Bambii's back!!🦌
January 24 ,2022
Hey everyone!! Monday was pretty slow, so here’s what happened on Tuesday. We had DCM over zoom. We were still in quarantine until later that day. We talked about the importance of planning and setting goals. Doing this will affect us for the rest of our lives. I am still getting the hang of goals. It is easy to set them but not so much to accomplish them. Then we had a great video call lesson with David. We taught him about sacrifice. Sometimes we are asked to make sacrifices in our lives. For example: time, money, energy, worldly things and more, etc. It isn’t easy and it wasn’t meant to be. I was reading something a little while ago and it said to think of sacrifice as losing something, but as giving and sharing. Afterwards, we went shopping. We couldn’ t on pday because we were stuck at home. It took forever to find all the sugar free, gluten free, and lactose free food for Hna. Marvin. Shopping for that is hard and expensive. We had to cancel English class because the roads were icy and dangerous.
On Wednesday, we had a video call with Santiago. We taught him about the first part of the Plan of Salvation. He is just the best. He told us that he lost his job and might have to move! That made us super sad and we decided that wasn't going to happen. We set off to find him someone who knew what places were hiring and said lots of prayers. Then I taught Mia how to write over a video call. It is much easier in person. She was getting better by the end. After that, we had a lesson with Bella. First one in person since the beginning of December. We retaught her the whole restoration. She now has a better understanding of it. We asked her what she hopes for from meeting with us and she told us a big change in her life! Afterwards we had a lesson with Israel. We retaught him about the restoration but with more simple terms. It is going to take a little for him to understand it. It will happen because he has such a desire to learn.
We went and visited Johany on Thursday. She was watching these two little girls who were adorable named Elsa and Ana. I wanted to take Elsa home with us (not literally). She was fascinated by my tag and played with it throughout the whole lesson. Then we drove to the Mejias for dinner. On the way, we called Faylita. She was nice and said she has been wanting to learn more about Christ for a long time. The Mejias fed us the meatball soup again, perfect for the cold weather. They are sweet and are going to help us out with some families we are teaching. Finally, some people showed up to English class! It was Daniel and his friend Moises. Hopefully more people will start coming.
Friday was a good day even though we visited a lot of people and they weren’t there. We even had made cookies to give to them, so we left them on their porch. Or they were there and didn’t want to let us in. It was funny, this lady didn’t want to let us in because of the cold, so we stood on her porch in the cold while we talked to her. It started snowing again!! It didn’t stay for very long. Some other lessons fell through, but we got in contact again with Maria from the Pulga. She wants to start having calls with us more often!
We had a lesson with Bella on Saturday. We retaught her the first part of the Plan of Salvation. She is super happy that we will all be resurrected and that her husband won’t be reincarnated. She can’t wait to learn the rest about it. Dobby started licking my scriptures during the prayer. We are told to feast upon the scriptures, but not to literally eat them. We couldn’t stop laughing. Later, we went to the Pulga. Sadly, it was all done, but we gave this guy named Kevin a soda. He told us he used to go to our church sometimes when he was little with his dad. We are going to give him a call sometime. Then we went to go to David and Doris’s house. (Here is some context: About 2 months ago we went to this address we had. We really felt like we needed to visit them, but it was a gated apartment complex. We had no way to get it. We thought about following another car in, but no one was coming. We prayed that if we were supposed to get in that a car would come and give us enough time. A couple seconds later a car went in and we were able to get in. We knocked the door and there was no answer, so we called them and left a note. The next day we got a call… from David!! He asked us when we could come over. It took 2 months for Doris to get back from a work trip and for them to answer our call again.) It took us about 30 minutes to find their actual apartment because they had moved to a different room. They are super awesome! David is from Puerto Rico and Doris is from Colombia. They fed us arepas with chicken and buñuelos (little cheese bread balls). They have so many questions about the gospel and the world. It is going to be an adventure teaching them. Later, we had a zoom call with the other sisters in our zone. We got new ideas for how to plan our days and weeks better. After that, we called David. It is frustrating because Satan won’t give up and leave him alone, but we won’t either.
