November 3, 2014
Today was a divinely wonderful p-day! We found a good Lan House and the internet
was gloriously fast! I was able to write
my weekly letter to the President, put in our numbers, email a TON of photos,
download and watch all of the videos that mom sent, and even chat with Mom a
bit, AND still have time to read and respond to most of my emails. It was glorious, and it gave me hope for my
technology filled life after the mission.
You realize on a mission how much you miss having a fast and gratifying
connection with those you love. I was
reflecting on what makes p-day so wonderful and I figured out that it is the
fact that no matter how whipped you are on Sunday night, you always feel
lighter and happier by 6 pm. Monday because:
1.
We are not
walking all day long
2.
We don’t have to
listen to other people’s problems or try to give advice
3.
EMAILS!!!! (the
highlight of any missionaries week!)
4.
We can stay
inside and do not have to wear skirts/dress shoes/side bags/etc.
5.
We can eat what we
want, as much or as little as we want.
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| My Spokane family and Dr. Kaya's medical team. |
That’s about it actually. It
made me so happy to watch Dad’s videos of his transplant process. I thought that it would be too hard or too
distracting for me to see, but it actually brought me a lot of peace to see and
hear Dad. I know that he is in good
hands. Dr. Kaya sure does seem like a nice man and I am looking forward to
meeting him so that I can thank him in person for taking such good care of my
Dad.
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| My Dad, getting his stem cell transplant! |
I feel like I bounced back to myself today. Maybe it was the stress about Dad’s
transplant, or the heat, or the sheer physical exhaustion, but I faded pretty
hard last week. It was some of the first
and only times in my mission where I have slacked off. I LOVED Mom’s wake up call/analogy about
finishing the jump course. I have had a
very “clean round” so far on my mission, and I can’t stop “riding my course”
now, before my last jump.
We had a good night of finding people to teach. We found two ne investigators, both of whom
we found by knocking on doors. It has
also been helpful to go through the area book to find ex-investigators.
Below are pictures of the beautiful scenery on my many bus rides:
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November 4, 2014 (written
on Nov. 5)
It was a transportation disaster today. I literally rode on 10 buses today…TEN! We had a district meeting in the morning (5
busses), then we went back to our area for lunch (1 bus), then to Itaguai, and
Jararaci, and Angra (2 buses), then back to Itaguai (2 buses). By the time that we got back to Itaguai it
would be 10 p.m. We feel completely
unprotected in these buses that late at night so I decided it would be smarter
and safer to have a member come and pick us up.
I called my bishop around 9:30 while still on a bus and asked if he
could help us. He didn’t show up until
11:30 because of last minute bishop problems.
We got home after midnight!
Ahhhhh…this has never happened to me before and of course it would
happen during divisions. But you know, I
am just so grateful to our wonderful bishop and his wife for coming and saving
our tails. They are good, humble, Christ-like
people.
Division with Sister Gonzales was amazing. I am in awe by her great spirit and
confidence. She is from Chile and
honestly is one of the sweetest, spirit-filled sisters that I have done
divisions will. She is positive, personable,
pleasant, and persistent --- all of the attributes that I feel I have been lacking
in the past few weeks. I really hope
that these sisters can learn something from me, because I feel like I am always
the one being taught and helped.
November5, 2014
Today we has a few miracles happen. We stopped by an ex-investigators and they
welcomed us warmly into their home. We
taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and involved their kids. It was a spirit guided lesson and they all
accepted the baptismal invitation and they said that they would go to church on
Sunday (hopefully…) They aren’t legally married, but we can help them to figure
that out.
Other than that, we walked or rather, stayed on our feet a
long time today. It really wiped us out,
especially running on less sleep. But on
the up side, we’re going to sleep really well tonight. (….Except we didn’t because there was a
soccer game and EVERYONE was setting off fireworks until midnight.)
November 6, 2014
Wow, I am tired, but today is a good tired. We worked hard and tried our best to follow
the Spirit. As a result, we had several
cool experiences.
