Hey! I love you so much! I hope you've had a great week. This week has been busy and crazy, but it has been absolutely amazing. We have had some amazing experiences (probably some of the most amazing thus far) and we have learned so much.
First....I was bit by a dog this week. Just a dog that doesn't like missionaries or something.
This week we have still been working with a couple inactive member families that live out in La Loma (we have been working there a TON these past two weeks). La familia Gimenez and la familia Montenegro. They are both amazing families with great testimonies....THEY JUST NEED TO COME TO CHURCH!!!!
Also, we are working with Gonzalo still. Really cool kid. He is still set on getting baptized, but he didn't come to church yesterday because he had to go with his family out to the country-side, so we had to change his date to the 3 of May.
Also! Lucrecia DID come to Conference last week! We were trying so hard to get her there. She only came for like half a session but she came to a good one. She came to Sunday morning...JUST IN TIME TO HEAR FROM THE PROPHET! When we went by this week to talk to her about it she said she felt "rara" (weird). As we talked about it she explained that she felt something "different" as she listened to what Pres. Monson had to say. She liked it. We then invited her to seriously pray and read and ask what this means. She said herself that if she gets an answer that he is the prophet, that it would mean that this is the true church! Praying hard for her!
Thursday. Wow. This really was a great, great day. It was actually a very hard day for the most part. When we woke up in the morning there was A TON of rain - which continued throughout the day. LOTS of rain! We walked around all afternoon trying to find people. Lots of walking, soaking wet, wearing our boots, freezing! Like I told you before - it is so hard to find people in the rain because everything shuts down and people just sleep and stay locked up in their houses! All our plans fell through - even our set plans with Lucrecia and a couple other investigators. So we spent a lot of time walking and exploring new areas where we haven't even been before....I would say that we walked at least 10 miles! Boots, rain, mud, cold! and.....NOTHING! As I look back I realize we were still in good spirits, but we just weren't really expecting to find anyone. Finally at about 8 or 8:30 we stopped at this one street trying to figure out what to do. We saw this one house and decided to try it. (Elder Brough had been there before, but it was a long time ago and the lady had just moved). We clapped and a lady came out (very young looking....we almost asked if her parents were there....glad we didn't). We introduced ourselves and explained that we were missionaries. We told her that as missionaries we pray every morning to ask God's guidance to find people to talk to. We asked her why she thought God guided us to her. Without responding to our question, she asked which church we are from. She told us, "No puedo attender ahora. Pero siempre estoy en la tarde. Me gustaría que vengan manana"! (I can't right now, but I would like you to come back tomorrow). We thought that was an awesome response and set a time to come back, and then left. We walked about 40 feet down the street and I stopped Elder Brough. I don't know why but I felt we should stop. We just stood there under the street light thinking about what we could do next. Just then she came (almost running) out of her house towards us. She said that her husband (and right when she said that I thought, "oh no. Her husband does not want us to come by tomorrow." But then she said, " mi marido queire que pasen ahora. No va a estar mañana."! (he wants you to come in now. he is not going to be here tomorrow.) WOW! We went and taught them the Restoration invited them to baptized. They have a baptismal date for the 3 of May.
This was a very seemingly small experience. But it really affected me. I still feel goosebumps when I think of it. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind for days. I KNOW that we were guided. I FELT the spirit there. I KNOW that our Heavenly Father wants this couple to hear His message.
There are many other small experiences. I could go on forever...but I dont have the time. However, I am so so so grateful for these experiences that I have had. They have strengthened these people and they have strengthened me!
I am so incredibly grateful for the privilege to be a missionary and a representative of my Savior. I love Him with all my heart.
Mom- I love you so much! I am so grateful for you and all you do for me!