Yesterday was crazy awesome!! We went to a really early meeting and it about killed me. Early mornings and I aren’t friends. We gave some people some wake-up calls so they would come to church. Daniel, Bella, Johany, Josue, Israel, and Santiago and his friend Leonardo all came to church! I translated for sacrament meeting and it went really well. I was able to find the scriptures used and it was all about the plan of salvation. We recently got the Priesthood meeting in all Spanish too! Funny story: I was thinking that Israel and Leonardo were friends because of their body language. The confusing thing was Santiago is his roommate and invited him. I asked them, and Leonardo and Israel grew up in the same place in Guatemala, so I was right. We are teaching 3 friends that all reached out to the Spanish facebook page to be taught about how to get more peace. It was cool to find that out. Right after church, we drove up to visit Esteban. We couldn't find him, but we found Bambii!! He's gotten so big! I pet him and he loved it. I just love domesticated deers. A few phone calls later and we found out Esteban was there but couldn't get to the door. We went in with permission and he was laying down looking so tiny. He didn't look good. He told us that he can't walk and hurts all over. Tears came to my eyes seeing him like this. He never did get baptized, but I still love him and care for him. He told us that he is dying and isn't scared, but that he isn't giving up yet. He said he had been telling Hna. Rosas that he missed LaLa (me). We said a prayer with him and told him we would pray for him and send him things to watch. Later, we went and had a lesson with Daniel in a park. We were late because we got stuck behind this giant train. It had 160 cars and 3 engines. We arrived and it was freezing, but worth it. We got to watch a cool giant kite, and teach him the Word of Wisdom. As we were driving home, we saw Natali’s car at her business. She was there! We talked to her and set up another lesson. She told us how missionaries always find her no matter where she is. Then we taught Johany and her family about the Law of Chastity. Her and Emilio really want to get married. Who knows, if I stay here, I might get to help plan a wedding. After that, we went over to Arlen’s house. The Ramirez family was there too! We are all going to have dinner together this Friday. Hna. Ramirez’s puppy just had puppies (was not planned) and I’m so excited! We got home and then proceeded to have lessons for another 2 ½ hours. We called Maria and she is doing great. She is really warming up to us and about learning. Then we called Leonardo. We taught him about prophets and he loved it. He said the closing prayer in his dialect. Hna. Marvin said it sounds like the Spanish language and Chinese language had a baby. I understood about two words, but it was awesome. You could tell he was praying from his heart. To end the night, we called Santiago. We taught him about the Law of Chastity too! He thinks that it is really cool and said it would be a pleasure to follow it. In our calls we have an inside joke… his nose. In one lesson he said that he has the nose of his ancestors, the Mayans. So now he says, “la nariz de mis ancestros está feliz,” and touches his nose. Also, he found a job!! Miracles do happen! Hno. and Hna. Ramirez helped him out with that! As Hna. Marvin would say, “They are the gemy gems of the gemmiest gems!”
I was reading the Book of Mormon in Helaman 11 the other day and it really hit me. The people were being really wicked and disregarding the commandments and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They was a division between them and they started to fight and kill each other. Nephi prayed that they would stop killing each other and that a famine fell upon the land. People started dying from hunger instead of the sword. While they were perishing they started to remember the Lord their God. They asked Nephi to pray that the famine would go away. In verse 17 it says, “And it came to pass in the seventy and sixth year the Lord did turn away his anger from the people, and caused that rain should fall upon the earth…” The people became righteous again, but that only lasted for 3 years. By the 82th year they had forgotten the Lord their God again. In the 85th year they were ripening for destruction. This made me super sad reading this. Why do people do this? In less than 10 years they had become worse than before. The small and simple things really do help us out. It is easy to fall back into old habits and become like these people. It takes work to stay righteous and keep our standards. The world's standards will always be changing but the Lord's will never change. I just want to invite you all to think about something small you can do to become better and then do it.
Hey everyone! It has been a pretty long week since a p-day, but that’s okay. It is transfers and after 7 months out here… I’m getting transferred to Hilton Head! Guess who my companion is going to be… Hermana Stewart!! We never thought that this dream would come true. We started together and now we are going to kind of end together. We are going to be in a trio with Hermana Williamson! Trios have their perks with a lot of things. I am excited to see how this one will go and to meet new people. I’m sad that I am leaving here and the people I love, but I know it is for a reason. I will return!
