Hey friends and family!
Another week has come and gone here in Imbaya and Cotama. It has been quite the busy week because we have had to do a few readjustments working with both wards. Thankfully all the members and people we have been visiting have been patient with us.
Another week has come and gone here in Imbaya and Cotama. It has been quite the busy week because we have had to do a few readjustments working with both wards. Thankfully all the members and people we have been visiting have been patient with us.
This morning, Hna. Padilla decided to glue her fingers together with super glue while fixing her shoes. She came into our study room to show me. It took a few minutes to get her fingers unstuck then bandage them up because she had taken some skin off. My companion... We have found quite a few inactives that are ready to come back to church we have been told. We visited one named Elsa (before Frozen came out...). She is doing super awesome. It just took us a while to figure out which ward she would be going to because she lives in Cotama but wants to go to Imbaya. That happens a lot here where the pèople do not want to go where they are assigned, but with Elsa, we got it all figured out. We visited one of our recent converts and she is doing tons better! She was not coming to our ward since I came but things have changed and she has started coming! Yay!
Today was the last day of San Juan, supposedly, and there were tons of dead chickens... Apparently there is a tradition of giving chickens or something. I am not too sure because I was not really wanting to pay attention as to why there were tons of dead chickens... We visited a family who had been recently reactivated and the daughter fell asleep, snoring really loud for a 5-year old... I almost died laughing.
We visited a little 12-year old boy who was baptized two years ago but went inactive. He is super cute and a really good artist. He promised to draw me a picture. I am pretty excited for that. I have found something very effective: using Pres. Richardson`s trainings with our members. We talked about the importance of prayer, reading the scriptures, going to church, and giving service to some recently reactivated members. We learned that the dad said he did not have a testimony but this really impacted him. I know that when we do this kind of stuff everyday, we strengthen our own personal conversion. We found out that one of the member`s nonmember boyfriend will be living in our sector and is excited to keep learning about the gospel! YAY!
I hit the one year mark and to celebrate, Hna. Padilla gave me a really pretty shawl and gummy bears! She is so sweet. We visited a less active that we were super close to dropping for a while. Something finally clicked and she has really opened up to us about how she wants to change and how she needs to change to be a better example for her daughters and son. It was a super powerful lesson! Ahh! Afterwards we went to Patricia, an hermana who is about to have a baby and has been promising to come to church since we started visiting her. I almost lost hope on her...
We climbed a mountain and you can see all of our sector... It is huge... The person we were going to visit was not home so we had to go down the huge mountain. We visited our young little less active but he did not want to come out at first because he was watching soccer. Soccer is seriously a religion down here in South America... I am not kidding. I feel like it is worse than football in the states... We finished the lessons with the Fam. Chaves! Now all they need is an interview to be considered reactivated! Yay! We visited another investigator and talked about faith. She was always telling us that she did not have enough faith so we read Alma 32:21. The light turned on for her and she finally understood that she did not have to have an enormous faith to keep moving forward in listening to us.
Today was just an awesome day of church! Other than the fact that I was exhausted from 6 hours of church, the miracles that happened were enough to keep me going! Fam. Chaves came to church! Patricia came to church! One of our recent converts came to church without us having to call him to come (that one was a pretty big miracle all on its own...)! Elsa came and blessed her baby! We had a noche de hogar with an hermana who was recently reactivated. It was a simple but good day!
Today, after we did our grocery shopping, we ran into some other hermanas and one yelled at me, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!! So I say to all that are celebrating the 4th of July, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!! Please be safe! Have a great week! I get to meet my new mission president this Wednesday! Yay! Keep me up to date!
Until next time,
