Hey Mom & Dad!
Yes I got the packages! Thank you so so so much! It has been
a really long week. It’s been stressful and tiring but it was all totally worth
it.
Most of our investigators fell through or started avoiding
us, so we spent most of our time tracting this week. It was interesting. Almost the entire week was entirely tracting,
which is kind of stressful, at least for me it is. We have a couple of new investigators who
agreed to meet with us this week. A
couple of women with small children.
We were able to teach one lesson to a guy who was atheist,
so that was interesting. He was willing to pray at the end of a quick 15 minute
lesson, and it was so sweet. The spirit was so strong, but he said he didn’t
feel anything. It’s too bad that he is
moving. Sister Smith said she thought that he did feel something, but didn’t
like it. Apparently when people who are sinning really badly feel the spirit
for the first time they don’t like it. Like it almost hurts.
We have met a lot of interesting people tracting. Not all of them nice. Ran into my first anti this week too, then my
crazy companion made an appointment to go back to "teach" him. I’m pretty sure that the only reason he
agreed was because he thinks he’s going to save our souls. But I told Sister Smith
that I’m not going in there without the Elders, because I know it’s going to go
badly. Hopefully it doesn’t, but its making me somewhat worried.
Missionary work is so tiring! But the few things that go
right are totally worth it!
We had a bit of success though, we found a couple of new
people to teach who I am excited about and a part member family decided to take
the lessons, again. This man has been
investigating the church for over 30 years, but it’s been several since he last
met with the missionaries. So we are
excited. We are trying to go about the
lessons in a different way because he has heard them all multiple times before.
Any ideas? I know that we are going out
at some point to do service and help them haul wood. The family is really sweet. And now we have
the support of a couple of the children. One of the boys who the Elders are working
with to get him on a mission and one of the girls who really wants her dad baptized.
So we are optimistic!
But really other than that, there aren't any other even sort
of solid investigators. But we have
several other first time lessons this week, so it should be interesting. Yeah, this week should be interesting. I haven't had the chance to teach much. So
this will be my first real experience with it this week.
Several times we have run into people who only speak Spanish,
I am so lost! I’m thinking I may need to
brush up on a bit of Spanish. The Spanish
people are so nice. They always invite you in and want to talk. Unfortunately, I
don’t speak any Spanish and my companion only speaks a little. Last night we were tracting and this cute Spanish
couple let us in without even talking to us. Luckily my companion knows a bit
of Spanish and was able to hold a sort of conversation. They weren’t interested
in the church, but were super nice. I now understand why the Spanish Elders and
Sisters here have so much trouble finding people who are actually interested.
The have a ton of investigators, but very few who are actually solid.
So I had a really interesting experience this week. I think it was Tuesday that we didn't have
anything to do, quite literally. We visited every single investigator and then
some and we tracted for a huge portion of the day and didn't get anything
accomplished and by that time it was about 5. So my companion was freaking
out, said she felt depressed. I felt fine, but she was totally stressed. So the
Elders were at one of the Bishopric’s house getting haircuts and she called
them to ask for a blessing. So we went there and she got a blessing. It was the most spiritual blessing that I
have ever witnessed. I've never felt like a blessing came so directly from
Heavenly Father before. It was amazing,
and even though I didn't get one, I felt like it was for everyone in the room.
Most blessings are very simple and the same sort of things
over and over again. But these were really personal. The bishopric member
giving them, was saying things that I know he would never say if he was the one
speaking. My companion was given some great advice on missionary work and the
power of prayer. The spirit was so
strong and you could feel that Heavenly Father loves us so much!
Not really any plans for P-day activity today. The Elders
want to go find some pawn shop in Los Lunes, so, I guess we are going to go
with them, but I’m not too sure. I’m not sure why they want to go but I think
they want to find cowboy gear...? Belt buckles, spurs, and such. Sister Smith and I want to do some Halloween
baking, so that's something.
I can’t believe that my first transfer is almost half over
already! It’s going so slow and so fast at the same time :) All the missionaries say that this is an area
that you get stuck in for a while. So there is a chance that I’ll be in Belen
for a while. The sisters only opened
this area a couple of transfers ago and then stopped contacting after they had
a few investigators. So now we have to do both teaching and contacting to
constantly keep the teaching pool up, but it is getting better.
We've definitely had some great experiences though that show
that after working really hard, we do have a tiny bits of success, so we
continue to work hard.
Love you!
Em
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