We got talking about many different church related things. He seemed interested. And tonight was even more awesome! I brought my regular set of scriptures and also my mini BOM to work with me and I also found some scripture verses before work and on my dinner break we talked more and I had him read some of the scriptures I found. He seems really interested and said he thinks what it says is true. So that's a good start! He promised me he would read the BOM (at least try starting again) and he even took home my little BOM set to borrow until when I work Sunday! (The reason he took mine is because last night he looked for his, but realised he left them in Cali) I am going to start working on marking another BOM for him tonight to get to him by Monday. I'm hoping if I mark and write some things in different places that it'll be easier for him to understand and concentrate.
Whenever I take my dinner break I go and sit by them cuz they're usually chillin out in the dining room at a table. Ruben (Irma's husband) absolutely adores me! He says he always looks forward to the times when I work, and he dreads when I have to go off to college because he will really miss me, and the help I give to his wife etc, etc. He says I'm the best! He is such a funny guy.
So, it started yesterday. We got talking religion. Somehow I knew he wasn't LDS and later found out he is Catholic--well kinda cuz he's not active in that religion anymore. But we got talking and I told him about the plan of salvation and that families can be together forever, I explained the purposed of baptism. I told him about patriarchal blessings and the temple. I also explained a little about temple work. He asked questions here and there and I did my very best to answer as correct as possible. (Oh and btw his daughter who lives here is LDS and they've given him a Spanish and English BOM and he tried reading it years ago, but said it was really hard for him to understand and concentrate....) but yeah. We got talking about many different church related things. He seemed interested. And tonight was even more awesome! I brought my regular set of scriptures and also my mini BOM to work with me and I also found some scripture verses before work and on my dinner break we talked more and I had him read some of the scriptures I found. He seems really interested and said he thinks what it says is true. So that's a good start! He promised me he would read the BOM (at least try starting again) and he even took home my little BOM set to borrow until when I work Sunday! (The reason he took mine is because last night he looked for his, but realised he left them in Cali) I am going to start working on marking another BOM for him tonight to get to him by Monday. I'm hoping if I mark and write some things in different places that it'll be easier for him to understand and concentrate.
I got emotional partway through our conversation.... he said it was all just hard for him lately with his wife being gone and that he couldn't hardly ever eat from being upset. He just was having a hard time understanding WHY all of this was happening to him. I told him about Joseph Smith, and the scripture found in D&C about how all of our challenges are for our good. The Lord has a purpose for everything. Then I got emotional.... I told him maybe, just maybe the reason his wife was like this and in the nursing home, is so he'd get the chance to meet me. Maybe the Lord wanted him to hear the gospel again from me because I could get to him and teach it to him in a way his family hadn't been able to.. Later after we talked he thanked me, and sweetly said "I think you're my angel." Then he gave me a big hug. It was so neat!
Anyway. It was a really neat experience, and I just wanted to share it with ya'll. I'm excited to find out how far he gets in reading when I next see him Sunday, and I am excited to give him another copy with my testimony in it! :) :)