Last week on Monday we spent it at the doctors. They told us that they didn’t know what was happening and referred Hna. Marvin to an oral surgeon. Not much happened the rest of the day.
We had DCM on Tuesday and I gave the discussion. I hadn’t seen the text, so Hna. Marvin informed me the night before. I quickly planned it, and it went really well. We talked about using How To Begin Teaching points. They set expectations with the people we teach and what the future will bring. We linked that with loving our people and showing them that. We love them and the gospel. Christ is the best example of who we should strive to be like and teach like. Afterwards, we went and had lunch at Manny’s. It is this Italian and Greek place. I got this Pepperoni, Ham, Bacon, and Olive Calzone. It was giant and delicious. I ate way too much of it. Then we went on exchanges again! I stayed here and Hna. Marvin went to Columbia for the first time! Hna. Bennion came down and we spent the next 1 ½ days together. We went and visited Milvian, and Hna. Ramirez was able to come with us. It was amazing! They got along so well, and Hna. Ramirez can relate things to her so well from her own life. We taught her more about temples and eternal marriage. The spirit was super strong. Hna. Ramirez bore a powerful testimony about eternal families and reading the Book of Mormon. We went and taught English class and it went well. Slowly we are having more people come. Right after that we called Maria from the Pulga. The lesson went great. We are working with her slowly, but she loves studying and learning.
We had a good lesson with Natali on Wednesday and taught her about prophets and Jesus Christ establishing his church. A ton of our lessons canceled or weren’t there after that. So we stopped by some tiendas to talk to new people and spread the word about English class. For dinner, we got WingStop. I have been craving this for ages. My parents sent me a gift card and I put it to use. Then Hna. Bennion and I went to have a lesson with Doris and David. David wasn’t there, but we still had a fantastic lesson. Doris has sooo many questions and is just searching for the truth. We talked about baptism, the sacrament, the priesthood, and part of the restoration. She made us these chicken, cream, and avocado sandwiches that were pretty good. We left very full. We had a good video call with Santiago. We taught him about the premortal life. He was very grateful to learn about this and wants to know more.
Thursday morning we unexchanged. Hna. Marvin and I raced to some lessons. We went to Maria’s house and reviewed the restoration with her. Then we had a video call with the other Maria we met at the Pulga. (Sometimes it is so hard to keep track of people because they all have the same name.) We taught her about prophets and dispensations. Right after, we had a lesson with Daniel in the park. We taught him about the Law of Chastity. Hna. Marvin showed him a magic trick and it was hilarious. He was stumped for a minute and asked how she did it. Then we went to a tienda and talked to some people. We bought some pan dulce. Most of it wasn’t that great, so we threw it away. We went over to the Mejias to eat. They fed us chicken enchiladas with red and green sauce. I thought, well red will probably be hot. I ate it and my mouth was burning. I ate some of the green ones and it helped calm down the heat. Then Hna. Mejia tells us that the green one is the hot one. Hna. Marvin only had green and she said her mouth was on fire. I am as confused as you all are. Sadly no one showed up to english class, so we worked on some other things. We called this lady Stephanie and she told us pretty much her whole life story. She wants to start meeting with the missionaries and have a change in her life. We are going to have to pass her off the the English Sisters.
Friday morning, we went and had a lesson with Natali. It went good, but I felt off the whole time. We prayed and decided to visit this one address. As we were on our way a name popped into my head, Junior. We were three minutes from the house. I was thinking that we could visit it and then go, but I got the feeling to go right then. We get there, and it is not Junior. He had moved. It was this really sweet lady named Shakyla. She started asking us questions and was just fascinated that we are missionaries. She asked her to give her a little lesson and tell her the things that we believe. We did and set up another time to come by. She was so grateful. About 10 minutes after we met her, her daughter came home from school. If we would’ve waited, she might not have had the time to talk to us. It was humbling experience for me. Then we drove and visited this one house Hna. Marvin wanted to visit. His name was Johnny. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. We gave the English Sisters his information. Later, we had lesson with Bella. We taught her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It took a minute for her to understand it. We also talked about the spirit world. She is so happy to know that her husband is okay there. We shared some spiritual stories about them not being to far away from us. For dinner, we went and ate with the Ramirez fam., Arlen and Israel. We ate carne asada, hot dogs, cactus, and tortillas. Cactus is a hispanic staple. The food was delicious and I couldn’t finish it all. These two families help us out all the time and it means a lot. We held their puppies! Their dog got pregnant and they don’t know who the dad is. To end the night we had a video call with Israel and Omar. Over time they are starting to understand things more. The language barrier makes it a little harder.
