05/14:
I had a couple bad days this week, but thank you Mom for your input on Sunday, because it's helped.
We stopped by Adelino's yesterday for a surprise lesson (it was great--Geovanni (our recent convert) called and asked us to come over and teach him; THAT is how missionary work should run!) but everyone was outside playing soccor so instead of teaching, we played, too, and it was a blast. We ended up borrowing a soccor ball, and we're going to spend all afternoon at a park developing our made futbol skills so we can hold our own. We figure sister missionaries should be multi-talented.
We've spent a lot of time on bike contacting, and I think it's lots of fun. I'm amazed how much easier it is to blow off rejection than when I started my mission. I still chicken out daily, but I'm game for talking to pretty much anyone.
Tuesday night, we were driving through a neighborhood and saw a latino mom outside with her son, we stopped and I hopped out of the car to introduce us. She ended up being just fine setting up an appointment for next week, then was just fine with us sharing some information to prepare them for next week's appointment. Her name is Alisa and we did a quick dialogue about the Holy Ghost we learned just the day before. The Spirit was SO STRONG!!! They're way stoked to learn whatever it was the Spirit was testifying about, and we're way stoked to come back. We started the thought by having the 9 y.o. boy taste salt and describe it without saying "salty", then we all shared experiences when we felt the Spirit, and tried to define it ourselves. We explained that what we share invites that spirit into our homes more, and that God sent us to share that with her. YAY!!!
We had dinner at a member's house Tuesday with all the other missionaries, and there was a new missionary there, so we all shared our strangest mission stories. It was way fun. I was surprised how hard it was to come up with things to share because, while every day of my mission has been sincerely bizar (sp?), there wasn't a whole lot all of the other missionaries hadn't gone through...
We had our district meeting on a dock in a lake. Two of the four missionaries are now zone leaders and go to other meetings, so we don't have the Rule of 3 to have a meeting inside. We do it in members' homes or outside.
Monday night, we had FHE at the Rodriguez home, and it was a blast. We asked them if we could come over with some friends for their FHE, fully expecting that they'd put it on. Of course, right after the prayer, they turned the time over to us, so LIGHTING FAST we came up with an activity. We reviewed the Gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure. We then went outside and had two lines. I would ask a question from the lesson, and as soon as a team answered, I gave them a raw egg which they had to balance on two fingers (without gripping) and pass down the row. After the activity, everyone was trying to crush the egg with their hands, and Geovanni succeeded. Ironically, the whole egg white and yoke flew straight up in the air and landed...on my face. The whole thing. No aiming necessary. It was disgusting. We got a new egg and for a game had the two teams facing each other (again, in lines behind the front person). They threw the egg back and forth, and the front person would move to the back of the line, but no one would move up, so the teams slowly got further and further. The egg ended up cracking on Sister William's chest. We were very lovely.
After that, we all went inside for treats and Magaly (the mum, who is wonderful) started putting the pressure on Pompilio asking him about his baptism (which was AWESOME because he needed to hear it from someone other than us). He got SUPER defensive (even though he's been planning on May 30th...although he didn't come to church this week because he was looking into another one!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and LASHED OUT at me and Sister Williams trying to make us look like terrible missionaries, which he did very well. To review, Pompilio is Geovanni's cousin and Andy's brother. He's got a very flavorful past and has worked through a lot with us, but has a ways to go yet. He's the one Sister Williams rebuked (and still says he liked it), and he's very dramatic and shifty and doesn't follow through well on commitments. So he claims that two weeks ago when he was talking to Geovanni about baptism, Geovanni told him we (the sisters) and the bishop (who he's never met) didn't want him to get baptized. This offended him, and he's been super shifty ever since (including not coming to church). He takes offense that we think he's lied to us about when he quit smoking marijuana, but gave us 3 different "last joint" dates in the course of that one conversation, one of which was the 32nd of April! We tried to show him that NOTHING we have ever done would give the impression we didn't want him to be baptized, but he just kept talking about how much we hurt him. It was absurd. He told us he wants to be baptized, he doesn't want to be baptized and he wants to be baptized in a different church. Finally, he opted to "take a break" from our visits, and we were relieved. I am grateful that my whole life, I haven't had to deal with people like that. And I look forward to avoiding them in the future. Of course, we do care an awful lot about him and wish the best for him, but he's got to be honest with himself. He's so tied up in lies, he DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE'S SAYING. I've never seen anything like it.
