Lessons from San Miguelito
By: Andrés Marcelo Schleske
One week before Easter break, I was an usher in the Fifty-year Anniversary Gala of my previous school called Irish International School. My original vacation plan was to rest at home for two weeks. Fortunately all that changed due to a question my mother asked a consecrated brother named Cesar: “Is there still space for my son to participate in the Christian missions?” To my luck, the brother replied: “yes”.
My mother asked me if I wanted to go. She didn’t pressure me to go; she knew as much as I, that it was my decision to go or not. I don’t know why, but I felt an urge to go. On a normal day I would have said “no”, but since I had nothing better to do I decided to go.
Finally, after a week, it was time for me to go on missions and experience the opportunity of serving our neighbor. I’ve gone to missions before, but I went with my family, where adults did most of the work. Now that I was going on missions with my friends, I could finally make an effort to lead and serve those in need.
When I arrived at San Miguelito, I realized that this wasn’t going to be anything like the missions I went with my family. When I went with my family, we slept in a modest but comfortable motel where each family had its own bedroom and also had a restaurant area to eat. On the other hand, in San Miguelito, we all slept under the same roof; some on the bedroom’s floor, some in the kitchen and some in the living room. To feed ourselves, we needed to go to different houses of the kind people in need and they would prepare us food in their own way.
I had a lot of experiences during that week that helped me become the person I am today. It is a mistake to think that all my experiences were good, just because I went to missions; because some were bad, but I’m grateful, because if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. The worst memory that I had in missions was when a missionary was mad at me, because I was the one who showered first. I’m aware that this was a bad reason to get mad, but it helped me to reflect about all the people in town who didn’t have the chance to shower every day, and here we were fighting because I decided to shower first. The fact that I reflected about this bad experience, also reminded me of an inspiring sentence that a man called Andrew Solomon said on a TedTalk: “Forging meaning and building identity does not make what was wrong right, it only makes what was wrong precious.” This means that we can never undo our bad actions, but we can rather see them as an opportunity for growth.
I also had a lot of great experiences. One of the best was when I taught adult people about the holy gospel. I had two choices: to play and teach kids about God or to teach the adults about God. I decided to help adults to experience what it was like, and I loved it. It is beautiful, to think that you’re not only expressing your opinion about God, but also teaching new things that some adults didn’t know and could use to live their daily lives happier and closer to God.
Out of all the experiences, I have one experience that I will never forget. It all started when some missionary friends of mine needed help to control some kids and I volunteered. The activity was to make a comic book about how Pontius Pilate allowed the soldiers to crucify Jesus Christ. The comic book the children made was not the best, since it had terrible grammar, but from the way I saw it, it was a piece of art. I know it may sound extremely simple, but the thing is, I don’t know why I loved that moment very much. Maybe it reminded me of my younger self, because according to a study of Oxford University, the feeling of nostalgia improves inspiration, positivity and optimism in someone’s self. I loved that comic book so much that I decided to treasure it.
I had various experiences, but what makes these memories of this specific week so valuable to me, is not the fact that I lived them, but the fact that I almost didn’t. If my mother hadn’t suggested the idea, I wouldn’t have gotten to San Miguelito and I would have stayed instead in my house doing nothing. The greatest lesson that I learned on this trip is that if I have an opportunity to improve, I will take it. I’m grateful for that wonderful trip, because it was a trip that started a spark in my soul to value the opportunity of giving myself to others and learning that when you do, you get so much more in return.
Solomon, A. (2014). How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are. TED. Retrieved on March 21, 2020 from https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_how_the_worst_moments_in_our_lives_make_us_who_we_are/up-next?language=en.
Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Juhl, J., & Cheung, W. Y. (in press). The psychological functions of nostalgia. In F. Grouzet (Ed.), Oxford handbook of psychology of time travel and temporality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University. Retrieved on March 21, 2020 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315785539_The_psychological_functions_of_nostalgia