We bundled up to go to the Pulga Saturday morning. We were able to hand out a lot of English class cards and talk to new people. It was absolutely freezing. We bought some Boiled Peanuts to eat and attempted to keep us warm. I was wearing a coat, hat, gloves, tights, and boots, and I was still a little cold. I finally bought a giant cobija. It has different flowers on each side. It was worth the money because I have wanted one since I was in Charleston. We had some lessons fall through, so we handed out more English class cards. At this one house there was a puppy. She was cute until she bit my wrist. It only drew a tiny bit of blood, but it still hurt. I might get rabies. At this one house three men came outside to talk to me while they smoked. Hna. Marvin was on a call a couple feet away with this guy named Cesar. Apparently, he is a member, but it took him 8 minutes to tell her that. Everyone is always shocked that we speak Spanish and understand them. Then we had a lesson with Doris. It went really well. We taught her about the apostasy and the restoration. She gave us this cherry cheese and crackers. It was pretty good and tasted sweet. Afterwards, we had a Family Home Evening lesson with Johany and her family with the Ramirez family. It was awesome!! It has been really neat seeing their desire to be better people and a better family grow. As we were leaving, Josue went behind me and put Dana on my shoulders when I wasn’t looking. It was funny and he took her down pretty quickly. People just love throwing their kids at us.
Sunday morning was a bit crazy. I gave a talk about Building Zion. The lady who went before me took all of my time. I wasn’t mad. I thought it was pretty funny because I took all the time the last time I spoke. I was able to give my whole talk and it went really well. I wasn’t shaking at all, which was great!! Israel, Omar, Daniel, Hna. Huipe, and David came. Hna. Marvin did a great job translating! After church, Shakayla texted us and said that she didn’t want us to come over anymore in the future. That was a bummer. I hope that she will open up in the future. Then, we went and visited Adan. It had been ages since we had seen him. We set up the pretty good expectations and taught him about prayer. Afterwards, we had a very spiritual lesson with Daniel and Millie. We read Moroni 10:1-5 & 29-34. We explained the importance and power of the Book of Mormon. Millie bore such a powerful testimony and the spirit filled the room. Bearing testimony really does have power. Our next lesson had fallen through, so we went and visited someone nearby. Her name is Natalia and she was super nice. She remembers the missionaries and was sad they quit coming by. We got to know her better and have a lesson set up later this week. We went over to the Winter’s house for dinner. We ate tacos and they were yummy. On the way home we got a call from Cesar from the other day. He opened up to us about all the things that he is going through and we were able to help out. He is a member and lives in Beaufort all the way over next to Hilton Head. We told him that the missionaries there can help him and teach him more. (Funny thing is now I am going to be the missionary helping him.)
On Monday, we went to the doctors for Hna. Marvin. We got there and the doctor was super mean. She asked to call her mom to ask some questions and he looked at her weird. The nurse said and pointed at me, “She’s not your mom?” We said no, and that I am 20 and not 45. Either I look like a great 45 year old or a pretty bad 20 year old. To her credit, I was wearing a mask and my granny glasses as my mom says. Instead of them doing a little test, they said Hna. Marvin could schedule a time to get a piece of her tongue taken off and sent to a lab. In the end, we don’t know what happened. The good thing is Hna. Marvin went off her crazy diet. To cheer her up we went and got Cold Stone. It was really good. When I walked in, it smelled like home. Then we drove over to Luz’s house. On the way we gave out some English class cards. We read the kids Book of Mormon with Derek and Mia, and then we talked about where we came from. They needed help with Math, so I did math homework for the first time on my mission. Afterwards, we had dinner with Marla and Martin. They fed us carne asada for dinner with cactus. It was delicious. We had a great lesson with them. Hna. Marvin was super bold and asked them to not criticize each other. We invited them to pray daily as a couple. It is an important way to strengthen your bond together and the one you have with God. Just like companion prayer as missionaries.
