Mission Blog |
A dangerously acute account of 18 months in Nicaraguan Territory.
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Dearest World: I’m sure you all understand what I’m talking about when I speak of the overwhelming sensation of “awe”. “Awe” is what you feel when you see something you never had imagined or when you discover something new. You feel it when you witness a thing of beauty, something more delicate and wondrous than the rough human hand can make. “Awe” is given to us to remind us of our potential, and thus we feel “awe” when we accomplish something we had never thought we would do. Considering all of the above circumstances, it couldn’t be a surprise that I felt this feeling of “awe” when I climbed a volcano last week.
It was one of the less-touristy volcanoes that we visited (when I say less-touristy, I mean that we had to hire someone to show us the way and the only living things that we ran into were some cows). We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed. For FOUR hours! I just kept singing in my head “pioneer children sang as they walked and walked…” Walking is easy for missionaries, climbing is a whole different story. While our guide literally chopped the way with his machete, we followed, climbing over 21 fallen trees and crawling under eleven partly fallen others. Think not that I exaggerate that which actually happened! This was literally Indiana Jones/Romancing the Stone scenery. Maybe that’s one reason why I was so awed when I finally reached the top. I thought to myself, “I just climbed through a jungle and now… I’m on top of a volcano” Definitely awesome! Another reason for the awe: The View! I literally felt on top of the world! We could see all of the other ten volcanoes in the region, not to mention the ocean and El Salvador and Honduras. It was a vision that only the human spirit could capture, with the jutting volcanoes, the peaceful sea and the howling wind. The name of the volcano is something like Cosiguina. Look it up on the internet if you want some real information about it, but just know that it is quite unique. https://vianica.com/attraction/52/cosiguina-volcano Instead of having bubbling lava, it has a boiling lake. Just to sit on the top and take everything in was an experience I’ll never forget. Physical visions and exertions give us “awe” but I also recognize that the spiritual “awe” we feel really is the Holy Ghost and only He is able to make this emotion come alive within us. This past week we were able to put baptismal dates with quite a few investigators, one of them being Juan Carlos. Twenty-four years old, with a firm job, life is going pretty good for him, in fact, life is much better for him than most people. But he always had a question, Why did the Lord save his life in the terrible accident he had? Then one day, he was sleeping at his friends house and two young ladies come to visit his friend. They invited him to listen to their message and when he did, he felt this feeling. He found his answer to his question. And he had a desire to feel the Holy Ghost, this “awe” in his soul, all the time, and not just when the Hermanas came to visit him so when they invited him to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, of course he said yes. And that, my dear friends, is why everything which creates awe…is of God! Love Hermana Beatty P.S. Shout out to Ben: EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!
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November 2015
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