March 16, 2015

This week was an interesting one, we basically lost a day of work and didn't feel like we did much, although we had a wonderful finish. We lost two of our investigators for whom we had been planning to put baptismal dates. Although we were sad to watch them choose to not accept the gospel we were blessed with two new investigators that seem really interested...well I guess they all do in the beginning. However, we walked out of both of our lessons feeling that they were a blessing from the Lord. 

  One of them is named Oscar. He's an acquaintance of José Abel and we contacted him while he was talking to José. He accepted an appointment and when he came to the appointment, the Spirit became so strong. We had a wonderful lesson with him as we listened to his story of how he found God and found his way back after walking down a road of drug and alcohol addictions and the love that he had for God after receiving his second chance. He accepted the baptism invitation and asked if he could come to church with us next Sunday. We walked out of that lesson just feeling amazed and excited to begin working with him. His recent convert friend (Jose) is also really excited to see him begin to learn about the gospel.

The other new investigator is Alejandro. He's living with a less-active member and is really open to learning. We hope that his interest will really help him progress and that his girlfriend will be able to encourage him to read and pray. He has so much potential that I really really hope he makes it to the waters of baptism. =) 

Funny thing that happened when one of our investigators dropped us. We went into the lesson knowing that it would either be the first of a lot of good lessons or the very last that we would have with her. She was supposed to pray about Joseph Smith and if he was a prophet. Well, she did and she got an answer that all that we're teaching is true... but didn't want to accept it. We taught a little lesson to her and she agreed with everything that we said but thanks to her fear of being a traitor to her parents she decided that she didn't want to learn more. Okay, well there's not much that we can do about that, so when she told us we bore our testimonies to her that all that we had taught was true and that God had answered her prayers and that he would continue to help her and everything that she did. Then we wanted to close with a prayer (we had to go eat and had other appointments and couldn't spend any more time than was necessary on someone who didn't want to know more) but that was when she went off trying to justify why she didn't want to learn more, having already told us, and we kept saying that it was fine, we understand, we're sad that she doesn't want more but we're going to respect her decision, and so forth. After saying each of these things we tried to finish with a prayer but she wouldn't let us leave. For like an hour! Finally, I took the moment given to bare my testimony and offer to say the prayer. Finally, she let us leave. It was the weirdest thing, because generally when they say that they don't want more we're almost clinging to the door as they try to push us out but this time she was clinging to us saying that we had to go as we tried to get to the door. People are so funny sometimes. =P

This same day we went to a new part of our area and while walking along a lone dirt road we got hit by a wild hail storm. We were soaked in minutes and were being pelted by decent-sized hail. We ran under a little overhang and prayed for the Lord to help us make it to the chapel that wasn't too far away or for someone to find us and help us. The hail calmed down minutes after and we began to make our way to the chapel. On the way a less-active member that had avoided the missionaries before called us into their house and gave us shelter and coats. They then arranged for us to get a ride to our destination which was super nice. The best part is that they made us take their coats with us to keep us warm and gave us the best excuse ever to return and visit them this week. =) 

This week was ward conference and it's pretty cool here because they go ALL OUT for this kind of thing. They buy flowers and make invitations, boutiners, and the whole sha-bang. They take it very seriously and EVERYONE shows up. We had 10 less-active members and their families there and there were so many people that the majority of the classes had to be held outside of the chapel because we didn't all fit in our classrooms. *sigh* If only it were that way every Sunday. ;)

It has also been really interesting working with Hermana Pérez because sometimes I feel like I'm training again but because she's still learning a lot and sometimes I feel like she's training me from all that I've been learning from her. She's really great, even if we butt heads every now and then because of our stubborness or pride. I'm really enjoying my time with her and hope that we can get all the work done that we can in these last couple of weeks that we have. =)

I got the packages you sent, thank you mom! =) José Abel loved his scriptures and the candy that you sent with the bible was shared with my district (because we were in a district meeting), my zone leaders, and some members. The day can always be brightened with a little bit of sugar. =)

I hope you guys have a wonderful week! I love you all and don't forget that the Lord loves you and is always by your side. =)