Yesterday we had a giant DCM with our zone. It went really well. We were able to do a really good role play. We taught the second half of the restoration and really focused on Jesus Christ. He established His church with the priesthood power and apostles. We then asked if the person would have went to Christ’s church. Hopefully they say yes and then we talk about how we have the restored gospel on the earth. We invite them to come see. It is really powerful! Hna. Marvin and I got Chick-fil-a for lunch. She begged me because she hasn’t been able to eat legit anything for a month. We got everything ready for English class and printed tons of papers. We quickly organized the messy library. It was ridiculous. After that, we raced over to David’s house. He seemed different. It had seemed like he’d given up. It was very discouraging. The conversation just went down. I testified of the things that I know with all my heart to be true. All this emotion welled up inside me and spilled out. I cried because it was so hard what was happening, when people just aren’t understanding the gospel. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about what God wants him to do. When we were leaving, he gave us each a small bouquet of pink roses. It was very sweet of him. Then we had a lesson with Milvian and Hna. Ramirez. It went great! We talked about the importance of Jesus Christ and what he did. We went and had dinner with the Mellors. They fed us ham and cheese crepes. For dessert we had fruit crepes. I overindulged and ate three of them. After that, we went and taught English class. It was awesome because more people came. We had seven people, which is better than one! When it was over, we had a lesson with Daniel and Millie. We taught him about CPR. When we stop breathing, CPR helps us come back and breathe. It keeps our body alive. The acronym also stands for Church, Pray, and Read. This helps keeps our spirit living and thriving. When we stop doing these things we start to spiritually suffocate.
Sorry that was super long!!
Les amo! Have a fantastic week!!
Hola!! Hace mucho tiempo, pero no en realidad. It has been a crazy couple of days. I picked up 7 months of my stuff and moved all the way across the state. It took me absolutely forever to pack. It all worked out in the end. Hna. Marvin got her new companion and then I set off in my new trio. For me it was about a 5 hour drive in total. On the way to my new home we visited this lady named Maria. She is super nice and is going to have a baby next Wednesday. Dejavu? She has two little boys who are adorable. Afterwards, we visited Belkis and her family. She is from Honduras and we are teaching her family. We brought a member named Astrid and she shared a powerful testimony. Then, we met these hilarious members. They have giant dogs! His name is Roberto and he is a carpenter. We are going to go tour his shop. To end the really long day, we went to English Class. It was awesome to have a lot of people!! We teach 5 different lessons because we each teach a lesson.
Friday morning we woke up to exercise. Sadly, we don’t have a gym. We run around the golf course that we live by. It feels like I am running through the jungle and that an alligator is going to jump out. It will be different but refreshing. We went and got stuff to organize our English Class papers. Afterwards we went to visit a member and some people that lived around him. He is super nice and hopefully we will be able to help him come back to church. We walked by this house and these girls told us to get shelter from the rain. It was cute. We went back and sang them a song. They want us to come visit again. Then we had a lesson with Pedro. He is just full of so much energy! He gave us cantaloupe with spicy seasoning. It was good. We taught him the first part of the plan of salvation. He loved it! We invited him to read the pamphlet and I said straight faced if he didn't read it we wouldn't come back. He bursted out laughing. He said he would do it and he did! Pedro just has so much energy and it is contagious! For dinner, we went out to a Mexican restaurant with Christian. He is super nice and hilarious. I got a giant steak chimichanga covered in queso. It was delicious and I ate way too much. We learned kind of how to say Eine miene minee moe (don't know how to spell that) in Spanish. It was super fun. Afterwards, we went to Donovan's house. He is awesome. He wants to turn his life around. We taught him about the gospel/doctrine of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized. He said he is still not ready but is going to keep preparing. To end the night, we had a lesson with Jonas. He is adorable and always says, "Esta bien." He wants to be baptized but still doesn't know. We are going to keep helping him along the way.
