So I have decided that every day, and thus every week, in the
mission is best described as weird. Haha but I love it so much and there
are so many great things to be found in every day! This week had a lot
"firsts" in it, which were crazy, fun, miraculous, and
heart-wrenching.
First baptismal date! One of our investigators committed to
baptism! President Wilson challenged us to be inviting to be baptized in every
meeting with every person. That has really been a challenge for us,
because it is such a personal decision and we don't want to be forcing it on
them or be annoying. But as we have been working hard to do what he (and what God) has asked of us, we have really felt the Spirit, and had some great experiences!
Including this one. I'm so excited for her, she is really focusing on doing
what the Lord wants her to do. She is so amazing.
First real drop. (aw! Sorry Heidi!) One of our investigators has been loving
the glorious news of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. Her mom just
died and she has found great joy in the knowledge that she can be with her
again. However, she is renting a room from her sister, and takes care of
her sister's kids pretty much all day, every day. Her sister apparently
didn't know we were coming over, and found out last week. Because she
doesn't know us, she doesn't want us coming over and teaching which totally
makes sense and I'm so glad to hear that she is worried about what her kids are
learning. It was so sad though, because our investigator wants to continue to
learn with us. She has a Book of Mormon and all the pamphlets though, so she
will continue reading and learning and growing closer to God.
First exchanges! (Exchanges are when the missionaries go out for the day with someone who is not their companion.) So Sister Training Leaders go on exchanges with
us, just like the Zone Leaders do with the Elders. So much fun! I
learned so much from Hermana B (Hermana is sister in spanish). Then, halfway through our exchange,
we had to do more exchanges haha because someone was being baptized and so the
Hermanas that had taught her wanted to go, and they were just all over the
place. So I ended up with the English Sisters that we live with for the
last half of the day, and had a great time with them! Which leads into my next
first...
First time speaking Spanish without anyone there to save me! As
I was with the English Sisters, we went tracting for a bit. We knocked on
one house, and started talking to a 17 year old boy there. I had the
feeling that I should ask him if he spoke Spanish, but I didn't want to seem
racist and be like Hey, you look Hispanic, do you speak Spanish? So I was kind
of reluctant to bring it up (which by the way, DON'T do that. If the Spirit
prompts you to do something follow it, no matter how weird it seems). He was
about to close the door on us, when one of the little kids in the room behind
him said "Esta aqui!' THEY SPOKE SPANISH! So really quickly before the
door was shut, I asked him if he spoke Spanish. He said "ya...but I can
speak English," and gave me the weirdest look like Hello, where have you
been? We've been speaking english this whole time did you not understand me? So
then I explained that I was a Spanish misisonary from the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter day Saints and talked a little bit about what we do (which is
exactly what the English Sisters had done before me, the only difference was
that this time it was in Spanish). He called his mom over and as she came
to the door I realized... OH NO. This is all on me. Hermana C isn't here to
save me if I don't understand something (which actually happens about 93% of
the time). But I wasn't alone. The Lord was with me. I was
able to speak and understand in Spanish with this wonderful lady. We talked for
a couple minutes, and I thought she was going to just say no, because she was
going off about how little time she has with work (Story of everyone's lives
here) but right as I was about to give up she said that her whole family
back in Guatemala is Mormon and if we speak about God, she would love to meet
with us! Whoohoo!!! So we're going to try to meet with her on Thursday. I'm so
excited!
First interrupted lesson. So we were teaching one of our
investigators and the kids were outside and then they ran in and told us that
our friend was here. We looked out the window and coming up to the trailer was
a girl that none of us knew, so we were all like HUH? She came to the door, and
started talking to our investigator, and turns out she's a Jehovah Witness
missionary! So our investigator tells her, oh ya, i'm already meeting with you
missionaries, look, here's your sisters! The lady looks at us, realizes who we
are, and apologizes and leaves. It was just so funny though because we
were all so confused and it was definitely a bit awkward. But I'm glad to
know that there's other people serving the Lord and helping others come to God
in the best way that they can.
And to end, another miracle: four weeks ago, the English Sisters
in our apartment lost their church keys. They were stressing out about it
a lot because they felt irresponsible and annoying to the church leaders that
they had to keep asking for keys. Sister Roosendaal finally decided to
pray about it on Thursday, because it was bothering her so much (lesson #1:
always pray in the beginning of a problem). The next day, we were walking
out to their car, and something drops behind them. We look back, and it's their
keys!!! Four weeks and there they are! It's seriously like they fell from the
sky. So ya, God answers prayers!
I hope you are all having an amazing week! My testimony about
the Atonement has really grown a lot this week. I have been listening to
a song by Josh Groban that is absolutely AMAZING you should definitely listen
to it sometime this week! It's either called Don't Give Up or You Are Loved or
Weight of the World. I don't really know, but those are lines most repeated in
the song so it's something like that. Whenever it seems like we ar alone,
Christ is there. He knows exactly how we feel and He will always
help us.
A Dios,
Hermana
Albright
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