September 17, 2018- 56 weeks down, 21 to go
Yeah for family scripture study! way to go guys! I’m proud of you all. Lets go!!
Yeah it sure was a crazy few days for me, i feel like i wrote you guys 3 weeks ago, not 5 days
after i wrote you, we had a busy day Wednesday, and a family home evening with the zones of Comodoro and Caleta. It was super fun.
Yes, presidente is a little better now, still sick, had to leave the conference a little early Thursday, poor guy.
Conference was fantastic. i had to translate to English the whole time for an hermana that has 2 weeks in the mission. My poor brain, it was so hard.. after a while I started translating the Spanish into slower Spanish instead of English, because my brain couldn’t think in English for that long! haha... oh boy...
but i learned a lot. We learned a lot about talking with everyone, the importance of talking with at least 17 people each day, wherever we are. Presidente and Hermana Salerno even did practices up in front of everyone to show fun and simple ways to contact with family history, with other ideas... it was a crack up but i learned a lot.
i had been feeling in the last few weeks that all of my responsibilities of being an hermana capacitadora were taking up all my time and we hadn’t been teaching like AT ALL... so i came to the conference with a question in mind... What are my most important responsibilities, and how can i make time for the most important things? Rght off the bat, presidente answered my question. he said to everyone to start off the conference Your Most Important Responsibilitiy as a Missionary is to preach the Gospel of Christ. Wow. Thank you for answering my question basically word for word. Long story short me and my comp made more time for teaching and when we did that, the Lord solved a bunch of other problems and gave us the time necessary to teach and find new investigators! it was a testimony to me that the Lord wants us to teach. He knows we have other things too, but when we put preaching first, He has helped us out with the rest. Amazing.
During lunch presidente said that me and hna borba were looking skinnier... i was like are you joking? but thanks I’m glad hahahah
Friday and Saturday we got to work and a bunch of other stuff happened I’m sure but they days go by so fast and are so filled that i honestly cant remember what happened. Oh, Saturday evening i got a little sick, lots of ab pain and my back hurt... so i got to rest a bit and an elder from the office gave me a blessing. One of the most detailed and beautiful blessings ever. i think blessings in the mission are something special... i felt like the elder wasn’t talking, but literally Heavenly Father was talking to me in such a personal way... and i don’t even know this elder that well!!!!! It was tender.
Sunday was good, i still felt sick, and it was stake conference and i almost slept through the whole things, so many cute babies near me that i just wanted to play with haha it was a struggle....
My comp cooked lunch as i slept a little more. i don’t know why i felt bad.. not sick, just a ton of gut pain and muscle pain. She’s so sweet and helped me a lot. We had to go to a lesson with our new investigator, Julio, so i toughed it out and went. IT was FANTASTIC. We found him in our area book and we have already had 3 lessons with him. He wants to learn SO bad. More than any other person we have taught here in Comodoro. Even though his girlfriend doesn’t really want him to listen, he has come to the chapel this week 2 times to listen, found his Book of Mormon in his house and started reading. SUPER capo. He accepted a baptismal invitation, but we didn’t put the date yet. dang people never getting married here... ugh.
So many tender mercies happened this week, i want to share a few good ones with you guys
We were contacting with a member a few people that we had found in the area book. We weren’t having any success, and we get to this one house and clap a few times. it seems like no ones home, but at the last second this guy comes out. he comes out of the house, and sits down on the sidewalk with us. i was like Lets Gooo this is a sure lesson and new investigator, cause usually they just look out the window and tell us to go away. AND hes got a ring.. the guys married!
Well, he starts talking and asking questions, and we start to teach a little. We barely start talking about the Book of Mormon, the Spirit is strong, and out of the nowhere he cuts us off and starts preaching to us and slamming the Book of Mormon and telling us that our words are wrong (all in a weirdly nice respectful way) and that only the Bible is correct and starts this evangelical like preaching, telling us to accept Jesus in our hearts.... after like 10 minutes (or an eternity) of listening and not being able to get a word in, my comp is getting a little ticked... and butts in and says Hey, can i share something with you? He says ok. And she starts to bear her testimony, and the spirit just floods back in. He listens, then cuts her off and keeps going with his blasphemy.... after a bit we cut off the conversation and left. I was mad. i was so sure after an hour of no one listening, this guy was going to be a new person to teach and to help. But he wasn’t ready to hear us.
So when we left, we said a prayer with my comp, and flagged down a taxi because we were late for our next lesson with Julio. as we got in the taxi, i was feeling a little too grumpy to keep teaching the taxi guy, but we started to talk. Turns out he has heard the missionaries before, and began to ask us heartfelt questions. Then he’s like I’m Immanuel, and i ask if we can take his number and he says yes. Then i felt prompted to give him the Book of Mormon in my hands. So i begin to say Hey, we have a special gift for you that... And he turns around and sees the Book of Mormon and practically yells A BOOK OF MORMON and I’m like uhhh oh crap he’s gonna freak on us... and he says I HAD ONE OF THOSE BUT I LOST IT CAN I HAVE IT. I was SHOCKED: thats never ever happened. I practically yelled yes and threw it at him, we talked a bit more, got his number, and I’m hoping we can have a lesson this week! It was s tender mercy and a miracle. We were from one guy who wanted nothing to do with us, to another that was desperate to hear our message. I’m so grateful that the Lord tries us and put trials in our way, and that he is always willing to help us and bless us when we are diligent and talk with everyone. it was a great experience
Thank you! it is a gift that all my leaders and presidente have all the missionaries truly working on. Personal revelation. There will come a day, very soon, where we will have to rely almost 100 percent on our personal revelation for us and our families. Its essential that we develop this gift to help us remain faithful and diligent until the second coming. Its also a testimony builder, that these things really are true, that God really does answer prayers. Because a lot of the time, like you said, we say prayers and we aren’t specific and we feel like he’s not answering us. It’s not that he doesn’t hear us, its that we aren’t praying in the correct way for him to be able to give us obvious and clear answers and direction!
Love you!
Im proud of you that you are eating so well and doing so good. Make me a plan so that i can get back on the right track when i get home. Iv’e realized that its just almost impossible in the mission to do anything about eating and weight, because we are out of the house and on the road so much there are just no other options.. but when we are in the pension i do the best i can. But i need your help when we get home... but take it easy on me haha! i wanna look good for Maddys wedding!!!!! deal??
