July 30, 2018- 49 weeks down, 28 left
Hey fam!
So I wanted to write all the things that happened to me this week in one big email to you, so that I wouldn’t have to rewrite it 5 times haha.
So you all know the last few weeks have been super rough, no work, haven’t been feeling too great and was pretty sad and stressed. All the investigatores either dropped us, or stopped answering, and I wasn’t in the area for two weeks so that made it hard.
But last week, when i wrote you guys, i was pretty frustrated. I had written Presidente the week before, telling him all about the struggles and lack of people and everything. and last Monday, he wrote me a pretty long response back that surprised me in what it said.
i told him that we had lots of investiagtores that were at the point of baptism, and then they just disappeared and Ii didn’t know what more to do for them.
He told me in his response,
I promise you that if you go and search out those prepared investigatores for a few more days in this week, you will have success and find them.. Do it for a few days, before you go looking for new investigatores. I love you, my wonderful missionary!
That surprised me (and made me happy, cause Presidente NEVER responds to letters and its not easy to get a compliment out of him). but it was a promise from presidente, and me and my comp decided to put it to the test .. a trial of faith for me for sure, because iI felt like it would be a waste of time.
Some of those prepared people were, Gabriel, Pato, Guillermina, Alejandra.
So during the week, we started with Guillermina. passed by her house .. AND SHE WAS THERE. Turns out for 2.5 weeks she was SUPER sick and in Trelew with her son, and her phone had stopped working. She was on the mend from her sickness, and invited us back for a lesson on Friday and Saturday.
We went to the lesson, with a member, and turns out she still wants to learn from us. We taught, and invited her to baptism, and SHE ACCEPTED A FECHA FOR THE 18th of AUGUST!
Sunday morning we passed by her house and she CAME TO CHURCH WITH US!!!!! She loved it. She cried during the sacrament meeting and stayed for all three hours. ITS A MIRACLE.
Gabriel we haven’t been able to contact yet
Pato.. we traveled all the way to Playa to visit them. We stopped by... and he was HOME! We couldn’t enter, because he was alone... but I noted a huge change in him. A lot harder, sadder... it made me sad to see. We shared a scripture with him, but he didn’t want to come to church with us Sunday. Later that night, by some other miracle, i crossed paths with Hermana Barbara, his mom! She told me that they had been fighting recently, and that he has a friend that is anti-mormon that is hurting him a lot... so we are going to see what we can do to help. It was a miracle that finally we got to talk with him, after months.
Alejandra. Before her baptism, she disappeared off the face of the earth. doesn’t answer. Never is home. But we passed by this week.. knocked and knocked and SHE WAS HOME. Couldn’t attend us because she had to leave, but we were able to chat a bit, and she was content to see us. We fixed an hour for a lesson the next day, but at the last second, she couldn’t come. But we finally made contact with her.
And a week ago, me and my comp got down on our knees and begged for a miracle. We wanted to see a miracle this transfer.
And this week we saw it.
We were waiting in the church Wednesday afternoon, and Hermana Sandra was there, we chatted a bit... and out of nowhere she says
Hey i have a nephew that was an investigator. He almost got baptized. but I think he's interested in hearing the message again, wanna teach him?
uhhh yessssssssss
So she passed his number, and Saturday we had a lesson with him in the church... he is SUPER prepared, left drinking, smoking, and is single.... and wants to be baptized. We put a fecha for august 11!!!!!!!!!! A birthday gift for me!!!!!!!! AND HE CAME TO CHURCH WITH US!!!!!!
MIRACLESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I was so happy. Even though a few bad and hard things happened to us all the same, it didn’t matter, because we were so happy that we had prayed with faith for miracles, and followed the promise of presidente, and it all was fulfilled.
Hermana Simons came to Rawson Saturday afternoon to say goodbye to Rawson. She’s going home, and started her mission here. It was hard, because we had to accompany her and couldn’t work as much and i got a bit frustrated haha. But we had a neat...well, hard... experience that will affect me the rest of my mission and far beyond.
Her convert, Brenda Medina, is active in the ward with her husband and two little kids.
They are the poorest family I have ever met. They live in a tiny little house and they love the missionaries, and Hermana Simons, more than anymore in the world. They see us as angels. So they invited us over Sunday night so that they could say goodbye to Hermana Simons.
We came, not expecting food or anything, because they don’t have any.
But they wanted to give us something, so as we sat there and talked,Brenda is looking through her tiny cupboard for something to cook for us. I kid you not when i say this. She had a half bag of rice. a bag of pasta, and a little bit of corn flour. She whips out the bag of pasta, runs and buys a little bit of tomato sauce and a hamburger to cut up, and made us a pasta dinner. at one point she opened her fridge, and there was nothing in it but water.
I didn’t even want to eat the food, I felt so out of place. But we ate it, because they were so happy to be able to give us food and to talk with us and read the scriptures. They have such a hard life, but they are so grateful for the gospel that Hermana simons shared with them that they don’t even notice that they don’t have anything. They only have a little bit of clothes. Nothing else.
It affected me so much. I met Brenda a while ago and have always talked with her, but had never been with her in her house much. I knew they were poor, but I didn’t realize how awful their situation was. And its not unique...theres a lot of people in Rawson like this, including Lucia.
At the end of the dinner, when we had to leave, Hermana Simons and Brenda started crying and crying. It hurt me and made me think a lot about when i said bye to Marrcelo and Laura. As we left, Hermana Simons just broke down and started sobbing. I did too, we went a little ways off and just hugged and cried and cried. (she is from Utah) (my comp is from Argentina.. and was just looking at us, not understanding why we were bawling like idiots in the middle of the street). But i knew exactly what Hermana Simons was thinking. Because she got out between sobs... we are so blessed. This isn’t real life. We got in the taxi and got to the pension, because it was late. We just sat there, crying because I couldn’t believe it. These people are so amazing. But they literally don’t have food, and gave us the last of what they had. They don’t have money. They don’t have anything.
As we talked therein the pension, Hermana Crespo said she didn’t understand why we were so distraught. We explained that its a little unexplainable...that we basically come from another world where its just so different....
Mom it was so crazy. But this is why I came on the mission, to have experiences like this. See what the gospel can do for you when you literally have nothing else.
It’s amazing.
I don’t want to come home, I don’t want to see my big house or my cars or go and buy new clothes and go to school and have everything handed to me, its just not fair.I don’t want to hear my siblings complain that they don’t like the dinner or want a new shirt, because i wont be able to take it... I’m sorry in advance.
It’s a different world that I’ve now been living in for a year.
Our lunch Sunday with Hermana Antinoa was egg and rice.. because theres nothing else to give us. Theres just nothing.No one has money or food. It is amazing.
But I’m happy. i love this mission. I'm proud to be in one of the hardest missions in the world. I love Argentina. I love this gospel. i love to be a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ and spread the glorious news of his gospel to everyone i pass. i love stopping the people in the street to share a Book of Mormon with them-
This is the true church. There is no room for doubt.
i love you all so much. please, be happy together. i miss you all a lot. But i am so happy for the chance i have to be here for a short 18 months to serve these people
love you
amy
--
Mucho amor,
Hermana Holt
Argentina Comodoro Rivadavia Mission
