(Heidi was reassigned to Richmond, Virginia while she awaits for her visa to come. She arrived in Richmond last Tuesday and has been busy being a missionary!!)
So guess what! I'm a real missionary! How crazy is that? I have two amazing companions, Hermana (Which means sister in Spanish) C and Hermana H and I love them both so much! They picked me up on Thursday and we just jumped right into the work! I definitely didn't talk much (That's not like Heidi at all!) at all that first day, I was having a hard time understanding what in the world anyone was saying! But then on Friday we did some English lessons and I felt a lot better. Haha but only a little but it's still hard to understand some of these southerners even when they speak English! Oh goodness. It's a party down here! Also, the mosquitos have discovered that they love me. I have 18 bites from the past four days on my shins. Don't worry Mom, I'm buying bug spray today!
We have some AMAZING recent converts that we're teaching. They are seriously so strong, inspirational, and hilarious! And they all speak in English! And then all of our investigators are Spanish. They are also amazing. One is named (not given), and he is so strong already. He went to church three times before we started teaching him! We taught him the restoration (The re-establishment of the ancient church and gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days as revealed by God through Joseph Smith and the prophets who have succeeded him as president of the Church. The term “restored gospel” is used to emphasize its restoration from New Testament times) on Thursday and he had read the pamphlet and was basically telling us how it goes! Haha he's so great.
And then we have another one, who I met yesterday. His name is (not given) and he works on Sundays so he's been really hard to get to go to church. So last night we took him on a church tour! The Spirit was seriously SO STRONG there it was incredible. And I was speaking Spanish! I answered some of his questions, we flowed in unity and all took turns speaking, it was great! So basically, I love church tours. Haha but we saw the picture of Christ calling Peter James and John to be fishers of men, and someone we were teaching got excited and was like I know this one! Thats Christ calling his Apostles! Peter, James, John, Moses.... Hahahaha it was so hard to not crack up laughing right there! But we got past it and had a great time.
Speaking of church, that was an adventure! We go to an English ward, and Sister C translates all the talks and everything into Spanish right then and there (no pressure!) for our one active Spanish family, and any investigators we have there! It is so crazy. We have another brother in the ward that served his mission spanish speaking ten years ago. He helps out as best as he can and we are so blessed to have him! I am so scared for when I have to translate but it'll all be good!
Our talks yesterday were about pioneers so we were all struggling with those words (anyone know what a handcart is in Spanish? No? me neither...) but Sister C did her best and Heavenly Father filled in the rest! The invesitigator said she did great (he's so nice) and that he felt the Spirit (YAY!). And his nieces that he had with him wanted to stay for Primary (the organization the church has for children 4-11 years old), so he stayed all three hours! So great!
I'm so excited to serve here with these wonderful people! They don't have much but the Lord blesses them greatly. I love talking to them about their answers to prayers, they have so many crazy cool stories! They really know how to find the miracles in life! In Spanish, "mira" means look, and one thing that I've learned this week is that there are so many little miracles throughout the day if we look for them.
Oh man I'll tell you an amazing thing about our weaknesses turning into strengths again. Ok here is the story: So a missionary I was teaching with has a struggle with depression. But she is a fighter and it is so impressive to see her push through the hard times. Friday morning she had an attack of depression, and through the Lord was able to get the will to get up and go to work! She still wasn't feeling that great, but she was doing her best for that day! One of our appointments fell through so we knocked on some random doors, and got let into to a house where the lady had problems with a mental disorder, I think it was bipolar. As we were talking about it, this particular missionary shared Alma 7: 11-12, (click for scripture) about the Atonement and how Christ understands ALL of our pains and feelings and will help us and comfort us as we come to Him. She started crying and the Spirit was so strong and it was just an amazing reconfirmation that our weaknesses really can become our strengths. Because nothing else that we were saying was helping this lady, but this particular missionary knew just what to say because of her experiences. What an amazing blessing the Atonement is! The Lord loves us all and will always give us the miracles that we need. Check out Alma 37: 16-17 and think about the promises that we have been given by the Lord. Pretty awesome! I know this church is true and I know that the power of God is real. I love you all and hope you have an amazing have an amazing week!
A Dios, Hermana Albright
opening her call!!
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