Tracting...

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