Hellooooo hello hello. Wellps, this week was a little bit challenging, but it's all good...I feel like I'm growing every day! Make it stop! So, well our area is officially known as "The Twilight Zone", because weird things go down every single day. Specifically, with our investigator Mari that was supposed to get baptized this past Saturday. Well, it has been an adventureeee hunting her down, because she dropped off the face of the planet and we had to use every means to find her.
So, on Monday, apparently she got kicked out of her apartment, where she's lived for like 7+ years. Her phone was also turned off, and we had to hunt her down through her best friend, who was also like never home and wouldn't return our calls, etc. So, it was like Thursday, and we still had no contact w/ her, and we were figuring by that time that she wasn't getting baptized. But, by a miracle, and by following the Spirit, we finally figured out her new apartment. She had moved into the elders' area, and we got permission to go over there, and we go and find her in her new place. And she proceeded to tell us like the most dramatic thing of our lives. She had gotten kicked out, her bag had gotten robbed, nobody offered to help her, she had to throw out her dogs she's had for over 10 years, etc etc etc. And, she had also found out through the grapevine (which we're hoping is just a rumor), that the reason she got kicked out is because a member of the ward told her landlord a reaallyy bad lie about Mari. So, basically, huge drama, twilight zone, who knows what's going on, and she moved into a new apartment, and moved in there with her druggie ex-boyfriend, who is now no longer an ex. Ahhhh! So, dramadramadrama, and now the elders have to teach her and somehow help her sort through all of it. So sad. So, unfortunately, there was no baptism on Saturday, and the elders' baptism also really sadly fell through. Such a bummer, but all is well.
There were some milagritos this week too, though! One cool thing is that we're working a lot with some good less-active families. The Rios family came to the VC for an FHE with us on Monday night. So, Hna Rios actually has epilepsy, which is one of the reasons they went less-active. But ever since she got a blessing, she went from having seizures every day to like every several months. But, we were there in the VC on Monday night, talking about the temple, and she goes into a seizure right then and there! it was so scary. But it was actually way cool, because we saw how Hno Rios took suuuch good care of her. It just like turned into a mini-medical scene right there, and he helped her through the whole thing. It was very touching, if I do say so myself.
We also had another less-active family show up yesterday to church, and we have an FHE planned with them tonight. I'm learning a lot about less-active work. First off, I feel like so many of them just need to be told that they're not forgotten...all they need is a simple invite to church, and they come! Also, persistence is so important. When you start beating down their door every day, they eventually start thinking that they're worth all the effort, and they decide to start acting for themselves. The Fuentes family, another LA family we're working with, talked about that with us, about how much they needed missionaries that were persistent. So, being the annoying missionary pays off!
What else...other than that, we're still cycling through a ton of investigators. We had a sweet lesson this past week with a family! They're the ones where the dad has already been going to church several times in another ward. His daughter was there, and he basically ended up bearing his testimony to her about how much happier he's been since he started going to church. What's more, the less-active Rios family came with us to the lesson, and did an awesome job. Love it!
Queee mass....oh yes! Last night I had my very first experience of getting sick from the food on the mission. I have been SO blessed in terms of health out here. But yesterday we were fasting all day, so probably pretty dehydrated. Then we got to dinner and I downed like 3 of these [virgin, mind you] pina colada drinks, and we had these huge hamburgers. Afterwards, we all felt so sick. So, we stopped by the Fuentes after our lesson cancelled, and we were standing there by the door talking with him, and I just like got suuperr sick. I go over to the rocks by their door and proceed to throw up all those pina coladas right there. It was no bueno. so that was exciting!
Well, I'm about out of time. I'm still struggling with just like energy and patience and all of the challenges that come every day. But, I know that joy comes from feeling the Spirit, and I'm grateful I can feel it so much while I'm out here. So, I love you all, you are in my prayers! Have fun in Australia! Love, Sister fors
Sonora-Style hot dogs with the elders
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