Saturday, I wasn’t feeling super good in the morning. So my companions ran around me. We went to a baptism all the way over in North Augusta. It was a 6 ½ hour round trip. We ate lots of snacks and cracked jokes. We got a lot done while we were in the car. We got called by the mariachi guy from Friday and now we are going to teach him. He lives in Florida, so we will pass him off. The baptism was beautiful like always. A family got baptized! The parents and their little boy. We drove back and went and ate dinner with a member named Elisandro. We ate these giant Tamales. They were super good and I thought my stomach was going to blow up. They had this pineapple coconut drink that was delicious and this interesting cookie milk drink. We tried out new tongue twisters and it just isn't possible. Then we had a phone call lesson with Aurelio. He sounds super nice (he is the most adorable thing in person!). We got to this house of a guy named Efrain who is a member. He opened the door and it was a guy I knew in Charleston! He was super surprised and so was I. He isn't doing super great, but we are here to help out. I am grateful that I can keep helping him because I wasn't able to stay in Charleston. We went to go visit Roberto. We were early so we went to a gas station. I got a super cute orange SC sticker. Roberto's lesson went really well. He was the most focused he has ever been. He is super smart and loves to read. He got his answer about baptism, but wants to fix some things in himself first.
Yesterday was super awesome. We cover English and Spanish work here so we go to two sacrament meetings. It was so fun! We actually have a Spanish branch! I haven’t served in a Spanish branch in about 8-9 months! It was so great! I didn’t have to translate and I sat by our people. We had so many people come! Jonas, Roberto, Donovan, Alejandro, Sirgio, Aurelio, and Pedro. We taught the youth class about the restoration. After church we talked to Roberto and Aurelio and kind of had little seperate lessons with them. Roberto opened up about some things so we can help him get him closer to baptism. Afterwards, we went and visited Nicol and Jesus. They are super cute! Jesus told us a cool story of how his cousin in jail told him he had been praying to find God and the day he told Jesus we knocked on the door to Jesus's house. We had gotten a prompting to go back and knock the house. He told us when we came he felt something... the spirit! They gave us a referral to visit his cousin's family. They are going to have a baby!! They are super interested in learning more. Finally, we were able to eat dinner. We went to Genni’s house. She fed us this shrimp soup with the whole shrimp in it. We had to pull it apart and pretty much dissect it to get the meat. It was really good, but threw me off to see my food looking at me. Then we drove to our lesson with Aurelio and Pedro. We get there and Pedro was playing music composed from our church. That was a shocker. He surprised us with pizza and wings. (I told him at church that we don’t eat out on Sundays, but we could eat at his house sometime. Then he bought Pizza and brought it to us.) So we ate a second dinner. We taught them the rest of the plan of salvation and committed them to reading the Book of Mormon. I told Pedro if he doesn’t read it, we can’t come back. He bursted out laughing. It has become an inside joke. During the lesson, Pedro gave us these head massager things. We spent like 10 minutes taking pictures and laughing. Right when we were leaving and taking some more pictures this song came on. It is the song that they play every Zone Conference for the baptism pictures. We got super excited and we all started singing. They were confused but loved it. It was like a sign saying that they are going to get baptized!
I am so excited to work hard in this new area. It just surprises me how I can love these people so much when I barely even know them or haven't even met them yet. Charity is the pure love of Christ. In Moroni 7:47-48 it says, "(47)But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. (48) Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." It isn't easy to have Charity, but it is possible. I wasn't super excited to come to South Carolina to serve my mission. I was told to pray for charity and love towards the people here. Now I love them with all my heart. I'm striving to be more like Jesus and follow in His ways. He is the best example we have and I am grateful for that.
Love you all! Have a great week!
This past week was super crazy, but really fun. Because we are Spanish and English we have to find so many new people to teach a week. The people that we are teaching out here are so awesome and I love my companions. This is probably the happiest I have been in a trio. Hna. Stewart and Williamson think that I am hilarious… I don’t know why. It is pretty funny because they are always laughing really hard.
