Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen
This week has been kind of slow, but we have really been seeing miracles! I think that I have learned more about how the Lord will always help us in this work this week than I have during any other week so far.
The most eventful thing that happened during
the beginning of this week was that we finally won the victory over the
miles! All of the walking and biking worked out and we were able to
finish out the month of May with exactly 1100.4 miles. It was pretty
impressive (if I do say so myself). The only problem is that the
temperature has finally started to resemble what I imagined California
summers would be like. During the days, it is 100 degrees or more with
no clouds in the sky. When the wind blows, it feels like a blow-dryer! I
can't remember if I shared this last week, but I have finally started
to get sunburned. The difference here as opposed to Missouri is that my
sunburns are turning into tans. It is the strangest thing.
One
funny story. We were walking along the street the other day and I got
really close to a fence. It turned out that the top of the fence was
made of something sharp, so I cut my arm up. It wasn't super bad, but it
started to bleed a little bit. Instead of taking one of Hermana Van der
Toolen's band-aids, I decided that it would be a good talking point. We
knocked on a door and I showed the lady my bleeding arm and asked if
she would give me a band-aid. While she was helping me out, we were able
to talk to her. She wasn't super interested, but I was able to tell her
that I got cut because "yo estaba muy cerca a una cerca". [Translation: I was very close to a fence. (In Spanish the words for "close" and "fence" are the same.)] That made me
chuckle for the rest of the day.
Because it is
so hot during the day, we have been trying to set up visits with less
active members. It has actually been working out pretty well. We get to
come in from the heat and the sun and we also get to teach people. There
are a lot of people in the Esperanza ward who haven't been contacted
for a long time, so it has been good to be able to see them. Hopefully,
we will be able to start helping them to come back to church.
This
week we had another lesson with Adriana. I don't know if you remember
her, but she is the one that we almost dropped because we thought that
she was Bible bashing us through text message. It turns out that she is
super prepared. She loves learning about the Gospel and reading in the
scriptures and she always keeps all of her commitments, which is a
breath of fresh air. Her biggest problem at this moment is with coming
to church. She works in a hotel as a maid and works pretty much all the
time. We went over to teach her about the importance of the Sabbath day.
When we asked her if she thought that her boss would give her Sundays
off, she said that she didn't think so. Apparently, her boss is a bit of
a jerk and doesn't like changing people's schedules. It is also hard
because Adriana really needs to work to help to support her family. We
shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with her and talked with her a little bit about faith
and the importance of church. Afterwards, we asked her if she would be
willing to go in and talk to her boss, and she said that she definitely
would because going to church is so important and she wants to know the
truth. It was super cool. She has so much faith. I think that my
experience with Adriana has really gone to show me that God is always
going to make sure that his prepared children receive the Gospel!
We
received the biggest surprise of this week yesterday. There is a family
that the Hermanas in this area have been teaching for a really long
time named the Liconas. They have had all the lessons and have been
coming to church regularly for a long time and all of them really want
to be baptized. The only problem is that the parents aren't married. For
a long time, they weren't able to get married because of a lack of
money to buy the marriage license and some relationship problems.
Recently, they haven't been able to get the license because they can
never get time off of work to go to buy the license during the week.
Yesterday, we texted the father to ask if we could come over on Sunday
night to teach a lesson with them and he said that we should come over
on Monday night because he got a day off of work. It turns out that they
are going to go and get their marriage license today! After that, there
is nothing stopping them from getting baptized. We have been fasting
and praying for them to be able to get the license for a long time, and
it looks like it is finally going to happen!
This
week has been a little bit interesting, but I have definitely been able
to see the hand of the Lord in this work. I am so glad that I am a
missionary and am able to see all of the positive changes that the
Gospel brings to people's lives. I love this church!
I love you all and I am hope that everything is going well at home. Keep cool and have fun at home!
Hermana Blau
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