Saturday was terrible. We were going to contact all afternoon (contacting is scary and hard to get yourself to do, but ultimately it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and it's not so bad afterall) but the Hansons needed help with their yard, so we gladly obliged. We needed transportation help for some investigators to a ward party that night, and in trying to arrange it, we found out a member who's helped us A TON had to move last minute, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and her house helping. She could then come pick up our investigator, but a few minutes before we were supposed to meet up, we got a phone call from the church that NOTHING for the activity was set up. We called the bishop who told us the party was to start at 5:30, not 4:30, so we had to let our people know. The investigator said, in that case, she'd just get a ride with her husband after his work. So we cancelled the ride. Then her husband found out he had to work late, so we had to get the ride again, but she had already made new plans, so she had to rearrange those. Then we found out the husband had the car seats anyway, so she couldn't come. So we cancelled the ride. Then the husband offered to drop the car seats off. So we got the ride back. Then the ride was on her way and the investigator said she'd just rather come with her husband. Then we remembered we were supposed to arrange a ride for Geovanni anyway, because he was supposed to go with Oscar but the Laureano's had called wanting a ride and Oscar said he could if we took care of Geovanni. (Turns out there were 7 people in the Laureano party who had to fit into the 4 free spaces of Oscar's car.) So the ride pulls up to Geovanni's and Geovanni pulls up a minute later because his uncle was just going to take him until we reminded him we were supposed to. GAH!!! I was beside myself. Oh, and the party? It was about over when we got there. And the other investigators never came.
Sunday had some big up-sides. Oscar gave a talk! and it was wonderful! He got his hair cut and bought some Sunday clothes for it, too. We were so proud.
We taught primary. We acted out Alma 17-24, played tic-tac-toe (with lighting and explosions instead of x's and o's), and taught them the "Mother, I love you" song. One of the girls sang it to her mom in the hall right in front of us!
We brought lunch to the church for us, Adelino, Oscar, Geovanni and Andy, because right after, they went with us to the above mentioned member's old house and we cleaned it all out. It only took 2 hours, but that was 12 man hours, and the place was spotless. None of them had ever seen us in pants, and they really didn't know how to take it : )
We had another drop-by lesson with Sylvia. We had to take turns on our missionary duties: one read the Book of Mormon with Sylvia, and the other distracted the son. Unfortunately, "distracting" consisted mostly of dodging Hot Rods flung at unbelievable speeds. I've never felt so threatened by a 3-year-old.
Sister Williams keeps inching closer to going home. This morning, (I take no credit for any of this) I had her spend the entire time making a list of things that were suffered by 20 or more people in the scriptures. Afterwards, we talked about the concept of the "refiners fire" and the "furnace of affliction" and that suffering is just a part of life, and ultimately is for our benefit. It was amazing to see so many scriptures come to mind, and it became somewhat of a loving chastisement for being so focused on her own needs when the needs of the people around her are so much greater. We also talked a lot about how simply submitting to suffering and enduring it makes us so much stronger, and that she cannot reach her full potential unless she develops the ability to endure hard, unpleasant things because she knows she needs to. The spirit was really strong and at the end she said, very solidly, "I'm not going home." I hope, I hope, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Erin
We stopped by Adelino's yesterday for a surprise lesson (it was great--Geovanni (our recent convert) called and asked us to come over and teach him; THAT is how missionary work should run!) but everyone was outside playing soccor so instead of teaching, we played, too, and it was a blast. We ended up borrowing a soccor ball, and we're going to spend all afternoon at a park developing our made futbol skills so we can hold our own. We figure sister missionaries should be multi-talented.
We've spent a lot of time on bike contacting, and I think it's lots of fun. I'm amazed how much easier it is to blow off rejection than when I started my mission. I still chicken out daily, but I'm game for talking to pretty much anyone.
Tuesday night, we were driving through a neighborhood and saw a latino mom outside with her son, we stopped and I hopped out of the car to introduce us. She ended up being just fine setting up an appointment for next week, then was just fine with us sharing some information to prepare them for next week's appointment. Her name is Alisa and we did a quick dialogue about the Holy Ghost we learned just the day before. The Spirit was SO STRONG!!! They're way stoked to learn whatever it was the Spirit was testifying about, and we're way stoked to come back. We started the thought by having the 9 y.o. boy taste salt and describe it without saying "salty", then we all shared experiences when we felt the Spirit, and tried to define it ourselves. We explained that what we share invites that spirit into our homes more, and that God sent us to share that with her. YAY!!!
We had dinner at a member's house Tuesday with all the other missionaries, and there was a new missionary there, so we all shared our strangest mission stories. It was way fun. I was surprised how hard it was to come up with things to share because, while every day of my mission has been sincerely bizar (sp?), there wasn't a whole lot all of the other missionaries hadn't gone through...
We had our district meeting on a dock in a lake. Two of the four missionaries are now zone leaders and go to other meetings, so we don't have the Rule of 3 to have a meeting inside. We do it in members' homes or outside.
Monday night, we had FHE at the Rodriguez home, and it was a blast. We asked them if we could come over with some friends for their FHE, fully expecting that they'd put it on. Of course, right after the prayer, they turned the time over to us, so LIGHTING FAST we came up with an activity. We reviewed the Gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure. We then went outside and had two lines. I would ask a question from the lesson, and as soon as a team answered, I gave them a raw egg which they had to balance on two fingers (without gripping) and pass down the row. After the activity, everyone was trying to crush the egg with their hands, and Geovanni succeeded. Ironically, the whole egg white and yoke flew straight up in the air and landed...on my face. The whole thing. No aiming necessary. It was disgusting. We got a new egg and for a game had the two teams facing each other (again, in lines behind the front person). They threw the egg back and forth, and the front person would move to the back of the line, but no one would move up, so the teams slowly got further and further. The egg ended up cracking on Sister William's chest. We were very lovely.