Last Monday, we went down to Georgia!! I have offically been there now. Sadly, I didn’t get a picture by the state sign. We had a Zone P-day. This zone is the smallest one in the mission. We ate pizza and then we played volleyball and lightning. It was super fun. We went and visited Yoshi. He is nice and we have this Terrarium from him. It has bugs in it. These weird centipede looking things. It is our decoration for our dinner table. Afterwards, we went and visited Jonas. He had a friend there, so we taught them a little about the restoration. Then, we went over to Donovan’s house. We taught him about the 10 commandments.
Tuesday morning we had DCM up in Ridgeland. Hna. Stewart is our district leader, so that is fun. We talked about the importance of inviting the people we teach to do things. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite and help others to come unto Christ. When we invite people to do things, we are inviting them to change and come unto Christ. For lunch, we got Dairy Queen and called Pedro. We asked him why he hadn't read, so he started reading on the phone. It was hilarious. We went and visited Maria who is about to have a baby. They were eating red mole and gave me some. It was super good. I think I prefer it more then brown mole. We taught them the restoration and she really liked it. We are going back in a week so she can have time with her new baby. After that, we had a great lesson with Aurelio. We gave him his baptismal calendar and talked to him about the Word of Windom. He is totally up to living it! He asked us if he would be a good member and we said of course. We told him all the things we love about him and he started to tear up. Chris came in and we were able to help and teach him too. Then we drove to English class and it was awesome! We called Jonas after and invited him to read the Book of Mormon.
We went and practiced for a musical number on Wednesday. We are going to be singing in church in a couple of weeks. Afterwards, we went and had a lesson with Cody. He is super funny. He has some addictions that he is going through. He used to believe that there was no God and now he is praying. We taught him about prophets. We did an object lesson where we had him put out his hand (people)and try to follow our hand (God) with his eyes closed. He couldn't and thought it was funny. Then we had him hold up his thumb to represent the prophet. We then guided his hand with his thumb👍. He got it! Afterwards, we visited this older couple that are members. They are so cute! They gave us some food and we sang with them. They loved one of my past companions Hna. Berry. For dinner, we ate with the Bejars. We ate this rice soup and chicken taquitos. It was super good. For dessert, we had these fancy cake pop things. Then we visited Ezekiel. We sang a song and met another one of his roommates David. He was hilarious and probably is looking for a wife. He kept mentioning it and we kept mentioning church. They invited us over for dinner next week.
On Thursday we went and visited this lady named Elizabeth. We taught her about the restoration and are going back next week. We then had the craziest lesson with Justin and Hannah (they speak English) . We taught them part of the restoration and it went well. Then it fell apart… they started to pretty much bash us about the trinity. They tried to explain it to us and used analogies but then said you can't use analogies. It was so confusing. English work is sooo different from Spanish work. I prefer Spanish but I know I will learn a lot from working with English people. We went to dinner with Rafael, a recent convert. He is so awesome! We got tacos from a taco truck. I got one of chicharrón, asada, and carnitas. I took a bite of the chicharrón and it was weird. Turns out that chicharrón is pig skin🐖. I ate it, but I prefer the way it is in pupusas. Then we taught English class. Roberto was in mine! We were talking about keys and other things. All of a sudden I keep hearing the word kiss. I was like why are we talking about kissing? Keys… kiss. They do sound pretty similar. We all started laughing. The things you learn while teaching English.
On Friday, we planned a lot for the upcoming week. Then we went and visited this address that we have. They didn't answer, so we knocked on the door next to it. It was a guy from Honduras. We talked and invited him to English class. Then we knocked on the next door. It was a guy who didn't seem super interested. We went to get in the car, and the people pulled up. We knocked on their door and they let us right in! I was caught really off guard. They remembered when their daughter got taught and they wanted us to come back. If we wouldn't have knocked the other doors and just left, we would've never met them. Afterwards, we visited that Cesar I talked about a couple of weeks ago. His mom just broke her foot. They are just going through so much. They gave us a little purse that she made. After that, we had a lesson with Jose Ramos. He is awesome! We read 2 Nephi 31 with him. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that he needs to be baptized!! He just needs to choose when. We got Chick-fil-a on the way to Jonas's house. It was very much needed. Then we taught Jonas about repentance and the Atonement while his 3 yr. old Joseph was running around. To end the day, we called Aurelio and taught him about temples. It was so cute! He asked us if his baptism is February 26th and if it is at 5pm. We hadn’t chosen a time, but he gave us one. So we told him yes! We are super excited for his baptism and he is too!
