SO MANY LETTERS THIS WEEK ITS SO EXCITING AHHH
You guys! Dang! I love you guys! Have I said that enough? Well, get used to it. Dang it.
This week has been CUH-RAY-ZAY. Enserio. You don't even understand. You don't. Nope, you don't.
I
don't even know where to begin...Ok. Hermana Bokovoy was transferred.
Sad! I love that girl a ton! Plus, she was the only person in the casa
that spoke a lick of English...it was nice to have a moment in the day
where I didn't have to think so hard, and I could just say exactly what I
wanted to say to someone who understood and could respond! BUT. It's
okay, because I have a firm testimony that God has a hand in EVERYTHING
to do with missionary work.
She was switched with Hermana Rodriguez, from Peru! She is
really great, and it's a blessing for me, because now I live with 3
different countries! (Hermana Rodriguez: Peru, Hermana Pineda:
Guatamala, Hermana Contreras: Argentina.) So I guess you could say that I
have a chance at learning spanish.
Hermana Rodriguez has been very sick for the past two months,
though...I think it's been a pretty awful pnemonia. (Actually, a ton of
missionaries right now are pretty sick...Hermana Pineda has a really
wicked...something? It's definitely more than a cold, but she doesn't
have a fever...and Hermana Contreras has been off and on sick the whole
time I've been here.) Anyway, our casa is really close to a hospital, so
this is good for Hermana Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, we've been working really closely with our family
of investigators! Oh, man, I seriously love them so much. They are
progressing so well. Hermana Pineda and I have been fasting and praying a
lot for this family...there are five of them, and four of them are over
8, and all of them are just...wow! Super awesome! They all have Books
of Mormon, and are eager to learn. They all attended sacrament meeting
yesterday. Last night, we had a particularly powerful lesson with them,
in which I got to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and even
share a few verses that have really spoken to me personally. The spirit
was so strong!
During sacrament meeting, we were sitting with the family, and
I started getting really nervous for them. I didn't know what they were
thinking of it all. We don't have a lot of members in the ward that are
active, and it seemed like everyone was staring at this family
anxiously the whole time...especially the speakers! I just got really
nervous for a second. Then, I had the quiet reassurance that...guess
what? The members aren't the gospel. I'm not the teacher. These people
are not in my hands. It's the Lord. It's the Holy Ghost. If this family
is going to be converted, it's going to be because the spirit testified
to them that this is the truth, and it's not going to matter how weird
the members might have been, or if I stumbled over a sentence in
Spanish, or whatever. The spirit is so powerful, and it can change
beliefs, lifestyles, and especially hearts.
We also have an investigator with a baptismal date! My first
one! I'm pretty stoked. Her name is Claudia, and she is really
receptive. We've also been teaching her mother, but the day we extended a
baptismal invitation, her mother was really sick, and wasn't with us in
the lesson...hopefully she accepts, too! Claudia is great. She has a
lot of things that are difficult in her life...she has a tumor in her
head, and is constantly getting scans. We taught her the plan of
Salvation, and it really seemed to ring with her. (In "Preach My
Gospel," there's a quote that says that, because everyone lived with
Heavenly Father before this life, the gospel will have a "familiar ring"
to them, in their hearts. I really like this quote.)
On Friday,
we had a mini-cambio, which meant that I had to go to leave my sector
(La Florida) and spend a day in San Clemente (a different sector.) My
companion for the day was Hermana Dana, from Argentina...but she's of
Italian decent, so she pretty much looks like a gringo, too! But she
doesn't speak any English. I also got to see Hermana Wilson again, and
that was awesome! I totally miss that girl.
Anyway, I learned a lot that day. First of all, I am so grateful for
my casa in La Florida....the shower in San Clemente is a tube coming
out of the wall that either freezes you to death or bathes you in fire.
It is conveniently located next to a giant hole in the wall, for those
days when you just crave the feeling of having spiders crawling up your
legs.