After that, we all went inside for treats and Magaly (the mum, who is wonderful) started putting the pressure on Pompilio asking him about his baptism (which was AWESOME because he needed to hear it from someone other than us). He got SUPER defensive (even though he's been planning on May 30th...although he didn't come to church this week because he was looking into another one!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and LASHED OUT at me and Sister Williams trying to make us look like terrible missionaries, which he did very well. To review, Pompilio is Geovanni's cousin and Andy's brother. He's got a very flavorful past and has worked through a lot with us, but has a ways to go yet. He's the one Sister Williams rebuked (and still says he liked it), and he's very dramatic and shifty and doesn't follow through well on commitments. So he claims that two weeks ago when he was talking to Geovanni about baptism, Geovanni told him we (the sisters) and the bishop (who he's never met) didn't want him to get baptized. This offended him, and he's been super shifty ever since (including not coming to church). He takes offense that we think he's lied to us about when he quit smoking marijuana, but gave us 3 different "last joint" dates in the course of that one conversation, one of which was the 32nd of April! We tried to show him that NOTHING we have ever done would give the impression we didn't want him to be baptized, but he just kept talking about how much we hurt him. It was absurd. He told us he wants to be baptized, he doesn't want to be baptized and he wants to be baptized in a different church. Finally, he opted to "take a break" from our visits, and we were relieved. I am grateful that my whole life, I haven't had to deal with people like that. And I look forward to avoiding them in the future. Of course, we do care an awful lot about him and wish the best for him, but he's got to be honest with himself. He's so tied up in lies, he DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE'S SAYING. I've never seen anything like it.
Saturday was terrible. We were going to contact all afternoon (contacting is scary and hard to get yourself to do, but ultimately it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and it's not so bad afterall) but the Hansons needed help with their yard, so we gladly obliged. We needed transportation help for some investigators to a ward party that night, and in trying to arrange it, we found out a member who's helped us A TON had to move last minute, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and her house helping. She could then come pick up our investigator, but a few minutes before we were supposed to meet up, we got a phone call from the church that NOTHING for the activity was set up. We called the bishop who told us the party was to start at 5:30, not 4:30, so we had to let our people know. The investigator said, in that case, she'd just get a ride with her husband after his work. So we cancelled the ride. Then her husband found out he had to work late, so we had to get the ride again, but she had already made new plans, so she had to rearrange those. Then we found out the husband had the car seats anyway, so she couldn't come. So we cancelled the ride. Then the husband offered to drop the car seats off. So we got the ride back. Then the ride was on her way and the investigator said she'd just rather come with her husband. Then we remembered we were supposed to arrange a ride for Geovanni anyway, because he was supposed to go with Oscar but the Laureano's had called wanting a ride and Oscar said he could if we took care of Geovanni. (Turns out there were 7 people in the Laureano party who had to fit into the 4 free spaces of Oscar's car.) So the ride pulls up to Geovanni's and Geovanni pulls up a minute later because his uncle was just going to take him until we reminded him we were supposed to. GAH!!! I was beside myself. Oh, and the party? It was about over when we got there. And the other investigators never came.
Sunday had some big up-sides. Oscar gave a talk! and it was wonderful! He got his hair cut and bought some Sunday clothes for it, too. We were so proud.
We taught primary. We acted out Alma 17-24, played tic-tac-toe (with lighting and explosions instead of x's and o's), and taught them the "Mother, I love you" song. One of the girls sang it to her mom in the hall right in front of us!
We brought lunch to the church for us, Adelino, Oscar, Geovanni and Andy, because right after, they went with us to the above mentioned member's old house and we cleaned it all out. It only took 2 hours, but that was 12 man hours, and the place was spotless. None of them had ever seen us in pants, and they really didn't know how to take it : )
We had another drop-by lesson with Sylvia. We had to take turns on our missionary duties: one read the Book of Mormon with Sylvia, and the other distracted the son. Unfortunately, "distracting" consisted mostly of dodging Hot Rods flung at unbelievable speeds. I've never felt so threatened by a 3-year-old.
Sister Williams keeps inching closer to going home. This morning, (I take no credit for any of this) I had her spend the entire time making a list of things that were suffered by 20 or more people in the scriptures. Afterwards, we talked about the concept of the "refiners fire" and the "furnace of affliction" and that suffering is just a part of life, and ultimately is for our benefit. It was amazing to see so many scriptures come to mind, and it became somewhat of a loving chastisement for being so focused on her own needs when the needs of the people around her are so much greater. We also talked a lot about how simply submitting to suffering and enduring it makes us so much stronger, and that she cannot reach her full potential unless she develops the ability to endure hard, unpleasant things because she knows she needs to. The spirit was really strong and at the end she said, very solidly, "I'm not going home." I hope, I hope, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Erin