Well
First of all, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! It was so fun
to see everyone and to hear that Noelle is going to dar luz in just a
few days and I didn't even know she was preggers and to see Hallie not
know who the heck I am. Oh wait. I'm Nally. Laaaaame! But it was really
fun. I thoroughly enjoyed every slightly awkward minute of it. I wanted
more time too mom. But 40 minutes is the mission rule and I think it's
wise. Our president is really wise. Great guy.
Well My Christmas was
different but all the same really good. And that's because, first, in
the Noche Buena, well the day of that is, we were in a lesson with a new
investigator named Rosemary. She's Fredi's cousin, the guy we're going
to baptize in just a few weeks. Well she's 17 and we were a little
bummed about that because it's not like we don't want to ask permission
for her to baptized... it's just more complicated. But everything kinda
worked out really well. First, we asked her if she had the desire to
learn about the gospel. She came to a ward activity we had the past week
and she just looooved it. She was having a ball. So based on that we
were pretty confident that she was going to be all gun-ho about
learning. And so she responded to us, Yeah I really want to join your
group. That's what I want. To join! So we were all excited about that!
And then I asked her again, well how old are you, just to make sure I
heard right. And she said 17. So little bit of a disanimar again. But
then I asked her when she turned 18. And she said "oh the 2nd of
January!" And we were all "Yay!" because that's this week. So that was
good news number one. And then we challenged her to be baptized. And she
said "Yeah that's where I see this going too. So Yeah I do want to be
baptized. But I want to wait some time." Bummer number 2. And we asked,
"Well, how much time?" expecting the worse. But then she just said
"Yeah I want to wait until.... the end of January. Yeah fines de enero
and I'll be ready!" Good news/miracle number 2! And then she said "But I
want to talk to my mom first." And we were obviously understanding of
that. I mean she has to talk to her mom. But it also scared us a little
bit. But then she said after "But I know that whether or not I get
baptized depends on me. Only me. Not my mom." That is exactly what she
said, translated in English of course. But wow what a roller coaster
because it was like "yeah no she's not going to accept" to "Yeah she'll
get baptized" and back to "oh I don't know again!". But every time she
just said something new and it really testified to me that yeah, the
Lord really is preparing the hearts of people. Who are ready. And who
will progress. And who will do what it is that they have to do in order
to follow Jesus Christ. It's amazing. Every doubt I had in that lesson
was immediately resolved. And it was because we had found one of the
prepared. One of the softened hearts that God had prepared for us. It
was a really cool experience and now we're waiting for her to get back
from Juli to tell us how things went with her mom and if her mom is as
well going to start with the lessons. We have an appointment tomorrow
and I am really excited about it. So that was kind of the cool
experience for this week.
But something really sad also
happened this week. We have an investigator named Luighi. He's the son
of another investigator named Julio. Luighi has been progressing really
rapidly these past couple weeks. We started teaching him week 6 of the
last cambio and then he came to church that same Sunday, stayed for all 3
hours, and then the next Sunday he came as well, this time bringing
Julio too. And they both stayed for the 3 hours. And then in our
lessons, he just was always asking really good questions and just really
seemed like he wanted to learn. I just saw a lot of potential and real
intent in Luighi, and it made me really excited because I knew that if
Luighi could progress, then he could really help his dad out to progress
as well. But in one of our lessons, Luighi confided in us that his
relationship with his dad was... well basically non existent. They
didn't really have much to do with each other. And so we decided to start working with them both, Julio
even more. But in one lesson, which I just thought was going so well, we had read
with him the testimony of Joseph Smith and I felt the spirit and I
thought I saw Luighi feeling the spirit, and we were about to challenge
him to be baptized the 23 of January, but he looks at us and says
"Hermanas hold on a minute. I think we just need to stop here. I haven't
gotten my sign yet and so I think it might be a good idea to just stop
our visits for now because I don't want you to lose your time and I
don't want to waste your time. I want you guys to be able to teach
people that have gotten their sign. So I'll call you when I get it, but
until then, I think this is enough." I literally felt my jaw hit the
floor. It's not what I was expecting at all. Then he said "Really I just
started taking these lessons so that you could help my dad. And he's
already gotten his answer (Julio had a dream about Jesus Christ) and so
maybe it's better if you just focus on him." My heart was on the verge
of breaking. I couldn't believe that he was asking to stop our visits. I
mean I was happy that he thought we could help Julio, but I didn't want
to lose him in the process. I felt like Elder Moreno in THe District
when Jynx called and told them "The Mormons not for me". And the same
thing was going through my head "We can't lose him! I don't want to lose
him!" So I tried to do what they did. I tried to testify to him of the
Book of Mormon and it's power to answer prayers, because he too wasn't
reading the book of Mormon. I told him he couldn't give up on us yet.