#1: We were looking for a
house and walked up and down this very long street 3 times. No one knew were this member was. Then I just got this strong feeling to cross
the street and talk with two little old ladies.
Well, whaddoyaknow, we saw the teeny tiny number plate for the address
that we were looking for. Unfortunately,
the member doesn’t live there anymore, but his mom gave us his new address.
#2: I felt prompted to knock on
a specific door and we found a young man who is looking for answers to
questions like – is there life after death.
He even said that it doesn’t make sense that we would die and not recognize our family
members as special significant people.
He invited us back tomorrow to teach him with the rest of his family.
#3: We taught a member’s
non-member husband for the first time today.
He has been through about 10 sets of missionaries over the past 27
years. He is a wonderful person, and he
supports his wife in all aspects of church responsibility, but he has a few bad
habits hat he is not willing to give up.
He has a testimony of the church and says, “before I die, I will be
baptized.” Only, he is getting older
now. We had a great lesson, probably the
best lesson here in Santa Cruz. We
taught from Alma 34:32-35 about how now is the time to repent, and we cannot
wait or put off our repentance. At the end of the lesson he told us he would
pray and work on what we challenged him to do.
I felt a great love and sense of urgency for this man.
November 7, 2014
Well, today was one of those days on a mission where you
walk and work and no one really wants to listen to you. All but one of our appointments fell through,
but we did have a few good experiences.
#1: We taught L. and her two
little kids who are 5 and 3. It is hard
to concentrate because the kids are really busy, but we helped both of them say
a prayer and they were so cute. The
little one really likes me and always gives me a big hug that just melts my
heart. We get rejected so much that it is a big blessing to feel the pure and
innocent love of a child.
#2: We had lunch with a
member who recently moved here from Itaguai.
The sisters had never gone to his home to visit him before. When we got close to the address that he gave
us, we realized that he lived in a favela that is off limits to sisters because
it is dangerous. We didn’t know what to
do, but he came out of his house and walked with us to his mom’s house. I have honestly never been treated with so
much love and care in my whole mission.
Their house was tiny, dirty, and filled with flies, but the Spirit was
strong and their love for the missionaries filled the whole room. They waited on us hand and foot in such a
sincere and kind way. I just about
teared up as I thanked them for lunch, knowing that it was probably a big
sacrifice for them to put food on the table.
Now I have to figure out how to kindly explain to them that we can’t
have lunch there because it is too dangerous for the sisters.
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| "Service" Project |
November 8, 2014
Today was a really crappy day. It started off with a 2-hour bus ride to a
“service project”. Keep in mind that we
RARELY have or are allowed to participate in service projects in my
mission. This “service” was really us
sitting at a table and handing out fliers…pretty useless. Then after that wasted time, every one of our
appointments fell through. Even our members called us at the last minute, “oh,
sorry sisters, it’s not going to work for me today.” It is just oh so discouraging and
disheartening. People do not keep their
word here, and that makes missionary work pretty darn hard. I am really at a low point in my
mission. I just want so badly to be able
to help someone.
PS. Elder Mountain is a good listener. I just expressed my frustrations and he just
listened to me.
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| Elder Mountain, from my MTC district, and his comp. |
November 9, 2014
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| Endless knocking in the rain |
We had a terrible start to our day. We called our investigators that told us they
were going to church…no one answered.
THEN, we went and knocked on their doors for 20 minutes…nothing. THEN, we went to L. house and she made up and
excuse of how it was raining and she couldn’t take her kids out in the
rain. Yes, it is 80 degrees and drizzles
every day this time of year. So once
again, 0 investigators at church, 0 progressing. On top of that, all of our appointments fell
through including our lunch. We were
pretty discouraged until one of the sisters in the ward invited us over and we
ended up visiting with 3 of her friends. It was a great end to a very hard and
discouraging week.
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| One of the better listeners on my mission. |
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| Comic Relief |
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