Woooohh
6 mesaversary!!! I went to bed 6 minutes early on January 9 to
celebrate, hope you all did too. Half a year! I've been gone half a
year! That's just crazy. I can't believe I'm already a third done
with my mission. It's exciting and scary at the same time!!
Life
changing event of the week----an investigator fed us arroz con
chocolate. Like arroz con leche but con chocolate and a life time
supply of happiness guaranteed.
I
also had the great opportunity to attend a catholic funeral on
Sunday. A family member of an investigator passed away like a week
ago and they wanted us to come to the funeral...it was in this little
trailer park and we were the only white people there. And the only
ones not wearing black. So an added level of whiteness to my usual.
But it was so interesting...we stood up for an hour straight (and we
had to leave early and they were still standing when we left) while
everyone chanted this prayer thing over and over. it made me so
grateful for what I know to be true about the great plan of happiness
God has for His children, and that death doesn't need to be mourned
or feared. L did learn some catchy new Hispanic worship songs though
that I've been singing to Hna gibson that I'm sure she enjoys very
much.
Other
matters of business for the week...Hna Gibson let it slip to our
little band of recent converts and a few other young bystanders that
I was ticklish. so now I cannot walk into a branch activity or church
meeting without getting attacked by a herd of little girls trying to
tickle me. And what's worse is I can't even do anything back so I
just have to take it. It's horrible.
Ricardo's
doing pretty well...except he didn't come to church on Sunday.
Something came up. We might have to move his date back a few days but
we'll see, hopefully we get to teach him a lot this week.
So
I didn't really get to talk about them in my last email but the other
week we started teaching this family that actually lives across the
street from Roberto! Kind of awkward...haven't seen him since we gave
him to the elders and just waiting for the day when we run into him
again. But anyways this lady's name is Silvia and she has three kids
Leslie, angel, and Bela. She also has an esposo that works 6
days straight that I haven't seen yet. But Silvia is awesome she is
learning so much. We get to see her almost every day and she reads
the Book of Mormon every day and even all the pamphlets we gave her!
She really
wants to get baptized and has a date set for the 14 of February. Her
only problem is...is that her husbands only day off is Sunday and
that's always been their day they just stay home and spend time as a
family. And her husband does not like church. She's talked to him
about it but he's like nope I'm not going to go to church, I want you
to spend time with me. So then she feels bad and didn't come to
church on Sunday:( I just can't get over how sad this is! Missing
church to spend more time with your husband while really missing out
on the opportunity to spend time with him for eternity! Kind of
ironic if you ask me. So just pray that his heart will be softened
and she'll come with her kids and maybe even him next week. But her
daughter Leslie is 8 and wants her and her mom to get baptized on her
birthday,
the
14 of February. And she's so excited. Leslie is literally the most
precious thing. And the things we are teaching make so much sense to
her. Prophets- "So basically a prophet is kind of like a bridge
between us and God so we can know what he wants us to do?"
Nailed it. Book
of Mormon- "ohhh so the prophets wrote on golden plates bc what
they were writing was important and they wanted it to stay forever.
And moroni had to put the plates in the ground so no one would steal
them or ruin them!" Bingo. When we taught her how to pray and
we're talking about how God always answers our prayers, her eyes
welled up with tears and she was like " I just feel so much joy
and happiness that God has given me such a beautiful and loving
family and that me and my wonderful siblings still get to stay here
together". She now VOLUNTEERS to say both the opening AND
closing prayers to our lessons. When we invited her to pray and ask
God if Joseph smith really was a prophet she was like ok! I'm going
to do it right now. Then she just started praying right away and was
like " God? Could you please tell me if Joseph smith was a
prophet? I'm wondering and I really want to know...please tell me?"
A few minutes later while we were talking with her mom she ran in all
excited saying I got my answer! I got my answer! I just felt
something right here in my heart...Joseph smith was a prophet. I'm
going to go do the same thing and pray to see if Jesus Christ really
was the son of God and a prophet too! Then ran off. As we've been
teaching her I've been reminded of the scripture in Mosiah 3:19 that
says ------19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been
from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he
yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the
natural man and becometh
a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a
child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to
submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him,
even as a child doth submit to his father. -- little children are
literally so close to God. They have no pride, no prejudice, no
doubt...complete humility. Just as pride is the gateway to all other
sin, it's opposite, humility, is the gateway to righteousness. To
being able to communicate with God. I like to think of God just being
so all powerful and omnipotent, that if we want Him to be with us,
there's no room for us to have any of our own pride. Like a container
of oil and water- they don't mix. The forces between them repel each
other. But the less water you have in the bottle, the more oil there
can be. If we are completely 100% humble then there will be nothing
keeping God, or the Holy Ghost, from being 100% with us. It's our
personal pride that repels the presence of the spirit. But it's our
humility that allows us to receive revelation and answers to prayers.
I've learned a lot about this so far on the mish. But anyways Well
that's about it that I can think of...go run free and be like
little children this week. Haha God wants us to! Love you all so
much! Over and out
Love
Herbaughna
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