Sometimes I get to the end of a week and I just look back and say, man that was a good week! Then I realize that that can be said of all the weeks in the mission! But seriously though this week was amazing! We got to see some great progress with a family that we are teaching, the family Arredondo that are from the Dominican Republic. It's so interesting teaching a family that's from a different country because they talk with a different accent and eat different types of food etc. The hna. Candelaria likes to invent a lot with the food and sometimes it turns out really good and other times no but igual we have to eat it! The other week she made sweet black beans, she blended up a bunch of cooked black beans and then made juice out of it with milk and sugar and cinnamon. It wasn't that bad the first day when she was making it but then she gave us some more a week later and we think that it had gone bad because it tasted kinda rancid but we still had to drink it or she would get really offended so I tried not to think about it too much and chugged it, then I saw my poor compi who was making a face and had gone pale, so when the hna. wasn't looking I traded her cups and downed hers too. My compi was so greatful that she made me brownies (that I had taught her how to make :P) that night to take the bad taste out of my mouth. My compi is so cute, there are a lot of foods she doesn't like very much and she's little tambien so that means that a lot of times she can't finish eating all of the food even if she does like it and here they don't like it when you don't eat all the food so we've become experts at switching plates or cups or bowls or whatever so that I can ever so subtley finish her food for her. I don't know if I've sent home pictures of my compi Hna. Alvarez, I tell her she looks like Pocahontas because she totally does! She's amazing :) I'm so happy to be with her :) Where was I going with this? Oh yeah our investigators from the dominican republic are really progressing! We went to teach them and they all had read the folletos or books of mormon that we had left and every one of them had questions for us, and good ones too! The hna. this week told us that she wants us to teach her son who hasn't participated in the lessons yet and so we managed to find him in house and we shared a little bit with the whole family and even though the Hna. isn't a member yet she was telling her son to pay attention to the name of our church because she understands that the church of jesus christ needs to have jesus christ's name on it! it was so cool to see her already trying to share the gospel with her family even when she's not completely converted yet! that shows us that she's going to be an amazing member one day.
We also got to meet a lot of new people, I think that's one of my specialties, finding new great people to teach, even if I'm not there for all of their baptisms I can say I've opened the door for a lot of investigators to find the truth! We found a man named Emmanuel who believes in God but because of some really horrible things that have happened in his life he has lost faith in churches etc. But he wants to come closer to God and we have a lot of hope for him! Also we found a couple that were visiting an investigator of ours who had seen the missionaries before but never really listened to them and we were able to teach them and our investigator the restoration and they understood it so well and accepted the first vision so easily it was such a great lesson! Then we were knocking on the door of the same investigator another day and he wasn't home but his neighbor was just arriving to her house when she saw us and called us over. When we got to her door she said that she had seen us teaching her neighbor and also wanted to learn more and that it wasn't a coincidence that we had been there just when she was arriving home so that she could invite us over. It's not every day that the people open there doors and yell for us to come to them! Oh, and I have to tell you all about an amazing lesson we had with a woman named Patricia. She was a reference that the other missionaries had left for us but they hadn't really taught her before so we decided to pass by with a member and get to know her a little bit. When we first got there Patricia was kind of rude to us, asking why we were there bugging her on such a hot day etc. but she still let us in "to be polite" and when we first came in and sat down she was really defensive and told us that we were wasting our time basically because she was never going to change and has no faith in any of the religions and all that jazz and I felt a bit down, like jeez lady we only want to bring you peace and happiness is all! But the spirit told us that we should still try and share something with her so we asked if we could sing her a hymn and say a prayer, she told us to do whatever we wanted if it would make us happy and we decided to sing All is Well. While we were singing we were all so focused on the words, and singing on tune that we didn't realize until the end that she had started to cry. We were so surprised to see this woman who had treated us super rudely crying that no one said anything for a couple of minutes and then she began to talk. She told us everything, some problems and trials that she was going through and how she felt like there wasn't hope our escape from her problems. And then we were given the opportunity to share the hope that only the gospel can bring. It was one of the most powerful, and heartfelt lessons I have ever given as a missionary and at the end of the lesson she was a changed person, she committed to read te book of mormon, to pray and she opened up to us showing us her wedding album and showing us the rest of her house and yard, it was so amazing! ONly the spirit can touch the hardened hearts and only the gospel can really change people, that's something that I've learned and seeen in my mission. It's interesting how being a missionary and sharing the gospel of jesus christ really does break down walls between people, and sometimes I look around and I can't believe what I'm doing and where I'm doing it. Last night we shared all of the restoration sitting in an abandoned lot, surrounded by broken down cars, trash and about a hundred stray cats by the side of the railroad tracks, passing folletos to the people we were teaching that were sitting at a table that we had made by putting a door on top of two metal step ladders. In any other moment in my life that would be a very strange almost uncomfortable experience but it's what we're sharing that brings the spirit and the people we are teaching are the ones who really need it, I love this gospel so much and my mission has taught me how to really appreciate all of the blessings that we have, to be living in this day and time where the restored gospel is in every part of the earth and keeps spreading! To have the blessings of the temple. I love the scripture in DyC shall we not go on in such great a cause!
I love you all, I hope you all have an amazing week and make it a week of miracles!!
Que estén bien!
Hna Boully
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