Choose Faith

 November 11, 2013

Hello Family! And Everyone!

Hombre, it feels like I just wrote you guys...what do I even say! It´s been an interesting week I suppose. We still couldn´t really get our investigators to be at citas or be at Church so I feel like nothing is going quite right, but it´s okay. We´re learning!

Anyway, it´s finally gotten kind of cold! Hna Thompson and I are going shopping for jackets today, so this is pretty significant. The worst part is that during the day I´m actually just fine with a cardigan, but it gets quite chilly at night. The worst part is knowing that the temperature would be perfect if it wasn´t for the fact that this city is so breezy! Everything I loved about the weather has turned on me. In the summer I loved walking in the shade and the breeze saved us on more than one occasion. But now we walk on the sunny side of the street and die inside a tiny bit everytime the wind blows. And there have been a couple days where the wind was just ridiculous!! Like, we had to really hold onto our skirts at some points! Also, I used to feel bad for the elders because they had to wear long pants in the hot summer but now I envy them that they can wear pants. That´s the worst! I can handle the cold but in a skirt it´s awful. But sometimes i think about how the weather is in the States and realize that it´s still not cold here at all :)

This week was interesting in terms of planning. Planning is the weirdest thing. There are days when we´ve planned really well and have plenty of citas and every single thing falls through. But then there are days when we have no set citas and then we get new investigators and people miraculously let us in. It´s really crazy honestly, and I figure that it´s the Lord showing us that He´s in charge, no matter what. I´ve also learned a lot about the Gift of Tongues since being on the mission. When you´re young (and even when you´re older, I guess) you think that the Gift of Tongues is this really cool thing that magically can make you speak the language perfectly and you might not even know what you´re saying! Now, in rare situations that might actually be the case. However, I have found that the majority of the time, the Gift of Tongues is the power to be understood even when you don´t understand the language and don´t speak with perfect grammar. It´s not the power to speak completely fluently, but it´s the power to remember the one word you need to complete the sentence. It really was a powerful realization to me.

So I believe that last week I told you all about Marcelo, our Jehovah´s Witness investigator. And like I said before, I really respect all religions, but I just want to point out some things he said that didn´t make any sense at all. First of all, if you really want to know Marcelo, go read 2 Nephi 29 because he is the living version of that chapter. He claims the Bible is the word of God and it is his guide in life. That is really great! However, if you love the word of God as much as you say you do, why would you get angry at God giving us more of His word! (once again, I can´t make the question mark work on this computer haha). Why put a limit on God´s word!!! It doesn´t make any sense! If God is loving and loves all His children equally, it just doesn´t make sense that He would limit His words to one book in all the time of the world. And even if you don´t believe it, why not at least try and read it! If someone said they had the word of God, I would read it before making the decision. He says he´s open minded but honestly, he´s not at all. Also, you can´t pick and choose what verses in the Bible to believe, which he does as well. We brought up the verse in the Bible about the Spirit World and baptism for the dead and after failing to really argue about it, he just said that some verses in the Bible can´t be taken literally. Seriously, that cannot be the answer to everything! Interestingly, though, we were teaching about the Plan of Salvation and he has some sort of illness but he kept getting all worked up and breathing really hard and I honestly thought he was going to die right there while we were talking about the Spirit World. Now obviously, I don´t want him to die, but let´s be honest, that would have been crazy timing! Anyway, we don´t think we´re going back to visit him again anytime soon. Also, he said we couldn´t pray because we are women. Boy did that make us angry! Apparently the Bible says something about it and the only thing I could find was in Corinthians it said that women should be silent in the Church but the JST version says they can´t RULE in the Church, which we know already because women don´t have the Priesthood, so the verse really isn´t a big deal.

So Hna Thompson has been sick this week. It started out as just a cough but now she´s been really congested and we haven´t been stuck in the piso all day yet, but we´ve come home early a couple nights because walking around in the cold and dark isn´t going to help and she needs extra sleep, so I´ve had lots of extra study time and my reading of the Book of Mormon has just skyrocketed, I´ve never read it so quickly before! Haha but in all honesty, it´s not fun at all when your comp is sick because they feel unmotivated and so she´s not talking to anyone on the streets and I have a hard time when I´m the only one trying, so it´s been a very unproductive week in my opinion. But 1 Corinthians 15:58 has been my saving grace this week. (I should tell that to Marcelo. We DO read and get revelation and comfort from the Bible!!!)

I have a missionary work tip for you all again. And it is to make time to accompany the missionaries to a lesson. Believe me, we would never have survived with Marcelo if we hadn´t had a member Maribel with us. She was super helpful. So please, I know it´s not convenient, but just try to find room every couple weeks to offer some of your time to the missionaries! You will be blessed more than you know!!!

Well, have a great week, stay warm, and go spread the Gospel!

Hermana Andrew