Barrio Jardin 14

July 13, 2015

Holaaaa :) Oh my goodness this week was so hard, spiritual, and really AWESOME and here is why...

So it was really hard because: well I´m on a mission hahaha yeah that´s the obvious one, it rained alllllllll weeeeeeekkkkkkkk and no one likes to come out of their house and talk to us when its raining, which is super lame. Also, definitely almost got struck by lightening, I SWEAR IT WAS SO CLOSE THE EARTH WAS SHAKING!! so yeah. Also, we had "charla francas" with all of our investigators because no one had been progressing or doing anything really (charla franca= dropping cane and upfront asking people if they want to start doing things to change their life and be happy) hahaha so after doing that...we had no investigators...whoops. It was definitely for the best though, because then we new we really had to start finding new people. And new people means...CONTACTING PARTY!!!! Oh my goodness we contacted sooooooo muchhhhh and you what??? Now I hate it a little less :) Spanish has been really hard this week because since Hna. Simmons is American obviously we speak almost only English together, which is bad, because I still DONT SPEAK SPANISH! But we ended up making a rule about ONLY being able to use Spanish if we are outside of the pension (unless we´re telling stories about our past lives...then all the rules have been going out the window hah) We are two gringas that don´t know how to cook and love Pananderias...so...yeah...we are in the repentance process for our disobedience to the Palabra de Sabiduria (Word of Wisdom)

It was super SPIRITUAL because...we had ZERO investigators right? So we decided to spend the day "following" the Spirit. There are quotes on that because we confessed to each other that we had yet to experience "street guidance" yet. So that was interesting...yeah we still haven´t mastered that one yet. But this week we are working on virtue. When we are virtuous the Holy Ghost will want to dwell within us sooooo MAYBE THATS THE KEY!!! But really, so this week I´ve been doing my best to push away the remnants of Top20 song lyrics out of my thoughts and replace them with scripture mastery and church hymns WOOOOO. It is a work in progress hah. Oh so back to the ZERO INVESTIGATORS thing...So we get to Friday, its still raining, we know we have another day of mostly contacting ahead and we decide that we are going to have someone in the capilla on Sunday sì o sì (no option) At about 5pm we are in the middle of torrential downpour, clap a house, Valeria comes out, we give her a card, write her number down, and leave. Saturday we start fasting (now I´m not bragging, because in 3Ne something it talks about how bragging about fasting is bad) because the week has been as pleasant as cow stomach, and we had SO MANY LESSONS on Saturday! And then we went back and had a lesson with Valeria, and invited her to Church. We only taught her a little bit but she was super receptive to everything we were saying and said that she did want to change her relationship with God, and SHE PRAYED (which is a big deal). Went back to her house in the morning and she was ready to go!!! Church was AWESOME!!!!!! Really funny though because since she's 18, we accompanied her to the adultos solteros class, which felt really illegal even though hna and I are single, and adults...yeah it was just weird. But she left Church so happy and smiling and we have another lesson with her today! YEAY FASTING IS TOTALLY A THING!!!!!!!! I already knew that, but its always nice to have your testimony strengthened :)

And lastly it was AWESOME because...I LOVE HNA SIMMONS and we are like actually friends!!! It really is so much fun and she's such a hard worker, and is helping me to be a stronger missionary, I really do feel so blessed to have her this transfer. We laugh so much which is something I realized I was definitely lacking. We decided that our life could easily be a reality TV show se llama, "GRINGAS IN SOUTH AMERICA". Oh yeah HNA got bit by a dog! She's fine though, she was actually really happy about it so that she could say she got bit before she got home haha and oh I totally had an "adventures in babysitting" moment...at a members house, I think I see a bunny, pick up the bunny, bunnies don't have RED EYES, scream...it was a rat. "that's not a cat miss that's a sewer rat", goodness I do miss that movie, ohhh brenda....oh speaking of movies last night we were teaching a menos activo and HANNA was totally playing on the TV, then I spent a good 5 minutes of the lesson distracted by my memories of how disturbing that movie was.

Is this happening everywhere, or just here? Fashionnnn Yikesss!

So basically it was a good, long, hard week just like normal. I´m learning that through EXACT OBEDIENCE Heavenly Father will show us the way to his lost sheep. I know that if I´m not obedient he isn't going to trust me to teach them...We don't have that many people still, but I KNOW that there are people here. The field is WHITE!!!! And I´m positive that if we continue to be diligent we will see the fruit of our labors...or someone else will. Egual no màs :)

Kay I´m going to go eat SUBWAYYYYYYYY now!!!!!!!! Yeah! They just put in a subway!!! It´s like $12 though so I might shed a couple tears, but the Elders said it tastes just like America. "Whatever happened to land of the free, home of the 5 dollar foot long"?! - Elder Ollerton

 

love you all thank you for all of your emails!!!!!!!!!!!!

Les quiero muchoooooooo

Chau Chau

Hermana Cannon