July 23, 2012

Buenos Dias Familia,

 

Well I hope you enjoy all those pictures that I finally got to send out :) That might mean that this letter is a little shorter than usual. But hello! Thanks for your emails, I esp loved seeing all the pictures of Eric and Gretch and the girls! It's so weird...Gretta and Eliza seem so much bigger and grown up. But that camping trip looked so fun! And I think that's so cool that Ada still comes out to visit..I hope I can have friendships like that after my mission.

 

Ok sooo this week. Up and down! But actually, really good, especially in terms of the work in our area...we're finding lots of new investigators to fill our full-field time with, and we're seeing the members help us out so much. It's good to have Sister Noble come in, and she helps to switch things up and make things more effective. She also comes from an area where they were all about making anyone they met a new investigator, so we're trying to apply that to this area in the right way. But yeah, we had the best #s for member presents and new investigators in this area since I've been here at least, so it's really good. 

 

What to report...so, Marta is doing really well. Except, yesterday, she totally flat out forgot to come to church! Haha she remembered when it was too late. But she came to the charla fogonera that night, and they asked her to speak at the next one next month! Woohoo! So, she's good. We saw her on Tuesday I think, and she told us about a dream that she had the night before, that was basically like the Savior showing that he was pleased with her. Anyways, there you go with symbolic dreams again. Then, we saw her on Saturday, adn she told us about an experience she had the day before. Hno Pacheco had lost his keys, and she had to go all the way to his work to help him dig thru trash, etc to try to find them. She said she felt like a voice tell her to look under the seat of the car, even though he said he hadn't been in the seat...and lo and behold, there were the keys! So we helped her to recognize that that came from her having the gift of the Holy Ghost! So cool.

 

Speaking of the charla, so it was last night at 7, and now there's a rule that we have to have an investigator to go, even if we've been asked to do a musical #. So we knew we had to do all we could to get someone to come, because often times people bail out. So, the Sierras said they were planning on coming. But Hna Sierra gets home from work at 7:15, so she had to come home, change really quick, then they followed us in our car to the charla. Nadia also came, and she had actually just broken up with her boyfriend, and decided to come (to make her feel better? yes!). Anywho, so we got there at like 7:45, and it ended at 8, and we kinda lost eachother along the way, but they came! Hno Sierra is slowly moving his way forward...we had a lesson w/ him this past week, and he came home to make it for the lesson, adn was all ready to read and everything. So, progress! They will make it!

 

What else...well, I think I told you about how we have a couple that just returned from serving in a temple presidency in Mexico. So, we ate at their place this past week, and we asked them if they had any people we could visit, serve, etc. Typical question, right? And so then he goes "Actually, yes, I do have some names for you." He comes out with 5 index cards, of people's names, phone #s, and when they want an appt with us. He had gone door to door w/ another hermano, inviting people to meet with the missionaries! hahaha! He like set a goal for it and everything, to get 5 referrals in 1 1/2 hours. So funny. So, we'll take it! Such a cool miracle, adn he came out later in the week with us, and was like inviting everyone to listen to our message. Awesome.

 

Que mas...so, we had a lesson this past week with a new investigator, Dora. We said the closing prayer, and after we say amen, we open our eyes and the room is like totally dark. A dust storm had just come right when we were saying the prayer! So, we had to go to our dinner appt, and were running to the car, and the member made us hop in their car, and we had sand in our mouth and hair and everything...it really wasn't that bad. So, we ate dinner during it. Then it started to rain, and we had an appt at that time. It got cancelled, so the member ended up going around with us in the POURING rain, with like rivers on every street. We knocked on one door, and lightning struck like WAYYY close to us. So close, that we didn't even see the line of lightning, we just saw this huge flash, and the noise was instantaneous with it. Crazy! Anywho, so, we're getting all sorts of crazy weather. 

 

What else...well, this past week, for one of our dinners, we had to go pick it up. The member brought it out to us, and it was in a bucket! Like, a garden bucket, with a lid on it, and dirt still around the edges. And our chicken and rice was inside the bucket, so we ate our dinner out of the bucket. 

 

What else...we also finnallly got this guy named Rogelio to go to the VC with us. We always see him in the street, and joke about him going with us, and he finally just up and showered and rode his bike over!

 

Anyways, so....there's way too much that happens each week, each day. It's still hard of course, one thing I've been thinking a lot about this past week is how much PRESSURE there is on the mission. Like, I never anticipated to feel so much pressure on to behave, etc....and it's been interesting, learning how to deal with it. But it's all good, because we still see miracles. I love you lots and lots, I gotta go! Love, Hermana Fors