That if he wanted to help his dad, he too needed to be on this same
path. And finally we came to a conclusion. We asked him to read the
first chapter of Nephi and then to pray. And we promised him that if he
did it, with all the faith he has, that si o si, he would receive an
answer. He said he would do it and that we could have one more visit
with him to see if he got an answer. That visit is scheduled for this
week. So we'll see what happened. Hermana Rodriguez and I fasted
yesterday especially for him. And now we're just waiting. I hope
everything goes right. I'll keep you posted for next week.
This
week really has been an emotional roller coaster a bit. I think that
partially has to do with Christmas. Well I know it has to do with that.
But also last Monday we had a zone Conference in which the Zone Leaders
shared a story about an Elder who was in a lesson and his companion or
someone testified of the First Vision and the Investigator started to cry
and excepted baptism and all that. And the Elder thought "You know, I
say the same exact things, and I never get that reaction" And it really
bothered him. So he talked to his mission president about it and his
president said to him "Elder, what do you think when pretty girls walk
by? Have you ever responded to your junior companion with sarcasm or
belittlement? Do you wake up at 6:30 every morning? This is the
difference. I want you to go home an start a fast. Start with a prayer
and then when you finish your prayer, sit down and start a list of all
the things that you do right now that keep you from being able to feel
and testify with the spirit. and then do a 40 day fast from all these
things. After this purification process, you'll see that not only do you
feel better, but you will be able to teach with the power and authority
of God." And then said some more stuff along those lines. And that was
our Zone... "Project" This week. We all started a fast, together, and
wrote these lists. And it was something really cool. Because When I was
writing my own list, things came to my mind that I did that I didn't
even realize were keeping me from feeling and teaching with the spirit. And it was
this that I tried to fix this past week. And It worked. Really well. . But this fast really opened my eyes
to all the faults I still have to fix. The potential I still have to
become. And it was a really cool, growing experience. And that's what I
learned this week. That hey, I'm not a picnic by any means and that if I
want things to change, I need to change.
And now we'll switch from super serious to light and fluffy topics!
First,
Christmas Eve here is nuts! They all stay up until midnight and then
eat dinner and then open presents. So that's fun. But we obviously
can'´t do that because 10:30 curfew and stuff. So we were sleeping
normal. But the second the clock struck midnight, Puno exploded! I was
sound asleep dreaming about sugar plums or something, but my sweet
sugar plum fairy dreams turned into world war 3 as I started dreaming
about bombs going off and I just kinda freaked out only to wake up and
actually hear what I thought were bombs right outside my window! So I
run to the window just to see that, from everyone's roof tops, there are
fireworks going off! EVERYONE'S ROOFTOPS!! and puno is just really
jammed packed with houses and there isn't much space in between the
houses so it was kind of really scary. Puno was literally exploding. It
freaked me out and then it was kind of cool. Just really unexpected. So
that was fun. Also my Pensionista, Hermana Elli, who you guys met on
skype, she called us at 12:15 just to wish us a feliz navidad. It was
really Sweet. I love her.
I
love you all. Send my love to everyone! Thanks for the prayers and the love!
Hermana Rust.
And My subject line has no point, I just love Jericho Road.
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