December 4, 2012

Hello Familia Fors,
This week had it's up's and down's, but it ended last night on a really good note, which I will tell you about.

One thing about this week is that I got SICK! Que es esto? I was pretty bummed out because I just wanted to go all out, and then I found myself cooped up in bed. It's all good, one sister got chicken pox 2 weeks before she went home, so I can't complain. But yeah, from like Thursday to Sunday I was sick, with a cold that wasn't super bad but for some reason made my body like shut down completely and I felt muerta. The worst part about it is that your mind wanders like crazy when you're sick, and that's the last thing you want right before you go home!

But, luckily, after feeling way dead Sunday morning, I suddenly felt better around 10 am, and I've been doing really well since then. So that is good.

Christmas lights are doing well! It's cool to see all the prepared people that come into the lights. It's been also cool because our area is the one right around the temple, and so we get to see a lot of the benefits...we receive a lot of referrals already from it. I've had the opportunity to talk to a few people in the VC who accepted missionaries and were actually in our area, so we get to teach them!

I had a cool experience yesterday at the VC. There was an LDS hispanic family visiting that I showed the Christus to, and then afterwards they wanted to watch God's Plan. They started watching it (in Spanish), and these 3 LDS people from Palmyra, NY joined in. As we were about to enter into the next room, I told them that they could wait to watch it in English, and they said they wanted to watch it in Spanish (I don't know if they understood or not..I don't think so). But afterwards everyone was crying and definitely touched by the Spirit. and When we walked out of the presentation, the American lady just embraced the older Hispanic lady and they just started crying in eachother's arms! It was so cool, they couldn't communicate with eachother but it was these 2 mothers just expressing their love for the gospel and for eachother. Way cool.

Lots of other VC miracles. It's cool to see people that come in and bring their friends...some members bring their friends in that are so prepared, btu then they don't want to have them really talking to missionaries. But others are right there, really encouraging their friends to meet with us. It's cool seeing how quickly people open up about the questions they have about why there are so many different churches, what they want for their families, etc.

Ok..as for the milagros this week. Well, we'll go investigator by investigator. Eric is doing okay...he didn't come to church, and we talked with him afterwards and he says he loves the Book of Mormon and believes what it says, but just looks at the church and some of the things we believe/practice and doesn't always think it fits in with his belief system...he's very much into the nondenominational Christianity...so, we're going to see what happens there.

The Zazuetta's are doing okay, we taught them L1 officially this past week, and the mom is really taking initiative to learn. She takes notes on the things we say and encourages her whole family to get involved. But she seems to have doubts about Joseph Smith. We're not sure they'll be ready for the 15th, they might just do the wedding that day. We will see.

Ok...so, Ana and Isaac. Well, Ana we're a little worried about...she seems like she has some doubts that we haven't yet uncovered. But they're both doing great at reading the Book of Mormon...Ana's in 1 Nephi 8, Isaac read all the way to 1 Nephi 10 in just the past 2 days. Isaac is SO great...so he's the 16 yr old who has a ton of LDS friends. He almost got baptized when he was 10, but his parents (who are in Mexico) didn't let it happen. He seems like he is LDS, part of that group, he's in AP classes, in the orchestra (and fiddling club...hahaha!), he's great. We had a lesson w/ him in the VC last week, and he prayed at the end and in his prayer he said "Thank you for Sister Schwartz and Sister Fors, [pause..chuckle}..They're really cool." aahhhhahaha we just about died we were SO happy. I couldn't contain my smile. Anyways, so he came to sacrament on Sunday all by himself. He's in a quince that has practices on Sunday mornings and he's been talking with them so that they schedule them so he can come to church! He's already making it a priority.

Last night (after our FHE with the Paz's..which I'll tell you about), we went and taught him. Ana was asleep but we chatted with him. He told us about how he had read so much in just 2 days, and he had questions about Nephi killing Laban, but quickly accepted it. He started telling us how he relates to Nephi because he's the youngest of his friends but wants to be an example to them to make good decisions. Then he started telling us how the doubts that he used to have go away when he reads the Book of Mormon. He tells us that he envisions himself getting baptized and this time really feels like he really wants it for the right reasons. But he said he wanted to hold off setting the 15th because he wanted to prove it to his parents and go to church more, etc. We asked him, "If your parents were cool with it, would you want to be baptized on the 15th?" and he was just like "Yes." so sincerely and quickly. and so we're going to pray lots and he's going to talk to his parents and we'll see what happens. So everyone Pray for Isaac! And for his parents! He is so great! We were so happy after the lesson...and also because another cool miracle happened right before it:

So, as you know, Joe Paz (the 14 yr old) has been in jail for 3 weeks-ish. About 1 week ago, Sister Schwartz told me that she had a dream that Joe had been reading the Book of Mormon in jail (she's never met him), and that he had left jail and wanted to be baptized and got his whole family on board living the gospel. She told me that she really felt like we needed to be praying that he'd read the Book of Mormon in there, so we have been in almost all of our companionship prayers, etc. I had heard from Leticia that Joe had been reading in the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and that he had told her he wanted to get baptized/go to church when he got out. But I didn't know the details. They actually moved apartments to the old apartment of a recent convert family, which is a huge blessing. But Kiko is still pretty MIA, and Alex also seems to have some doubts still. Really sad...pray for him too!

But, last night, we headed over to their place to invite/take them to an FHE with the Lopez family. We knew yesterday was Joe's court date and he'd probably come out. We got there and he walked in the door and looked SO much better! He was so different, lively, joking around, happy, respectful, everything. Such a miracle. So we get the whole family, minus Kiko, to the FHE. Including their new puppy haha. We watch The Restoration DVD and afterwards we're talking about it. Hna Paz said she thought it was interesting, etc. Then we ask Joe, "How do you feel when you read The Book of Mormon?" and he goes "Well, I was reading it when I was in jail, and it made me want to check my ways. I don't know, but when I read it it makes me want to change and to stop doing bad things and to become a better person. I'm in the Book of Jacob now, and I really like what I'm reading." I just smiled sooo big...MIracle! Miracle! And my companion has prophetic Hispanic dreams! It was sooo awesome. He is CHANGED and I just hope and pray he can retain it. He has 30 days til his next court date and there's a chance they'll take him off probation, which means he could get baptized! Hopefully so!

 So, right after that, we left the FHE, running over to Isaacs. And I get on my bike and I'm going crazy happy and then I proceed to fall off my bike and totally crash, ONCE AGAIN right in front of members. Such is my life.

Anyways, so that's the deal. Thank you for everything! Thank you for your great encouraging emails! And thank you mom for being willing to plan out so much for my return...it really does help me a lot to not have to worry about it, so thank you for understanding. I love you all! Sister Fors