The Sweetest Moments

This week, to be downright honest, was one of the hardest weeks of my mission.  For the first half of the week, it was 100ish degrees, and since Thursday it has been raining, and we have to have raincoats and sweaters. Bipolar, seriously.

We were kind of bummed, there were a lot of people this week that we had to drop, and at one point we just looked at each other and were like...???  What the heck are we supposed to say to that??  For example:

We contacted a lady named Emilce like 3 weeks ago, and we have been talking with her ever since, she just doesn't go to church.  We went to her house again on Thursday and she answered the door with huge purple bruises all over her body.  We were like...oh flip. She let us in and then promptly told us that she doesn't believe in God anymore, because what kind of God would let her husband abuse her like that?  If He is all powerful and all knowing, why didn't He do anything?  She said that she has decided that if her husband comes back, she won't be responsible for what she is going to do to him.  I honestly thought to myself, "I got nothing."  Its like I know that He loves us, and sometimes we don't understand why we have to go through some trials, but she didn't want any of it.  It made us so sad, and we can't let it get us down, but just the same. We will go back next week after it dies down a little and see what we can do.

I have been thinking about the whole attributes of Christ thing,  I think we are sent to different areas to learn, develop, and strengthen certain attributes.  For example, in Palma Loma I learned humility, patience, and love.  In Salado, faith, diligence, and obedience. The hard part is keeping the other ones strong while we are developing new ones...dangit. But that is just how it goes, I think.

We finally got to the end of this week, and it ended so wonderfully with Alejandro's baptism. Seriously, this kid is going to do something awesome, like reactivate his whole family. We taught them about tithing on Wednesday, and his mom told us on Friday that Alejandro asked her if he could wash the dishes, but that she would have to pay him so that he could pay his tithing:) We giggled a little:)  It was freezing cold and raining buckets Saturday night, but we still had like 30 people at the baptism, with the entire family of Alejandro. The spirit was so strong, and the mom was so happy. She told us that we were "una grande bendicion para su familia."  Sincere compliments like that don't come very often, so that was really nice. It was such a good feeling to see them all there for the first time in 15ish years.

After Alejandro was baptized, we were waiting outside the bathroom with his mom, and she just started to cry.  It kind of shocked us a little bit, because she is someone who is really closed, she doesn't really ever show her emotions.  We gave her a hug, and she told us that Alejandro had told her that his new goal is to get his dad to go back to church. SO....then WE started to cry, and I can honestly say that this moment was one of the sweetest of my mission.  It made this whole last week worth it.  I can't express how grateful I am to be here and witness the changes of heart that the Atonement can bring.  It is so wonderful, and I am so happy.  It stinks sometimes, but these sweet moments are what make it all worth it.  I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and I know that what we have will help whoever wants to receive it have a better life, full of sweet moments and tender mercies.  I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Alejandro with his family at his baptism

The weirdest thing that has ever happened to me

So, this week was pretty shweet.  We had a zone conference on Tuesday, and President talked about how we appear to the members and what we have to do to better gain their trust and confidence.  We left thinking about what it is that we need to change in our area, and what we could do better.  We went to our lunch appointment with Hermana Conti, and we shared a quick message and then asked for references.  She gave us the reference of a friend, Hermana Rios.  We told her, okay, we are going to go contact that right now, and she told us to wait because she was going to come with us.  We were like.....??  What just happened?  But it was real, she came with us and we were able to contact the reference. It was so amazing, and Hermana is AWESOME.   By the end of the week, we had received 22 references from members.  It was such a miracle, and we are working to contact all of them.

And...general conference was pretty much the greatest thing ever.  Like better than Christmas.  When Elder Holland talked about a mother's love, haha, all of the missionaries got a little teary eyed.  One of my questions was how can we keep progressing?  What can we do to seguir adelante (press forward???) and find everything that we need to improve and then improve it?  And in the first session my question was answered.  I liked what was said.  I don't remember who said it, but there are two things that have stuck in my mind,

"You can start where you are at, Heavenly Father will take you as you are." or something to that effect.

"It is your direction, not your speed, that matters."

I really felt, as I listened to the new apostles give their testimonies, and with all of the other testimonies, they are inspired.  They really are.  They have prayed and fasted to be able to answer the questions of millions of people, and they end up doing it.  Haha, no pressure.

One thing that was weird was that we were walking to an appointment and someone yelled "hermanitas (little sisters!)" and we were like, yup, nope, and we kept walking.  He yelled again, "La rubia es norteamericana?" (The blonde is North American?) so we walked even faster, and he ran up and began to talk about his interest in Americans and all that, it was SO uncomfortable.  So, so weird.

Other than that, Alejandro will get baptized this week, and we are looking to put a lot of dates so that people can keep progressing:)  I love you all, and have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Alejandro

Homemade...bread?

The Last Step

Y bueno, this week flew by, every day is just flying by faster.

Just so ya know, we didn't have transfers!!!  I get to have one more change with Hermana Cordova.  I am so happy, we have so much to do and Salado is just the greatest.

We had a really productive week, the Lord has blessed us with so many prepared people, and we were able to find a family that went to church on Sunday!  We had contacted a house and left a card, and then we asked for referrals from a member and she gave us the name of the woman who lived in this house...we were like um yep that would be a sign. Her name is Doris, and her daughters went to the talent show that we had last week, and it was just awesome.  We were kind of bumming around Saturday night, it had rained all day (it was WONDERFUL) and everyone was cooped up inside, so we decided to go and try to get in and contact the referral.  We went and clapped and her daughters let us in, and we had a lesson with them and with her nieces.  The next morning, we had to take a bus to go get some less actives and investigators, drop them off in the church, and then run to go get this family.  It was nuts, because we were like running to their house and we saw this group of people pass by and it was Doris with her nephew, Eduardo, niece Vanessa, daughters Jessica and Johanna.  I just about died of a heart attack. They had a great experience and we are going to have a FHE with them this week.

Also, we are still working with the Hermana Martinez and her son, Alejandro.  He has a baptismal date for October 10th, pray for him and her, please please please.  We are trying hard to activate his family so that they can get to the temple.

We are working with another lady, Victoria, who really wasn't progressing.  We weren't sure what to teach her, and honestly, we were going to drop her, but we prayed during weekly planning and we both thought about the book My Family, that talks about family history.  We had a lesson with her and she was so excited, she is going to talk with her sister so that she can fill it out (her sister is going to be visiting her, so that is why she can't go to church.  Might as well do something productive).

Today we went to the temple with Ramona and Lucia (recent converts).  My companion and I bore our testimonies and I felt the spirit so strong.  I love the temple.  I wish we could go more often, but that is okay.  Something that I have realized is that everything we do in the church, everything that we study, learn, memorize, feel, whatever, everything points to the temple.  Everything we have to endure is worth it when we understand and make eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father.  I love that so much.  That is the difference between the LDS church and the thousands of others: we will be together for the eternities.  What a blessing.

I love you, and I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Farish