We went and visited Maria and Demetrio Saturday morning. Their kids are so cute. We read the Book of Mormon with them, and they are going to keep reading it. They invited us to go out to eat with them. So next week we are going to eat tacos. We went out to lunch at Panera with this guy named Raheem. We didn’t know what to expect but he is super awesome. He wants to meet with us and come to church! At the end, he told us he had a getaway plan if we were crazy. He would have taken our buzzers up to the front, given the guy $20 to take us our food, and left. It was a good thing we weren’t crazy. We went and visited this address looking for a guy named Giovanni. He wasn't there but his sister was. She went and got his friend Ricardo. He called Giovanni and said some niñas were here to see him. I told him that were weren't niñas and he moved father away to talk. Apparently he didn't realize we understood Spanish. I should've kept my mouth shut and listened. Hna. Williamson asked to use his bathroom and he said he would check how it was. He never came back out… so the sister came to the door and said he was busy. It was a flat out rejection that was hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing. Then we called Pedro and talked for a little while. After that, we had a lesson with Donovan. He bought us stuffed animals for us for Valentine's Day. It was so nice of him. We taught him a little more about repentance. Then we went to our Talent Night!! La noche de los talentos!! It was super fun. Not a lot of people showed up but it was still a good turn out. The Elders and us sang "You are my Sunshine." (It is actually a sad song) I also played a song on the piano. Roberto got up and did a rap that he wrote. It was cool. We understood him but we can't speak Spanish THAT fast. After the talent show we ate some pizza and dessert. We met someone that wants to be baptized so we are going to help him with that. Then we talked to Donovan and Roberto. We listened to the things they are going through and helped them out.
Yesterday was an awesome day. English sacrament meeting went well. We taught the youth Sunday School class. We taught them about the 10 commandments and some hand signs to help remember them. Then we had Spanish sacrament meeting. I am so grateful that I can listen to church and not have to worry about translating. It was a great experience before, but it is good to have a break. Roberto, Donovan, Jose Manuel, Aurelio, and Elisandro came!! The talks were awesome. When we go through trials it shows our true character. When I heard that I just started to think. I am the person who I am today because of the things that I have gone through. I am not too fond of change, but change is the thing that helps me grow. My mom once told me that I could be sad and wallow away because of the things that were happening or I could be happy and learn something from it. After church we called this guy and now we are going to go visit him! Then we went to Nicol’s house. She is adorable. We taught her about prophets. Afterwards, a lot of our lessons canceled. We visited Efrain and he is going to start reading the Book of Mormon everyday. He wants to become better. We ended the night with a bang. We went and taught Roberto! We were teaching the first part of the plan of salvation and he just understood. He compared this life here to school. Then he asked, “What do we do with what we’ve learned here after?” We were really shocked. We taught the rest of it. As I was explaining the three kingdoms, he stopped me. Then he explained it without me even telling him. It was neat to see him put the pieces together in his mind. I asked him where he wants to go and he asked me, "Where do you deserve to go?" It was a blunt question. Right now I am not worthy of the Celestial kingdom, I’m not. I am going to do everything I can to make it there and be with my family forever. Roberto then explained the whole plan to us. He loved it and just soaked it all up. He told us what he needs to do. We thought about it and it probably helps that he has read the whole Book of Mormon. He loves it! As we shared 2 Nephi 2:22-23, he got up and grabbed a pen to mark it and asked questions. It was adorable. The spirit was strong in our lesson and we hope that he will remember the things that clicked. My alarm to get ready for bed went off and I turned it off. During the closing prayer the second one went off. It was super embarrassing. Roberto prayed that I would remember to turn off my alarm so it wouldn't interrupt our conversations.😂
A funny thing that happened a little while ago. We were at Jonas's house and he told us that he hadn't read the Book of Mormon. He said there were a lot of obstáculos that happened, but we heard tacos. We were like buy tacos on another day. He was so confused😂 and so were we. I gave us a good laugh.
