¡Hola mi familia!
I looooove you! LOOOOVE YOU.
Thanks for your letters...I flipping love to read your emails. I think
about you guys every other thought! ¡Enserio!
Everything is great here! This week was a little rough...we had a lot of
moving around, doctor's appointments and whatnot, and I'm a little
tired! But that's what P-day is for, right? Wrong. Missionaries don't
sleep. Ever.
Just kidding. We do.
By the way, it's getting difficult to write in English...I keep accidentally switching to Spanish subconsciously...#mishlyfe2013
SO. This week. Story time.
On Tuesday,
we had a lesson with a woman named "MaQuena." Yep! Ma-Kena. ¡Que
extraño! I didn't think it would be possible to find someone with my
name...but there you have it. Anyway, she invited us into her casa, and
we just talked about what she believed and our purpose, and the usual
first-lesson stuff. Near the end, Hermana Pineda asked if she would like
to say the closing prayer. To our surprise, she said yes! (We had
explained how to pray just before...but people usually don't want to
pray with us...and definitely not with this much enthusiasm.) Anyway, we
all bowed our heads, and we waited for her to begin praying. After
about ten seconds of silence, we looked up...to find that she was
praying to herself, her lips moving super rapidly and making weird
whispering noises. We looked at each other, and tried not to laugh...we
watched her, watched her, watched her...waiting for her to
finish...well, three minutes of this passed (three minutes. I looked at
my watch,) and finally Hermana Pineda said really loudly, "...AAAY-men."
MaQuena jumped, probably a little startled, and mumbled an amen, too.
No sè...fue chistoso.
(By the way, you Spanish-speakers...if I make a
mistake in these emails...just try to remember your first three months
in the field. Ha.)
Here's a classic: so, I'm a
gringo, right? Surprise. Anyway, I'm used to people staring. I honestly
don't remember what it feels like to walk down a street without making
awkward eye contact with literally every single person you see. Well,
the other day we were contacting, and we came across a fourteen year old
girl who is Adventista. She let us into her house, and we talked with
her mom for a bit. They were both...a little different...but anyway, we
were talking, and the daughter was sitting at the table with her camera
phone...trying to discreetly take a picture of me. Unbeknownst to her,
however, was that her phone had the flash feature turned on. You wanna
know how many pictures she took of me? Sixteen. Sixteen pictures of me.
It was hilarious how careful she was trying to be, not wanting me to
notice. I was fine with it until I saw on our way out that her instagram
account was open as well. So hollaback, I'm an instagram celebrity on
some random girl's account. (Dad, I can't remember if you said this to
me or if it was my own brain, but I've been trying to come up with a
title for myself here in Talca, and the best I have right now is "The
Grin-kshow." Ideas?)
Also, yesterday I found a slumbering bee on my
shirt. I think it was there for at least five minutes of tracting. It
was curled up, sleeping. Taking a little bee-nap.
Hey,
if anyone of you want to send me really simple recipes, I'm down for
it. I'm getting a little tired of the food I've been preparing for two
months!
Probably the crowning moment of the week was a
lesson we had with a new investigator. This investigator has had contact
with missionaries before--in fact, seven lessons of contact--but when
it came to baptism, he didn't want anything to do with it. We found him
tracting one night, and he said we could teach him, but that it would be
impossible for him to change. From our two lessons with him, I believe
that he received his answer way back with those missionaries
before...and now, he's doing everything he can to justify himself. He's
full of contradictions. This lesson, we taught him the story of Joseph
Smith. When we asked him how he felt about it, he said that he couldn't
believe it because he didn't believe in God...we talked about this for a
little while longer, and at one point he said "if all the world lived
the word of God, the world would be a better place." ¿What? The whole
lesson was full of these contradictions. It started becoming
frustrating...but one Christ-like attribute I've been studying this week
is "patience," and so I just kept breathing and listening. At one
point, I was trying to explain the Book of Mormon. He asked why it was
important to read it, and I said that it was the evidence that there is a
God, and this is his church. I then proceeded to begin to promise that
if he read this book, pondered and prayed about it, that he could
recieve and answer. But as soon as I said, "Yo prometo," he started
saying "no, no, no, usted no puede prometer..." I tried a little more
firmly, but he replied a little stronger, "¡No prometa! ¡No puede
prometer!" ("Don't promise! You can't promise!") Suddenly, I felt
confidence fill me up, and I cut him off, and said, "NOPE. Yo. Puedo.
Porque soy un representante de Jesucristo, y cuando yo digo que este
libro puede ayudarle saber que Dios existe, es un promesa." Then I bore
my testimony of the truthfulness and blessings that will come from
reading the Book of Mormon, and he didn't even try to argue. We left him
a copy, and while I'm not entirely sure that he's going to take me up
on this promise, I felt really awesome afterwards. Sometimes you just
have to be super duper direct!
I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ on
the earth, and I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, Redeemer, Older
Brother, Defender and Friend. I wouldn't want to do anything else than
help other people come to this knowledge, too. Guys...share the gospel!
I'm serious! Be grateful that you have the ability to do so in your own
language, because that means that nothing can possibly hold you back
but yourself! Have confidence in Christ, if you don't have confidence in
yourself, and I promise you can do it.
Read the Book of Mormon. Again and again and again. And keep praying. I promise that someone is listening!
I LOVE YOU GUYS. TO DEATH ENSERIO.
Looooooove, Hermana TBhomas
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