Week 12

Well, it's been another amazing week full of experiences and growth and I wish I had time to explain them all because there is a lot! Anyways last Wednesday in particular I had a cool spiritual experience and well multiple. I had exchanges with Elder Hernandez, who's the companion of our District Leader, and to start off he needed to go take out money from an ATM since he was completely broke. (This tends to happen a lot with missionaries because they struggle with budgeting:P) Anyways he first used the ATM to check his balance but wanted to wait and talk to our fellow missionaries about his situation, and I used the same machine after him just to check my balance as well. We then went to talk to the other missionaries who were waiting nearby and he talked with them for a little about how they are all broke and then decided to go back and take out just 50 pesos to get by. To his horror when he went to pull out his missionary debit card, it was missing! He looked all over for it but it was nowhere to be found even after turning his wallet inside out practically and retracing our steps. I had used the machine after him so at least we knew that he hadn't left it there to be stolen. Finally we gave up and decided to leave. When waiting for a bus, we decided to pray for help and I truly had faith that it would work out. Afterwards he pulled out his wallet once more, and this time I had a thought of where it could be and reached over and pointed out where it was. Amazingly there it was in a secret little pocket he never uses and didn't even think a card could fit there!! I was amazed at how quickly our prayer was answered because in the prayer I specifically plead that we would be able to work hard the rest of the day without worrying about it, but I didn't pray for an instant fix like that. It was a huge blessing to have been able to find it before going out to work so that we could have a clear and sound mind. Wasn't the coolest story ever, I know, but it really had an impression on me and little experiences like this help build me faith in the power of prayer:)

 

There were a lot of other cool experiences with Hernandez, but I want to talk more about the new investigators we are teaching. It's a family with 4 kids. The mother is named Alma (freaking awesome name) and we met her when we were giving a lesson to the Villela family who were baptized recently, and Alma happened to come by since her family are good friends with the Villelas especially Alma and Claudia the two mothers. We invited Alma to another lesson and eventually started focusing the lessons on her and her daughter Gaudi in specific and wow have they been prepared! For example when we asked who would like to give the closing prayer during the first lesson, little 10 year old Gaudi raised her hand, even though she had no idea how. We taught them and the little girl said her first prayer aloud, but the coolest part was that she struggled a little during, but her mother Alma was right there to help her through, even though she herself was new with it. I can already see a lot of growth with them, and I hope we can help them bring the gospel into their lives because I know how big of a blessing it is! The only problem is that we haven't met her husband yet and she expressed some concerns about him, but I have faith that it'll all work out:) We have a lot of other cool investigators right now and lots of baptismal dates. The problem we are experiencing now is getting them to church. We had 9 committed to come to church and planned it all out, and yet only 1 was able to make it. That was a little discouraging, but I understand that these things take time and that we can only encourage them and continue to invite them and pray that they will be impressed upon to get there.

Other than that it's starting to heat up again. There was one day this week where it got up to about 100! What's really annoying though is when it's super hot and it's also raining because it's too hot for a rain jacket, but it's something I'll just have to get used to! Also I'm really starting to enjoy my mission every day, and I think ultimately it's my love for the people, culture and language that has influenced that. Anyways, LOVE YOU ALL, have a wonderful week everyone:)

(Sorry no pictures this week.)