Buenos Dias Familia Fors!
Well, I know I'm not hanging out in the southern hemisphere right now, but I'm also looking forward to the day when Darron can fly us all down there together. It'll be great. I saw all the pics that Al sent me (including the ones of you guys at the great barrier reef), and I love them...it looks sooo pretty down there. And I looooveddd the picture of Jake on the bike, all the missionaries around me started cracking up when they saw it.
So, you know this week was good, I feel like it was better than the past several weeks I've had. So family, thank you for your prayers, I feel like I can tell when I feel you praying for me. So...gracias. I always never really know where to start...chronologically? Most important? Good to bad? Bad to good? Quien sabe.
So, we'll start with our investigators. Oh, also, I got the oranges and the note from the Lagunas! Muchisimas gracias. They loved staying there, and also informed me that you've already made plans to stay at their house when you come in december? Hahhaa I had to laugh. Best friends forever, already. So, investigators. Oswaldo Sierra! Is PROGRESSING! So, you could say the Sierra family is like the family of investigators/members that I'm closest with here...we're probably at their house almost every day, either teaching Claudia, Oswaldo, or Jovita, or trying to hunt down Nadia to teach. Sometimes we teach them all at once, sometimes individually, it just depends. But Oswaldo has been taking SO much initiative! When I got to the area, he was kinda known to be like totally not interested/cold towards the church. This past week, he came to do a chapel tour with us all by himself! He's starting to be taught by us without his family pushing him. So, we had a lesson with him in the chapel there, talking about the importance of church attendance. Then, a few days later, we went to their house and Jovita and Oswaldo start talking to us about how they're always losing their patience w/ their girls, etc. (Marriage counseling here). But, it was SUCH a good lesson! We taught people, not lessons. So, we read Ether 12:27 with them, and we replaced the word "men" with the word "families", and talked about how God can make their family relationships stronger. And Oswaldo had a total lightbulb moment, he was like "Well, this scripture doesn't just apply to spiritual things, but also to work, to school, to your family, anything, no?" and we were like "YES!" We've been trying to help him to apply the scriptures better. And then, Sunday morning, we call him up before church and I'm like "are you coming??" and he was like "A ver que pasa, quizas, vamos a ver, ladida" and we totally didn't think he was coming, because he always gives us flaky answers like that. And Jovita has to work on Sundays still (but we had a lesson w/ her about that too, and hopefully that'll change this week.) And so then, right after the sacrament, in walks Oswaldo! And he sat there w/ Hno Laguna. And he came by HIMSELF! A milagro. So then, that night, we went to their house. We brought their home teachers, who are the high priest group leader and obispo. So, we were there for a while, and their home teachers just answered all of his questions about tithing, priesthood, everything. I felt like we were just supervising haha. But they were all there (except for Nadia, tsk tsk), and it was really good...it was a big step in his social conversion, I felt like. So he is PROGRESSING! And he will get baptized and will become a strong leader in the church. Mark my words, someday I'll come back to Mesa and see their family get sealed. Somedayyyy! Haha, alright, that's enough.
Our other great investigator is Dulce. Shes the "sister in law" of a family in our ward, she's only 17 and has a baby, and just returned to high school to finish her senior year. But we met her "novio"/"esposo" this past week, Pascual, and he was a lot more friendly than we expected. We set up to do an FHE with them and their relatives in the ward. Then, we arranged in on Sunday night, and they all said they'd go to the visitor's center! Which was a surprise, because for a while Dulce was like afraid to go there. But, last night, they all show up, and it was greattt! Sis Sordes did the tour for us, and we told her before the commitment we wanted to extend, and within like 3 minutes after the Christus, she had gotten Pascual and Dulce to commit to come to our church together this Sunday. So good. Then, we showed them God's Plan, and after the Garcias (the members) were talking to them about their baptisms and all of that. Dulce really wants to have an eternal family, and she recognizes the Spirit so well. At the end of it, I invited them both to prepare to be baptized as a couple, and they said a wishy-washy yes, but I felt like there's still something holding Dulce back. She wants everything the church offers, but she still has some fear of baptism, I feel like. But it was an awesome lesson. Afterwards, Dulce was like "I'm going to have a looong conversation with God, I have a lot of questions he's got to answer for me!" and we enjoyed donuts with them in front of the temple afterwards. So great. I tell you, missionary work is so much easier, so much more natural, and so much more spirit-filled when there is a connection to a member. You don't feel like you're pushing and shoving the people to take the step of baptism, you're merely just showing them the way. That's how it should be, no?