The people there have very little. (At least in the parts we
worked in that day.) One woman in particular has a lot of problems in
her life. Her mother was molested, and she is the child. Her father
would hit her in the eyes when she was young, so she can only see shapes
of things in front of her. She has two children with one man, and
another man on the side (which the children do not know, but their
father does, and he's totally fine with it...?) My heart absolutely
breaks for her. Absolutely. Hermana Dana told me that she believes
everything they have taught her, but she refuses to pray to know if
Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. They have asked her many times to do
this, and she flat out refuses. She can't read, but she really likes
when they read the Book of Mormon to her. When we visited her, we asked
her to say the closing prayer. She didn't want to. I reminded her that
she is a child of God, and because of this, it doesn't matter if her
prayer is perfect, because God only wants to hear from her. Then Hermana
Dana shared a really great scripture...I'm awful, because I don't
remember what it was...I don't speak Spanish, okay?...but the spirit was
strong, and this seemed to change her attitude a bit. She prayed. It
was simple, but it was sincere. Ugh...my heart was broken when we left.
(Side note: As we were leaving, she said that I was really
skinny. I was feeling pretty good as we walked away, and then I
remembered that she's almost blind...) (But serioiusly, Hermana Pineda
and Hermana Contreras always tell me I'm getting fat. It's not an
insult, it's just a fact here.) (By the way, I am not getting fat.)
Oh! Another thing! Yeah, people are super weird about
compliments here. All the time, I tell people "oh wow, thanks so much
for this food, it's so good! It's delicious!" and all they say is "que
bueno." (how good.) They never say thank you. Actually, usually they
don't even say anything! So weird! BUT THEN they have absolutely NO
problem ASKING for compliments! They'll say, "is the food I made good?"
or "do I look good today?" The other day, Hermana Bokovoy, Pineda,
Contreras and I sang together during our Zone Conference...and
afterwards, Hermanas Pineda and Contreras were asking every single
person if they liked our song! Super weird. Hmm.
Anyway, after my mini-cambio, I returned to La Florida...to
find that our study room had been converted into a room of quarintine
for Hermana Rodriguez...because she developed tuberculosis. Yikes!! All
of our things had to be moved out while I was gone, and she is not
allowed to leave that room except to use the bathroom...for three weeks!
I feel so awful for her. But I'm disinfecting like nobodies business.
(Mom, you would be proud.)
AND THE WORST PART IS THAT ALL THREE OF US LIVING WITH HER
NEED TO BE TESTED AND YEAH THAT MEANS THAT I NEED TO GET MY BLOOD DRAWN
AND IM NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT EXCITED ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW HOLY COW IM
ACTUALLY FREAKING OUT LIKE I MIGHT BE A LITTLE UNBALANCED MENTALLY WHEN I
THINK ABOUT THIS so thats the worst news ever.
BUT this means that none of us are leaving next transfer!
Wahoo! I'm so happy, because I feel like I have so much left to do here,
and so much left to learn from Hermana Pineda! We'll have to do a lot
of switching around, because Hermana Rodriguez can't be left alone in
the casa, but the three of us are pretty much a companionship of three
right now.
But let's look at the miracle here. Our casa is definitely one
of the bigger/nicer casas in the mission. It is also next to a
hospital. If Hermana Bokovoy hadn't needed to be switched with Hermana
Rodriguez, Hermana Rodriguez wouldn't have come here. But because we
have this casa, we had space enough to house someone who needed to be quarantined. And we have that hospital so close!
You guys...God is real. I know it. I know he's involved in
EVERYTHING...in everyone's lives. Not just us. I know that he has a hand
in everything we do. How can you not believe in a god? How can you
believe that everything is a coincidence? How can you hold a newborn
baby in your arms and not have the feeling that they came from
somewhere, and from someone? I know that God exists. I know that Jesus
Christ is his son, and that He loves all of us so much, regardless of
the paths we choose or what we believe. That's His unconditional love.
I love you guys! Dang I love you guys! Don't forget to pray every day, and read the Book of Mormon! Enserio!
Love, Hermana Thomas.
PS:
as for my animal story of the week...I first-hand witnessed a
two-year-old kid scissor-kick a kitten in the face yesterday. Enjoy.
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