Well Flip....

Hola mi familia!

Sorry this is so late, we went and worked until 4 and then began ciber. Anyhoo, this week was really long, but really good. To begin, we had a crazy hailstorm with stones literally the size of golf balls. I kid you not, they were huge. And when they began to fall, we were under a tin roof, so it was soo loud! We almost had a heart attack. On the upside, we were stuck there for about an hour and a half, so...we got to know the investigators really well:)

A good experience this week was when we taught the Araujo family. They came to conference last week, and this week we really wanted to push for a baptismal date. Anyways, the mom was really afraid to take the step to pray for an answer, so we read a scripture that Pres. McMullin (mission president) had just given to us THAT DAY! It is in 1 Juan 4:18. It is how if we have the true love of Christ, we have no need to fear. It was legit. The spirit was so strong and I hope that they will act on the love that they feel and pray to their Father and Heaven.

My companion made this food the other day by mixing and blending saltine crackers, bread, chilis, milk, and some other stuff all together. You put it on top of rice. It was pretty good until I thought about when Lacy had thrown up on the carpet...and how it looked...seriously, the exact same as the food I was eating. I love food, but I could not eat any more...my appetite was GONE.

Another funny food story was when we were eating at a less active`s home and they gave us flan for dessert. For those who don't know, flan is like pudding and jello mixed, and sometimes with the texture of rice in the middle...I can't really explain it...but yeah, it was really weird. I was trying to gag it down when all of the sudden the guy started to talk about his bowel problems (gestures and everything). Yeah, wasn't going to happen:)

We found a whole family of less actives (basically our whole area is inactive) on Saturday, and we had a pretty good lesson. During the lesson, I looked at the hand I had just shook and it was COVERED in huge nasty looking planter wart thingies. It was gross...after we left, the first thing my companion said was "Jesus touched the lepers and didn't get sick..." We giggled a little and put on LOTS of hand sanitizer.

Our goal for this next week is to be able to help our ward get back on its feet. It is slightly dysfunctional, and the health of the bishop isn't very good, so we are trying to get things moving a little with recent converts and such. We are planning a ward activity for the 25th of October with the other ward, so I hope that it works well and we can get things moving.

I think that this is slowly becoming my comfort zone. I love meeting new people, which is weird for me. It is fun to look back and see how I have progressed, even if it is only a little. I really struggle with the slowness of everything here. Another really hard thing is that our ward is basically dysfunctional. There hasn't been a calling since the week I came, and the bishop just goes home after church and doesn't really do anything to help those people in his ward. he has a good heart and an amazing family, and we are doing all we can to support him and make his life a little easier, because there are a ton of people in this ward who only attend church every other Sunday so they can get their welfare check...it is something we are trying really hard to work on, but there is only so much you can do. Any suggestions?

As I have tried to learn to love these people, sometimes, I am just like WHY! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!!! But I am trying to see them as Christ does, with all the love that I have in me. Because I can see that our investigators can tell when we sincerely want to help them. Even in street contacting, we can make an impression and help them to realize a little of what Heavenly Father has in store for them. I am going to try to work on that this week too. we can do it and compare experiences. I am out of time, but tell mom that I love her so much, and thanks for all that she has taught me, both you and her, and that I can do hard things. Because this is hard. but i can do it with the help of heaven.

Anyways, It was a good week with lots of learning experiences and lots of new people. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here to grow and learn how to help others to develop an enduring testimony of Christ and His gospel. What a responsibility, and what a blessing it has been. Thanks for all of the emails! Love you all and have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Farish