Ni hao!!! :D
I just want to start off by thanking everyone who took the time to write me e-mails this week. I have literally been dying laughing and am staring this e-mail with a HUGE smile on my face. so thank you for making me laugh. :)
& brace yourself for my email.. hahah.
I have had SO many highlights this week. So many crazy things. I'll start off with a not very big highlight... okay.. so I was on exchanges with Sister Lopez (from mexico) and we were waiting at this one place to take these people on a tour and then these two men who we end up finding out were mexican came up to us. and okay, to be completely honest, i felt a little awkward the moment they were walking towards us because I could have sworn I saw the guy look me up and down.. and so anyways they are all like (in spanish of course) "can you show us around here? we want to know how your church started, etc." so even though I was weirded out at first we were like okay thats fine. so we are leading them into one of the building and one of the guys (he's like in his late 40s early 50s) was walking behind me and got super close to me and touched my hair and i was like what the heck?? and just kind of walked faster and tried to let it go because the other guy was asking really good questions & so we are about to go and teach them about the restoration & as we are downstairs we are in the middle of talking about prophets & he just interrupts me while talking & says "whats your name?" and in my head I'm like "are you serious right now" and I just tell him he can call me hermana cuevas and hes like, if I take you out to the street can you tell me your name? and i'm like no... and then he steps closer to me again and is like, what about if you take this off (pointing to my nametag) and I'm like.. no! and so then i step away from him again & i'm at this point officially extremely uncomfortable. So then i write on my planner & show to sis lopez (siento incomoda) so she starts taking over the tour & we hardly even finished at all the restoration & we ended up just giving them pass along cards and told them to go onmormon.org to learn more. They were like " that's it?!" & then we just said yes and left as soon as possible. i was borderline about to call security because honestly i could not even believe that man. You could LITERALLY see how he was treating me & sister lopez at one point like objects. He did NOT care to hear about our message and kept touching our shoulders and trying to almost corner us. i felt so violated! it was so disgusting. I honestly just wanted my dad to be there just to yell at him for being so gross. It was just a testimony builder for me of why modesty is so important. I was already dressed with all looser clothing on and this man still treated me so inappropriately. I've learned that the next time anything semi-close to that happens... I'm going to end the tour right then and there. Disgusting.
One thing i feel it important to note is that I ran into a sister who served here at temple square and went home about 4-5 months ago. It was so nice to see her and even though her and i weren't very close, we just started chatting about life after the mission, etc.. so she was just about to leave when she ran into me and then I asked her "so how are you doing - spiritually..?" & She then starts telling me about how she has stopped going to church bc she works on sundays and she doesnt study her scriptures at all and praying has been really hard for her to do.. she just about starts crying and says that she had talked to so many sisters and she was waiting for someone to ask her about that and no one did. She's like "i'm basically officially less active and I've only been home for about 5 months." :( It tore my hearts to pieces because I know she was such a powerful missionary. Life can just be so hard for people, but I want everyone to always remember how important it is to center your life around the Savior. When situations like that occur, I always wonder how someone can do that after seeing the miracles happen here.. but it happens. much more frequently than we could imagine & i just know the Lord wants to bless us FOREVER... not just for a short part of our life. When we stop following commandments, we give satan so much wiggle room in our life. We need to be strong and face problems in life so strongly with our minds focused on Christ. I know this gospel can change lives, but it has to be implanted in your soul - its NOT just a way of life...
I also learned a ton this week about the Communists in China.. We met this 23 girl who really really wants to be baptized in England (where shes studying) but when she was in high school her teacher made all the students sign up to join the communist party and then they elected the top students to actually be in the party and she was one of them. so now if she gets baptized, the government will take away her pension and benefits for after she is retired and her family will be forced to disown her because they are all part of the party as well. SO SAD! :( She is really trying to debate what she wants to do because so much of her future is at stake.. but I know and we promised her that the Lord does promise blessings to those that keep his commandments. she was such a sweet girl and i just thought it was so interesting to learn all about that! its so sad to me. I feel so close to Asians now.. I'm learning more mandarin now than ever.. and I can even bear a small testimony.. :) Every time i do all the Chinese people clap! hahahah i love my life here.
I had a really sacred experience just yesterday as we took this tour. We were semi-debating whether or not we should take these 4 mandarin speakers around bc we were dead beat and super hungry for dinner.. but MY OH MY were we so eternally grateful we took it. So, its this family from China that we were teaching and only one of them spoke English so, Sean & I were talking most of the time and Sister Tsang was with his family the other part of the time. I can not even remember a time where I have had such a spiritually edifying experience in my time on my mission. Sean had no religious background whatsoever and I was SO touched to be the first person to introduce Sean to Jesus Christ and share with him what he did for us. It's hard for me to even express in words. The mom was asking Sister Tsang "Why would Jesus die for us?" and then the dad answered, looking at Sister Tsang and I and his wife, "Because he wanted to touch our hearts.." <3 Oh my goodness. My heart just about exploded I could hardly even contain it. Their questions were SO sincere and so child-like. I really began to understand what it means to "be as a child" because that family simply lit up once they heard about Christ. Sean is a very intellectual guy and he's like "it just needs to make sense to me... i just feel like there is something missing. I mean, when I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad. I can't just say its simply happens as a human. There has to be something behind that. Where does that come from?" I testified to him and partly to his family about how I know that God is there and that He is behind everything. Those feelings come from the light of Christ that everyone is born with. (which btw reminded me of this Mormon Message) and that he feels something is missing because there IS something missing. I felt so deeply in my heart at deep sense of gratitude for my Savior. I will never forget how my words literally came pouring from my heart in the most simplest way for him to understand. I could feel myself quoting scriptures in my conversation with him & that had not EVER happened to me before. At that moment I KNEW the holy spirit was there. It was so extremely evident and clear that entire lesson and I am so happy to have had that changing experience. It touched my soul ever so deeply, I will not forget it, ever.
We can't take Christ for granted. #becauseofhim Video <--- watch it!!!! I know that my Savior in reality suffered for each and every single one of us. I love him & I know He loves each of you reading this letter. He really does. Please don't forget that!
I love you all and hope I didn't talk your ear off!! :D
So much love,
Sister Corina Selene Cuevas
Quote of the week:
Alcoholic investigator - "You have a beautiful soul Sister Cuervos" hahaha.
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