Most of All, Love is Giving Everything
By Jeanne-Marie C., as she finishes her mission in El Salvador
One thing that I can say has definitely changed during my time on mission is my definition of love. The friends here have taught me so much of what pure love is, and I have been lucky enough to be so very loved for the 10 months that I have been here. Among all the things I have learned, I think that love is the most essential and important for everyone in whatever situation they may find themselves in.
So, what is love? Love is going out to buy soda and cookies for the volunteers, even though you barely have enough money to buy yourself dinner. Love is spending hours cooking just to introduce a foreigner to a typical dish. Love is dropping everything to go pray the rosary for an elderly couple who is sick. Love is watering the plants at 10:30 pm because you promised you would take care of them. Love is stopping in the street to converse even if you have a million things to do. Love is opening the door despite the fatigue. Love is receiving some money and treating others to lunch as Don Armando did, because “It is important to share the blessing the Lord gives us.” Love is learning to let go when it is the best thing to do, even when it’s hard. Most of all, love is giving everything to others, giving the entirety of oneself so that someone else can be happy. Love is a gift that I have been blessed enough to receive over and over, and one that I have learned to give to others.
I would be lying if I said that these past 10 months have been easy. I’ve often felt homesick and still struggle to adapt to the climate most days. I sometimes found myself asking myself, why me? Why did God choose me to go on mission? Why did he put this desire in my heart? There have been many times that I have felt like the wrong choice, that I should have done things differently. Although I still don’t have a complete answer to this question, I know God put me here for a reason, and, in the end, I wouldn’t change a single thing. I have received so much from my time here and feel so blessed to have been able to experience all that I have. I have never felt so profoundly happy while giving everything to others. It is as if I have given all of myself, and in its place is another person, the person that I have always meant to be, the person that God has shaped over the course of my whole life.