Tuesday, November 18, 2014

8 Months in the mission field!!

This week has definitely been a fun one. 

Earlier in the week, we went to look for a less-active member here in the city, the majority of the people live in apartment buildings but there are some that live in little homes that are within an alley kind of thing. Well, we entered one of those and in the second house on our left has this dog. A feisty little thing. It started barking at us as we passed. Usually we can ignore them and they don't do anything but this little pooch only wanted one thing....TO EAT ME! It ran after us after we passed it and tried to bite me but only got my skirt. My companion was able to scare it away but it continued to try to bite us until it's owner called it from the bathroom that was outside and got a hold of it. We continued looking for the less-active member who actually doesn't live there. We were then leaving when the vicious little thing got away from it's owner and began to chase us down again. That was when we full out sprinted out of the isle yelling, "Run! Run!" and ran down the street. Although it was just a little ankle-biter of a dog, I now officially have a "being chased by a dog in the mission" story.

Also this week, Reyna told us that she didn't want us to visit her anymore. We found her while looking for an old investigator and she invited us right into her home and received our message with such enthusiasm and love that we couldn't help but love her. However, due to how her entire family, who is very VERY Catholic btw, has been giving her a very rough time and the fact that she's listening to us cause her daughter's 8th b-day party to turn into an interrogation, she decided that it was better that we just stopped coming. My companion was super sad about it. I just thought, "Well, at least we know where she lives and she now has a Book of Mormon. It just must not be her time." 
Later in the day we were looking for a reference that we had been given earlier that day and we couldn't find the street. I crossed the street and when I looked around for my companion she had gone to ask a woman who was trying to enter her house for help. The woman answered her and when my companion looked back at me, I start mouthing, "Contact her. Contact her!" She shook her head no and crossed the street towards me. "Why didn't you contact her?" I asked, and she said that the woman was very angry and that she didn't want to contact someone who was very angry. I just shook my head and smiled. As we started walking away, the lady walked out of her house again and asked us what was the address we were looking for again. We went back and began to talk to her. We both knew that we now had to contact her because she had been put into our lives twice in 5 minutes now. We talked to her and she invited us into her house...but just for 5 minutes......we stayed an hour. =) Her sister in law is LDS and has shared a little bit of the Gospel with her. She was very interested and listened intently as we talked about the Restoration (Preach My Gospel, chapter 3 for those who want to look it up ;)  ). We couldn't make an appointment because she couldn't give us a day when she's free but we have a lot of hope for this woman. =)

We had another couple invite us into their house after we contacted them when we were searching for the same address and needed to ask for directions. They were very interesting because they work a lot with AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and have a activity every month for the members of the group. We tried to share a little bit of the gospel with them but we couldn't because all they could talk about was their group and invited us at least 10 times to join. We're pretty sure they're convinced that we both have a deep dark problem or addiction to something.  However, we have an appointment with them in two weeks so we'll see how that goes. =) 

On Thursday we had to stay home because we were both sick and Hermana Christensen said that we should "lay low" for the day. So we did our weekly planning and then rested. The night before, my companion captured a big black spider in a water bottle she swore wanted to kill her. We kept it in the bottle until we realized it was going to die. We then decided to set it free. So we left our apartment, still in our pajamas, to set the poor thing free in a bush in front of our apartment building. The neighbor who lived next to the person who owned the bush watched us carefully as she was trying to open her gate. I told her we were setting free a spider that we had captured in our house. She told us to kill it and although it took us a few minutes to decide if we should kill it or let it be, we of course let it be. Well, she was not very happy with us and lectured us very angrily for the next 10 minutes about how rude it was that we were putting spiders in other people's gardens..... and then something about the trash that people would leave in the street. We just stood there in the middle of the street, in our pajamas, with blank stares, thinking only about getting back into the house and away from this crazy lady. We finally got away and back into the house. It was then that the Gas Man came to give us gas for our boiler...so that we can shower. He complained about having to carry the gas tank up our apartment building and then got upset when we didn't know which gas tank was ours that was on top of the roof. We figured it all out and actually ended giving gas to our neighbors who live above us. When we finally got back to the house, we began to laugh. We had successfully completed two acts of kindness, made two people angry, and all of that in less than two hours! Wow, what a day. =)

I love you all so much! thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers! Have a wonderful week!

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