Week Thirty-Nine: The Perfect Storm

On exchanges with Hermana Martineau

Area: Buena Vista Spanish Ward
Companion: Hermana Zambrano

This week was an interesting one. I really think that I have been able to grow and see the hand of the Lord in the things that we have been doing. It is always good to have a spiritual high from General Conference.

This week, we had exchanges. I left with Hermana Martineau and travelled up to Arvin (always a fun place to be). It is just a couple of homes, a lot of dirt, and is surrounded by grape fields. It was a pretty good exchange. Right in the middle, we started talking to a weatherman. While we were telling him about the Restoration, he looked at the sky and noticed that it was quickly darkening and that there was lightning flashing a couple of miles away. I guess that he was scared of lightning, so he ran inside his house. We were walking back to the car when we noticed that the dust was starting to blow a lot. We made it to the car and started driving to a member's house to find shelter, but the dust was so bad that I couldn't see the road and we had to pull over. Then it started to pour down rain. The rain mixed with the dust in the air and so it started to rain down mud. It was pretty much the strangest weather that I have experienced in my entire life. We finally made it to the member's house. When we got there, one of her nonmember friends was there and we were able to teach her as well. It turned out to be a pretty good lesson. When we left the house, the sky was clear, there was a rainbow, and you could see the mountains that are normally hidden by pollution. It was pretty miraculous.

While we were walking around the other day, we talked to a young man. He said that he was busy and that we could come back later that afternoon. We were a little skeptical, but we went back later and talked to him. He said that he is going through some really hard things in his life right now and that he wants to come closer to God and to learn more of him. We sat and talked to him for a long time about the things that are going on in his life and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him. I have really gained a testimony lately about how every single person on the earth can benefit from learning about and coming closer to Jesus Christ. It really is amazing!

One morning, we were walking down the street in the outskirts of the city when we heard banda music coming from behind one of the houses. Hermana Zambrano thought that there might be another house behind the one we could see from the road, so we decided to go check it out. It turned out that it was just the backyard of the house we could see (imagine that!) but we decided that it would be too strange to walk away once they had seen us, so we walked right into the backyard. We decided to steer clear of the drunken poker game that was going on in the barn, but we were able to talk to someone who was sitting outside. After avoiding his drunk friends, we were able to get his information and set up a time that we could see him again. We went back to see him yesterday and started talking to him. It turns out that he is a war veteran and that he has been struggling with some issues relating to that. When we told him about the message of the Restoration, he was super excited that there are modern day prophets. It made me think about how we are guided to do some strange things sometimes. I guess Heavenly Father knows what he wants to have happen.

Speaking of guidance, General Conference was amazing! I feel like all of the talks were speaking directly to me. I loved the Saturday Afternoon session. I feel like the entire thing was all about missionary work and how we can help others to have the same joy that we experience. We were able to help one of our investigators to watch the talk the President Monson gave and he said that it was incredible and that you couldn't deny that he was speaking the truth. I second that! I love that we are able to receive direction from God through the modern day prophets.

That is pretty much it for the week. I really love the mission and I can't believe that I am already nine months in. I feel like I just came here, but I know that I have been growing and changing so much. I wouldn't change it for the world! I hope that you all have a good week back home!

Hermana Blau

The dust storms. Scary!