June 23, 2014

So I learned a great lesson today as I was trying to think of what I was going to write to everyone today. The lesson is...write in your journal every day. It's important because I can hardly remember what happened this week. However, I'm going to do my best.

This last week we had one of those lessons when you just teach and say everything that the Spirit tells you to teach and say, and you walk out of the lesson going, "Wow, did that just happen?" The lesson was with two of our investigators Jordy and Angeles. They're boyfriend and girlfriend, and have a little girl name Romina, who actually just turned 1, and they have lots of problems. Especially Jordy, he's likes everything that we're asked not to do regarding the Word of Wisdom. We had originally gone to their house to teach Angeles and had planned on teaching them about baptism but when Jordy got home , the Spirit guided us into a lesson about the Word of Wisdom. (Looking back, we actually taught about the Word of Wisdom more than anything else this week) He really wasn't all that interested in changing and was acting like "whatever comes, comes and someone could do bad things, work hard for his family, and does not have to change" attitude until my companion said something really profound that caused his whole demeanor to change. I can't tell you exactly what it was but it really hit home in the manner of, "The next time you're faced with temptation, with your favorite sin, think to yourself, 'Is my life worth giving into this temptation? If I had to choose, would I choose my family, my daughter, or this thing that's bad and I know it is bad?'" I'm reminded of the quote, "Don't give up your eternal happiness for a moment of pleasure."

This week, my companion and I were looking at our money supply and trying to figure out how we were going to pay for everything we had to do, for all of the transportation to our meetings and my companion's doctor appointments, the food we needed to buy on Monday, and really just how we were going to stretch everything until the end of the month, at that point it was two weeks. We were both really concerned and unsure how we were going to do it. We prayed and prayed both personally and together that we would have enough money to make it until the end of the month. I was also praying that my reimbursements had gone through because there was no way we were going to make it without that.And things kept coming up that made us become even more concerned. Then, on Saturday, we checked my card and my reimbursements went through! Not only that but members offered us rides to our Stake Conference we had, and I found 100 pesos in my wallet that I swear I had used. Money kept appearing and we now have more than we need to make sure we get to the end of the month. Oh how the Lord loves His missionaries.

I met another American this week, well he's Mexican but he lived in America for a long time. Yesterday, we were heading home because my companion was getting really sick and as we were walking down the street, we passed two people, a young man and an older woman. The Spirit whispered, "Contact them. Contact them." I don't know if I would have let the moment pass but as we passed them the man said, "Hey girl!" My first thought was 'Oh no, he's going to hit on me. I don't know if I can take another man hitting on me today.' I said hello in Spanish and he asked, "Do you speak English?" I said that I did and asked if he did also. I know it's kinda obvious that he did but you never know how well people can speak English cause everyone tries to speak it when they see an American. As it turned out, he was from Long Beach, California. He had a wife and two kids back there but couldn't get back because he didn't have his papers. His mother had lived there with him and she was the older woman with him. He asked, "Are you Mormon?" With surprise I said that I was and introduced myself as a missionary of our Church. He said, "Oh, I felt so blessed to have had the Mormons at my house in California." His mother told us that they really liked the Mormons and that her son had even been to church with them a couple of times. We ended up talking to them more and swapped numbers because they were still new to the area and didn't know their address yet. I really hope we're going to end up teaching them. You could just feel how much they need the Gospel.

It positively amazes me how the Lord puts us in the path of others when we least expect i!

Also, this week we had La Comida (food) with one of my favorite families, the family of Mary Carmen. She was kind of my first mom when I got out here. (Now, for everyone who doesn't know, right now is the World Cup and everyone is watching it. This morning we were walking to the Frutaria and every house we passed you could hear the announcers for the World Cup.) The day we were over for lunch, Mexico was playing and so nothing was going to happen until after the game. After calming Dana down because I had given her and Siyun each a CTR ring and Dana had lost her's at school that day, I played with Siyun and Dana while the rest watched the game. Siyun is Mary Carmen's daughter and Dana is her cousin. First we played "Roca, papel, tijerras" (Rock, paper, scissors) in a very creative way and another game where they would chant something and after saying something about the face of their Uncle Julio we would all have to freeze. The first person to move..lost. 

After a while they got bored with the games and decided to become missionaries. They borrowed my name tag, my companion's, and our backpacks and headed out the door. Considering they had just stolen our identities, we followed them. They walked down the street, around the corner, and knocked on someones gate. From the end of the street where we were we could hear them saying, "Hi, we're missionaries." I looked at my companion and upon seeing her concerned look, I started busted up laughing. Naturally, I made sure to take some pictures of our "Misionaras chiquitas".

 Funny side note, Mexico is playing right now in the World Cup and just made two goals in less than 5 minutes, everyone in the Internet Cafe was going CRAZY! With the exception of my companion and I, of course. =)

 I also have been making sure to give out the stickers and taking pictures of those that I've been giving them to, first there's Pamela, the daughter of one of our member

families, she was really camera shy and I could hardly get a photo of her. =) The other is Soy, she's the daughter of one of our part member families that we found while contacting in the street. She loved the camera...and the stickers...A LOT. =)


 

The young man is Joseph. He's one of our less actives that we're been working with a lot. We gave him a CTR ring to help him remember the decision he's made to turn his life around and, because he's learning English, we gave him a Book of Mormon in English with the promise that if he reads the whole thing out loud, when he finishes he'll be able to understand and speak it. It's actually a really cool promise that my companion and I have been putting to the test in our respective languages. Let me tell ya, I am never more prepared and better able to speak to others in Spanish than when I've read the Book of Mormon in my language studies.

I have my first Zone Conference this week on Thursday. I'm super excited! I'll make sure to tell you all about it next week. =)