Semana de Milagros

October 28, 2013

Dear Familia, Amigos, y Anyone reading this!

Well, it´s Pday again! It´s been quite the week. My title is Week of Miracles because we´ve had lots of mini miracles! Mostly those miracles are people that Hna Roan tried to visit before that were never home or always busy all of a sudden let us in and became new investigators! And then on a return appointments they had roommates or family members that appeared out of nowhere to listen to the message too and became new investigators. It´s pretty crazy! As soon as we sort through them and find the ones that really will progress I´ll share more names (right now I´m not too sure on any of them about how interested they really are, but as long as they agree to meet with us again they count as a new) and this week we had 11 news. That is CRAZY in this mission. It broke Hna Thompson´s record and most definitely broke mine! The most I had had before was 4 and the most hna Thompson had had was 8. The mission standard is supposed to be 3 but normally people don´t even make that. The weird thing is that it´s not like we worked extra hard, it´s just that more people let us in their house this week. That´s the weirdest part about missions, because sometimes you see results that you never expect and sometimes you expect miracles that never end up happening! The best new investigators that I´ll mention, however, is Andrea and her family. they are Romanian and friends with the Romanian family in our ward who I love so much. Hna Roan and Moreno had taught Andrea and her husband one lesson before I got here and Hna Roan and I tried for a few weeks to make another lesson happen but they were so flaky that it stopped being worth the effort so we put them in the old investigators file and Hna Thompson and I put in on our backup plans and she was home and let us in! So we had a short lesson and said we would come back on Sunday. The problem is that she didn´t speak a lot of Spanish so on Sunday we brought the Romanian family with us to translate but we didn´t realize so many people lived in Andrea´s piso and so all of a sudden tons of family members came out. Most of the time it was complete chaos and people went in and out, but 5 were definitely listening the whole time, so those 5 we could count as news. It was incredible. If all the family had stayed we could have had like 4 or 5 more. SO crazy. But yeah, I´m really hoping that they will progress! And update on Paco, they were really flaky this week and Alexandra kept saying she would call and she didn´t and they haven´t come to Church for 2 weeks now so I´m really worried about them :(

Fun fact: would any of you reading this think I am a blonde? (Referring to hair color, NOT a mental state hahaha). Because I´ve never been described as having blonde hair before, it´s brown or light brown. But here everyone calls me Rubia, blonde! I find it funny. it´s just because most people here have such dark hair that hair like mine is blonde to them. Another fun fact, have I ever told you guys about mediodia? Spain has this thing from 2-4/5pm where everyone goes home and takes naps and eats lunch (which is their biggest meal of the day). The shops close down, everything shuts down except buses and trains and the main grocery stores. We don´t contact during that time (there isn´t anything productive to do anyway) but sometimes we get meals with members or extra study time. I love it and think the United States should implement it. Time to relax in the middle of the day is fantastic.

So I wanted to include this next paragraph a couple weeks ago when I learned about it but haven´t really had the chance to fit it in. It´s about obedience. We talked about it in district meeting and Elder Whitworth shared some things that he had learned and I think it´s fascinating. Elder Whitworth said that an investigator who he was really close with and trusted really needed 20 euros to pay some bill for his business he was trying to open. The white handbook says that missionaries should not ever lend money (not that we have much to lend anyway!) but Elder Whitworth honestly felt like he should. It wasn´t a huge amount and he knew the guy well enough to know that he would be paid back. However, the handbook said not to, so against his better judgment, he did not lend him the money. The man wasn´t very happy and felt that they were obeying rules of man (men who would write the handbook) over being good Christians. Then Elder W really wished he had lent him the money and felt bad about obeying the rules, but then he also realized something else: the rules are from God. If he felt like he should do something that was against the rules, that meant he thought that his personal judgment was better than God´s. Do any of us really believe that we know better than God? When we make exceptions to the commandments because we think that just this one time we need to do something different, that is showing God that we think we know better than Him. I just want to testify that I KNOW that commandments are from God and He would never give us a commandment that wasn´t necessary. Even if we don´t understand them, you should never be willing to make an exception unless you are willing to tell God that your judgment/opinion is better than His. Kind of an intense thing, but it´s true! Just be obedient. I promise that you´ll be happier!!!

Something I realized this week is that we could convert more people if we made them go on a mission, because it wouldn´t take very long for people to realize that no one would go on a mission if this wasn´t the true Church. The fact that I have a testimony that this is Jesus Christ´s Church restored to the Earth today is the ONLY thing keeping me here, because missions are HARD. It´s hard to be so responsible for other people. It´s hard to worry ALL the time about other people and if they are keeping commitments or if they´re going to come to Church when it´s so much easier to only worry about yourself. It´s hard to try and organize your schedule all the time to be accommodating to everyone and be constantly worrying about being late or missing the bus or not getting someone to come with you to a lesson. It´s hard to teach lessons in a language that isn´t your own. It´s hard to teach lessons in general! It´s hard to sit there and have people argue and not give you a chance to explain your point. It´s hard to work in unity with someone you´ve only known for a week. It´s hard to get up in the morning and realize you have to do it all again another day. But I can tell you one thing: vale la pena. It´s worth it. I don´t know how, but somehow you get through it. And then you realize that you have passed your 3 month mark. I am a sixth done! How crazy is that??? The time goes fast but I can testify that nothing in the whole world will make you grow as much as a mission will. I can feel it. I can literally feel myself changing and growing and it´s really really hard but if nothing else, I make myself remember that Jesus Christ went through all of this. And more. When I feel like my teaching isn´t making a difference to these people, I imagine how He felt being crucified by the people He taught. When I feel like I can´t do this one more day, I think of Jesus asking God to take the cup away from Him and knowing that He would have to do it anyway. I PROMISE that the Savior knows EXACTLY how you feel. Anytime you think He doesn´t, read Alma 7:11-13 and Isaiah 53:3-5. He is here for you and He knows you and He loves you.

So I really hope you all are doing well. Write me letters! I miss you guys! Write me emails too! Keep reading your scriptures everyday and even if you think you don´t have time, make time, because there is always time for God´s word in your life. Be strong, and remember to pray as if everything depended on God and then work as if everything depended on you. Tenga una buena semana!

Hasta luego,

Hermana Andrew