Well hello again!
This last Monday was super fun! We had a zone p-day at a park. We played kickball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. I accidentally kicked a ball right where my giant bruise is still. Needless to say, it has turned back purple and I’ll probably have it for the rest of my mission. Later that night we went and visited Luz and her family. Mia, her daughter, is finally warming up to us and joined the lesson. (I have been helping her with reading and writing sentences for the past couple of weeks.) We talked about the Atonement and did a little object lesson. We used water in a bowl, dumped pepper on it, and then dropped dishwasher soap in it. The soap moves the pepper outwards and down. We related the water to us, the pepper to sin, and the soap to Jesus Christ. Through him we can push our sins away and become a better person.
Tuesday we had our DCM and it went really well. We talked about something I love… CHARITY! The gospel of Jesus Christ is love. True Christianity is love in action. How do we manifest that love to God? By showing love to others. We did an activity where we changed “charity” to “Christ” in Moroni 7: 45-46. I loved the last part of 46 it said, “Wherefore, cleave unto Christ (charity), which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-” I am trying to become better at this in my life. Something I’ve learned is the importance of serving others. It isn’t always easy to do. People aren’t nice sometimes. No matter how many times you do something, you never get a thank you and lots of other things. All that doesn’t matter. We serve others and have charity because we love God. I just want to invite you all to cleave/hold onto Christ and charity. After that, we went and ate lunch at Lil Piggies BBQ. It was really good. I got a BBQ pulled pork sandwich, fries, and corn on the cob. Then we drove up to Gaffney and taught a lesson to Esteban. We taught him about living prophets and Hna. Rosas pretty much taught most of the lesson. It was what he needed. Later that night, we taught English Class. We met a lady named Crystal, who wants to come to church! We are excited to see how that goes.
We had exchanges on Wednesday!! I finally got to go to Columbia. It was super awesome and I learned a lot. I went with Hermana Oyler and Eubanks. We went and visited some people and sang with their ukulele. (I might end up buying one because Hna. Maxfield left and took hers, and Hna. Hanson is going home soon with hers.) Singing really does bring the spirit and touches peoples’ hearts. We got to their apartment and had a late lunch. I attempted to learn how to play the flute. It is a lot harder than it looks! It takes some lung power. For dinner we went to this place called Manny’s. We got elotes and mexican shaved ice. It was awesome. Elotes are the corn with chili powder. The, “Get that corn outta my face,” corn from Nacho Libre. Both things were delicious and I can’t wait to get them again! Then we went and taught this cute family. We played down by the banks and the kids loved it. To end the night, we got free hot chocolate from their gym and drank it while we told stories.
Thursday morning, we exchanged back and went to a late lunch with Daniel. He is someone we are teaching english and the gospel. He is just the sweetest. He took us to his two favorite places. We got Huaraches for lunch and then ice cream for dessert. Huaraches are pretty much giant sopes with beans, steak, and avocados. I would definitely recommend eating it. Then we had dinner with the Mejias. Don’t eat a late lunch and then early dinner, it doesn’t go well. I could hardly eat anything and knew if I ate more I would definitely throw up. Eric looked at us and said, “What do you think you are doing? You know wasting food is frowned upon down here.” It was hilarious. Hna. Mejia being the sweetie she is, let us take our leftovers with us. Afterwards, we had a Relief Society activity. We made trees with hot glue on a canvas and then painted over it. We tried to finish it really fast because English Class was right after. Daniel stayed after and we taught him about living prophets!
We were able to go and visit Lucero on Friday. It had been a couple weeks since we had seen her. We also taught them about living prophets. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We had prophets in ancient times, so wouldn’t it make sense to have a prophet today. After that, we weekly planned and went to Hna. Zapatas house. She made us Spaghetti, patacones, salad, and garlic bread. We invited her to church and she said she would try to come. Then we had a lesson with Doris and her daughter. After, we zoomed over to this member. Her name is Maria. She is super adorable. She had this cancer so she has a tube in her throat now. She can’t talk, but can mouth words. Reading lips in Spanish is super hard, but we were able to get the gist. I asked her if she wanted the sacrament brought to her and she said she wanted to go to church. She was able to go!
On Saturday, we went and visited Brother Bright. He is doing better everyday. He gave us ice cream and played us his harmonica. He can’t wait to help us in lessons with his Spanish that he learned on his mission a long time ago. We went and had a lesson with David. He is doing really well. He hasn’t drank coffee in two weeks, so we will be making him an apple pie. Then we went and played fútbol. It was freezing and I re-bruised my ankle yet again. It ended up being good because I was able to talk to someone about the difference between churches and temples and a lot of other things. The climax of our night was our Circle K lesson with Wilson. We had just had Wendys for dinner at 8:40pm and drove straight there. It was freezing outside, so he bought us hot chocolate. The guy at the cash register offered us a job because we speak and understand Spanish. We taught our lesson as we sipped the hot coco.
Sunday was great! Daniel, Bella, and David came to church. Hna. Zapata was able to come! When I saw her walk in I about cried. I have been praying for miracles and that was one. It made me so happy! After that, we went and taught Johany, Emilio, and their family. We brought them cookies, and I have never seen 9 cookies disappear so fast. They promised us that they are going to come to church next week! They are super awesome! We went to have a lesson with Luis and he wasn’t there. It made me laugh because he asked us if we would actually be there and he wasn’t. His sister Reyna invited us over for tacos on Hna. Marvin’s birthday on the 22nd. Afterwards, we went over to Bella’s house. She got a priesthood blessing and will hopefully receive the things she is needing right now.
Here’s the link to the video we watched in a couple of lessons. It is super good and you all should watch it!
The Will of God