So I'd say those are our shining stars right now, thankful we have them. The Cardenas are a less-active family, and we took them to do the Armor of God at the VC this past week, and they really liked it. Then Saturday night we went to visit them, because hno cardenas has a hot dog stand on the weekends. We met one of his friends, Juan, there, and started talking to him. I felt like it was just a regular street contact that wasn't really leading anywhere, when suddenly I felt like I should bring up the BOM. So, I did, and he proceeds to tell us that he's read part of it, that his brother is a less-active member, and he was rattling off all this stuff about Joseph Smith, the plates, everything. He's like this young 19 yr old guy, and we totally didn't see it coming. We end up sitting there for like 45 minutes with him, and talk to him about everything. These are literally the questions he asked us: "Is the Book of Mormon meant to replace the Bible?" "Do you worship Joseph Smith?" "What is your purpose as missionaries?" hahaha, maybe those seem like really average questions, but first off, the first 2 basically come straight out of the Joseph Smith movie, so we had to laugh. And they just like showed he was really trying to get to the core of what we teach. It was so good! We invited him to be baptized and everything. And then he started asking Hno Cardenas "Well, how do you know this church is true?" So, he got his less-active friend to start bearing his testimony! Unfortunately, he lives outside our area, but the other sisters will take good care of him. He was going to come on Sunday, but then Hno Cardenas didn't come, so it didn't happen :( But I'm still excited to see what comes from it!
So I'm sure there are more highlights, but I can't remember them. Yesterday we had MISSION TOUR! Which was like the best thing in the world last year. This year was different, but still really good. Less like lovey-dovey, more like efficient, practical things we can apply to our areas. Elder Aidukatis of the Seventy came, and he is basically like a tall Portuguese version of Woody from Toy Story. He was so awesome. I think I've said this before, but I just loovee learning from different leaders on my mission, and I've seen sooo much how big of a difference a leader can have in the motivation of missionaries. So, he talked a lot about planning and goal setting, and how that will make us more effective. His brother also talked, who's a former mission president. The main things I got from it are for me to take control of my mission! I think back to times on my mission, specifically Christmas lights, when I could just set a goal, and I had 100% assurance that I would accomplish it, and the Lord always made it happen. I feel like it came because I had such a strong desire to reach the goal, and I've seen that desire dwindle. I get so distracted by other things, specifically little things. Al asked me how I handle the stress/emotions of a mission, and that's been the hardest/weirdest thing, hands down. I feel like weird talking about it almost, because sometimes I feel like there have been moments on my mission when I've had like almost anxiety, almost even like OCD, because of all the random little things that are expected of us. It's been really hard for me to understand why that's been an issue on my mission, and for me to determine whether or not it's something I should really be worried about. I feel like I won't really understand the purposes of it for a long time. But I trust in the fact that it's gotten a lot better, I've progressed a lot and I've already seen how it's helped me to help other people. Anyways, so, from the mission tour, I feel like I just need to take control of my mission...focus on my goals, reach my potential, and the rest will fall into place. I don't want to look back on my mission with regrets, and I feel like there's still so much more good that I can do.
So, my time is just about up. But I love you all very much! Thank you for all of your support, and have fun on all of your crazy adventures! I love you all very muchhh. Oh, I got the baby announcement, but I couldn't read the handwriting asking about who is putting in their papers...Chantal? I couldn't tell. Anyways, random note to end on. I love you all! Sister Fors
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