Sorry for the break, last week was crazy :)
So I´m in a new ward, which is lovingly remembered by every sister missionary that has been in it (and I can see why--the members are amazing and always willing to help us). We had a stake council one of my first days here, and were able to hear the goals of the stake for the missionary work. There´s a lot of vision and faith, and I´m excited to see the miracles that happen.
My new companion is from Brazil again, but for the first few days I couldn´t understand what she was saying, because she speaks Spanish really quickly and with a strong portuguese accent :D. Now I can understand her, though :).
I´ve been reading about one of my FAVORITE people in the Book of Mormon-- Abinadi. As I was reading his quotation from Isaiah 53, I realized that they didn´t have a bible on hand to give him to read. He was reciting a whole chapter from the bible!!! Wow!! How well do we know the scriptures? Unfortuneately I don´t know them that well, but I´ve started to memorize the Living Christ in spanish. :) (wish me luck)
We met with quite a few less actives over the past couple weeks. Many of them have made progress, and started to attend again. One sister has a husband who was determined that he´d never return to church or marry in the temple, but has since begun to make plans for the celebration of their sealing :). In the street, another sister stopped us, and expressed that she was in a similar situation, but her husband was atheist and she was afraid to come back to church for fear of offending him. She gave us her number, and we´re going to reach out to help her as well.
As we were going through our list of less actives, we decided to visit a certain family. They let us in and said they´ve been less active for five years for medical problems, but now want to come back. The daughter hasn´t been baptized, and the mother hasn´t been to the temple to do the baptism for another daughter that passed away six years ago, so we´re going to work with them for their goals.
Speaking of baptisms, YESTERDAY WE HAD ONE!!! A daughter of a less active was baptized, as was able to be baptized by a missionary who´d reached out to their family four years ago and since returned home.
Another less active (who isn´t really less active anymore!!) makes BEAUTIFUL dresses for parties and weddings. She´s 60 yrs old, and just started learning 3-4 years ago, and is already making a career with it. She asked my companion to be a model in the talent night we had, but we were advised that it wouldn´t be missionary appropriate to be a model, even for a church activity :).
We´ve also been making a lot of contacts in order to find more people to teach. We found a family that is living in a filthy house, and the children don´t really have good clothes.
One of the little girls looked exactly like Suvi, and was looking at me with Hava´s eyes. We´re definitely going back to teach them, clean their house, and help improve their living style. It´s one of the priviledges of missionary work. I can´t wait to see them dressed in clean white and in the temple!
The other day I was reintroduced to PASTEL DE PAPAS!!! It´s even more delicious then before, and this time I knew enough spanish to ask for and understand the recipe. :) Be prepared, family, it´s delicious!
We also had a talent night with the RS to bond the sisters, invite less actives, and have fun! A lot of food was brought and even more recipes shared, so I´ve completely filled one of the pages from the cook book Oma gave me.
In Sunday school, the teach shared that the commandments are excuses that God gives us to bless us. When we obey, He is free to shower blessings upon us.
One of our investigators is soooo sweet. We knocked on her door a few times, and then left to try another house. Five blocks later she came RUNNING UP BEHIND US, calling "Hermanas! Hermanas! Come back and visit with me!" :). She is so sweet, and started crying when we talked about the plan of salvation. She needs to marry her son´s father, but they both want to, so we´re encouraging them to get started as soon as possible.
Another thought I forgot to add about Abinadi-- even as he was talking to wicked, wicked, wicked people only 7 out of 57 verses were about the judgement of the wicked, and the rest were about the Atonement and mercy of Christ. Yes, there is judgement, and yes, he speaks strongly and clearly about what happens, but he chooses to focus on the mercy and the possibility for change.
Last Saturday we had a ¨White Storm¨ which means our whole zone went into one area to contact old investigators, less actives, and contact people to find more investigators for the elders in the area. We met some amazing people, and I was able to feel some inspiration in contacting some families that hopefully are now being taught the restored gospel!!
One boy we contacted this past Thursday was very nice, and then pointed out a man walking towards us and said ¨You should go talk to him¨ Ok, if you say so. So we started talking to the man, and behind us the boy started laughing.
The man was his cousin, and at first was really good, but then started saying things like "Where do you live?" "You have beautiful eyes." So we got his address, and then left him with a card about Jesus Christ :).
A Jehovah´s Witness also stopped us that same day, and tried to convince us that we shouldn´t worship Thomas S Monson, which was easy to do, because we don´t worship him :D. We were able to explain what we believe about prophets, and reaffirm our shared belief in Christ.
Interesting food: Tuna and onion pizza, lembas bread, hotdog soup with buns (from brazil). Speaking of brazil, apparently they always have a banana with their food. So with our chicken and veggies, potatoe soup, etc. we´ve diced bananas and eaten them together. And it´s actually REALLY good! You should try it :)
We brought a member to one of our lessons (she was the member who´d given us the name of this investigator--Mimi) and they were so much fun to watch :) They talked for two hours while we had a fifteen minute lesson :S. But this friendship is what has helped Mimi accept what she has from the gospel, which is.... A BAPTISMAL DATE! She really wants to know if this gospel is for her, even though she´s mad at God for the challenges she´s had in life.
Yesterday, we were able to bring another investigator--Rosa-- to church. She´s been receiving the lessons for a long time, and yesterday 1-attended church, 2-received a blessing of health, and 3-attended a baptismal service. She had a full spiritual day! Now we´ve set a baptismal date with her as well, and I know that if she´s open to the Spirit, she´ll receive her answer.
I love you all!
Have a wonderful day!
Love this girl.
