Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Email 2/2/11 - Happy Groundhog Day!

I saw Tricia's newsletter about her stake conference we had one too,  like a broadcasting one and this was a few weeks ago, and in this broadcast it was for all of the Caribbean. The speakers were Oaks, Uchtdorf, and the relief society counselor. It was in Spanish so there  was a lot i didn't understand, but I did get some of it. It was intense, we'll just say a serious smack down from the church to the people in the Caribbean of all the things they need to stop doing.  Every single thing they mentioned I am so glad they mentioned them cuz I don't want to be the one to say some of those things. Those leaders are more powerful sometimes than us and are better to communicate to the people about some things, than we are as missionaries.

Okay so we didn't have miles this week cuz we have a limited amount (car mileage allowance) and the same about as everyone in the mission. Problem is our area covers a lot of land, a lot of driving, extremely hard to not use miles. We tried to be obedient, so mostly all last week we walked and taught. It was a rough week for us, much stress,  tiredness, dehydration, happiness, unexpected.... interesting. I will just say that this place
has a lot of strange things. We have 4 new investigators which is fantastic. One is a man and his mother (who is old and is constantly falling asleep during our lessons) and the man is cool. He definitely understands the concept of gran apostasia, but I don't know if he retains information as well, or knows exactly how he feels. He is very cool though and we really hope he progresses. It was interesting how we ran into him, we were returning from a cita in the same barrio (neighborhood) and he was cleaning. We offered to serve and he said no, and then he made like a smart aleck remark about us painting and we were like yeah of course when. He laughed and continued on what he was doing. We were like we are serious we have clothes we can paint. When? So he gave us a time. We returned and ready to paint and he was like I'm not going to paint, but thank you. So he really appreciated that we took our time to come paint for him, so he invited us in. He allowed us to teach him and he had been given a Book of Mormon from other sisters earlier so he was familiar with the BOM and the story of Joseph Smith. So it was nice to have a base to teach upon.

The other story we have is a good one. So as we were returning home from a very long day walking around in the sun, all over town, there was a man who Hermana Angel always contacts and invites to church.   So every time she invites him he always says "mi casa es su casa" which is so funny cuz he says it like in every other sentence. He has a lot of energy and he is much older. So we invited him and he was like yeah I really coming, I'm going.... but Hermana Angel didn't believe it because he had been saying that since September. So we said bye and went off. This last Sunday we drove to one of our other areas that is far for the whole day. We arrived at the chapel and we received a phone call, who happened to be a member of the church here in Utuado. They mentioned that an investigator was at the church looking for us...
we were like WHAT!!!! WHO??? and we thought it was this family that we had been teaching, and in our last lesson taught about church. Nope it was our mi casa es su casa friend, Nester Rodriquez. He actually came to church and we weren't there LOL.... Hermana Angel talked to him and he wasn't sure if he was going to stay for all the meetings. We later found out that he absolutely loved church and the people. Later we went over and thanked him and talked to him about it. We later taught him the next day with our landlords who are members and gave him the first lesson. We invited him for baptism on Feb 28 and he said YES....
My first baptismal date YAH!!!! But there is more to work on, we'll have to see, pray for us that he will continue to want to learn. That night we also invited him to Mutual to check it out, and he CAME and checked it out. We wouldn't have known, but we drove by and saw him walking back to his place from the chapel area. SO I pray he will be serious and be baptized.

Next I talked to Hermana Miller and she is doing really well....Pedro finally got baptized yeah.... and the other two investigators don't want them to visit anymore (Wanda and Saima really sad).... it was so so so so so good to talk to her. ……………..

We have a menos activa who is a tough cookie. She is really hard hearted and against the church and every time we try to teach something she throws some theory or belief that she has. She was baptized and it’s sad seeing how she feels. She is rejecting the things she once knew.... so sad and we tried and tried and she would always find a negative remark. She claims she has never felt the Spirit and we tried to help her and explain to her, but nada. After, Hermana Angel was so distraught she explained that as she was talking to her, she pictured the king from Lord of the Rings who was old and evil looking kept popping in her mind. It is very sad because we know that Satan is working really hard on her. After we chatted we both cried and were distraught cuz ……….
We shared scriptures together, stories, and made one another feel better and to feel the Spirit again. She explained that she felt that within three week our hearts were interconnected and I have helped her to mature and understand her feelings more. She is so amazing Hermana Angel!!!!

I got my license today, they stole my USA one.... I'm officially a Puerto Rican.... I was so nervous because they require so much, it was in the really far town and I was stressed about miles, I didn't read the rule book until really, really late last night and this morning.... but with prayers and Hermana Angel quizzing me while I was driving I got my license. I barely passed my test, I got a 75 and 70 is the lowest passing grade. LOL such a blessing!

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