hey, everyone!
this week was really good, it was a challenge, but I'm liking it!
I'm pretty drained between training & the medias on top of just being a missionary.
I love being told by random irmãs who have never served in a mission tell me how to be a trainer
my week
training
-tuesday said goodbye to Sis de Sousa and I'm still sad about it. my Brazilian slang just decreased 90 percent. we really were so good together.
that night all of the trainers were on the Island, and we had our training on how to be trainers.
-wednesday
we all waited at the mission headquarters for the trainees to arrive and everyone was sleeping, so it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on my dance competition film rewatching. I miss them.
then I picked up my trainee, Sister Kearl! she's from Utah, and so sweet.
I made a joke to my dad before that if I ever trained an American the first thing I would do is take them to the favela.
then I felt too bad
It really is like having a kid because you're seeing everything again for the first time but through their eyes. I feel like I'm watching myself my first week in the field.
poor girl is in such a brutal time in her mission with the language, adjusting all the things. I remember so clearly being there.
we get pizza w chocolate border to help ;)
quick points of first week:
- her first day and first time leaving the house, I accidentally walked us into a bar thinking it was our restaurant
- our recent convert told me I have the same toe as his ex-wife, even better my comp wasn't understanding so I just was looking around to see if anyone else heard what he said
-got Sis Kearl pizza w chocolate & the açaí of course
it's already been really a good experience for me to train, my training was not what I was hoping for, my first trainer really did not want to train me and let me know very clearly, but I feel like now I get a chance to give it to someone else.
I feel like I have a good purpose with being with her. she's great! she's so sweet and a really hard worker.
this week is Easter and Holy Week. leading up to this week, I was already feeling just the reverence and weight of Easter.
these last couple days and today have been a little rough. truly, rejection has never bothered me on my mission until this week. I think it's because I'm the main and at times only speaker, so it feels like they're rejecting Sister Copeland.
I had some really spiritual lessons where I felt like I was literally begging them to accept and was pouring out all of myself. to the point where I and them were both in tears.
and then they reject it
it's hard for me to understand
but today, Addi, the sweetest best friend without knowing anything about my week, sent me an email with this in it;
it's worth the read
"I think it’s interesting how easy it is for us to forget that in this world (especially if we’re following Jesus) we will not be understood. We should not be received well. And wow that’s hard for me as a recovering people pleaser hahah. But if the things of this world are satisfying us then we probably aren’t making a difference for the kingdom of God. Jesus was spit on, mocked, and killed. His death and sacrifice is to be held in the upmost reverence and remembrance because it is why we were saved and his resurrection is proof of the faith we have. I was reminded of how in the Old Testament, when the Israelites would commit sins, in order to come to God, they would have to have a priest intercede by sacrificing a perfect lamb in order to pay the penalty for their sin.
Jesus took the place as the perfect lamb (sacrifice) so we can have the freedom to come to God whenever we want, in prayer and worship no longer needing a go between. When he died, the curtain in the temple literally tore in two (Mark 15: 37-38), representing that no longer do we have separation in relationship with God. Like wow how beautiful is scripture tying everything and every seemingly “old tradition” together for a greater purpose and reason.
“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
John 15:18-19 NLT"
I love her and this so much
there's not much to add, but I'll bear a little of my testimony.
being set apart as a missionary is the furthest from the things of the world as I've ever been.
obviously, I wasn't going door to door when I was at home, but on my mission, I've experienced more rejection than I ever have. or also as it said above, not received well.
this week I'm reminded I was not the first to not be received well. to be rejected, discouraged all the things.
the path is straight and narrow, and also uphill. but it's already been paved, by Him
& I love him so much
& I know he lives
sister Copeland
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