Hey all! This week was awesome! And super hard! But mostly awesome!
My new comp! Is super awesome. He is the most stellar missionary I think I've ever met. His name is Elder Barbosa and he was born in Peru but moved to Barcelona, Spain when he was 7. He lived there ever since. He's a convert and was baptized 5 years ago, which I think is awesome. It's been awesome getting to know him! This is my first time leading a sector and I've been making plenty of errors but he's been helping a ton and I feel like I've already learned and progressed a ton in this week. The only reason the week was hard was the stress of leading a sector that I've never before experienced. But it was the kind of hard that made me feel great at the end of the week so that's good! I'll start with the fun stories and move on to the cool things that happened.
I found rootbeer! In Chile! I was so happy I could've cried. That day I bought four cans of rootbeer and vanilla ice cream for everybody in the house to have rootbeer floats that night. It was a ton of fun. Then a few nights later my comp bought rootbeer and vanilla ice cream for everybody for Elder Crane's birthday, so I had rootbeer floats two nights this week! After 7 months of no rootbeer at all, and I was starting to really miss it.
That's the only fun story! Now things that happened! Just so you know, we haven't been able to find Karla (the dyslexic girl who could read the Book of Mormon perfectly and started believing in God when we talked to her) since we talked to her last, which is kind of sad, but we know she's still there! We hope to be able to pass by her this week. Also, Felipe (the investigator that the other elders found and put a baptismal date for us) has passed his date and we still haven't been able to find him in his house or get a hold of him on his phone, so we're starting to think he was a dud. Which is disappointing, but it's okay! We can move on!
BUT! We found other people and some of our investigators experienced huge breakthroughs this week. And thus it was the best week ever.
Isabel y Blas! I'm not sure how much I've been talking about them, but they're an older couple who we've been passing by since I got here. They both already know that the church is true. Their only difficulty is that they've never been able to go to church because they work in the city market which is only open on Sunday and Wednesday mornings. Also, this week we found out that they aren't married so their baptismal date also fell. But that's okay! Because this week we promised Isabel and Blas that if they took an hour out of their store to go to sacrament meeting this Sunday, that the Lord would bless them for their sacrifice and that they would end up recieving more money by the end of the day than is usual. We also mentioned again all of the blessings that come from church attendence and this week they came! I was so surprised! And I don't know why! But I was! I was so happy I could've cried. My companion noticed that Isable was crying during the sacrement and during the hymns, which I think is awesome. I think they both felt something different, and I'm sure that they're going to get baptized. I think it touched Isabel especially because she's told us recently that she doesn't feel like God is with her, that God has abandoned her and she only feels that God is near when we are there in their house. We've been talking about that lately, and how going to church would be something that could help with that, and that the goal of recieving the gift of the holy ghost would help her feel Him always. So it was a great week with them! It's awesome to be able to see their lives change and be able to feel the Spirit more.
Pamela! This is the awesome story of the week. My first day with Elder Barbosa we were walking down one of the main streets when we crossed the street at the same time as a young girl. She said hi to us, which called to my attention because people rarely say hi to us before we say hi to them, and I said hi and asked how she was doing. We had crossed the street at this point and she told us that she didn't have a religion and that she really had a lot of questions about us and wanted to know more about what we believe, and asked if we could sit on a bench and talk for a bit. Whoa! What a response to a 'how are you?'! I was pretty shocked, but excited at the same time! So we sat down and talked for a bit. We answered some questions, and she expressed that her Dad was a evangelical pastor and that both her parents are crazy evangelicals, so she doesn't want them to know that she's currently investigating other churches. Under those circumstances we wouldn't be able to teach her if she weren't 18, but we're in luck because she's 18! But as a result she doesn't want us to haver her phone number nor her address to her house to avoid awkward questions. So it was a little bit of a tricky situation. I suggested to her that we meet at the church the next day with other missionaries to be able to answer her questions in a better setting and be able to teach her something. She agreed, and we went on our way. I was super excited about the lesson because nothing like that has ever happened on my mission before, so we went to church the next day and we waited. For a long time. We waited until 30 minutes after the set time of the interview, and I decided to call it quits and head out. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed. There was a possibility that we had lost her, as we had no other way to contact her. I was praying all day that we'd be able to find her and talk to her again, not that day specifically, but that we'd be able to run into her again, because I felt something very powerful in our first conversation together. That night at 9:30 when we were walking back to our house I saw a pair of girls wakling past us, but one of them was staring at me as she walked by. Because it was dark I didn't see until she was close that it was her! It was Pamela! I love those little moments that let you know that God's there. I was super happy to have found her again, and we talked a little bit in the street again. Sadly, after our previous conversation she wanted to investigate more and turned to the internet for her source of information. Woops. I blabbed for a solid 15 minutes that night, telling her about my personal conversion story, how we don't worship Joseph Smith, how we're not a cult, and how I know beyond doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church. And a lot of other myths that she read. I invited her to come to the English class the next day, and she said that she would come! But I was still unsure how she felt about the church and about us and everything, and thought that perhaps she wasn't as prepared as I thought she was. The next day came! And Pamela came to the English class! Again, I was super stoked. At the end of the English class I had the impression to invite anybody who wanted to stay and ask us questions about our religion to stay and ask said questions. All 12 people in the class stayed, and the first question that was asked was about Joseph Smith. We taught them all lesson 1. All of them. All 12. Alan's dad and sister were there, attently listening the whole time, as well as 9 new investigators. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my mission, if not of my life. The Spirit was very strong, and they all understood the lesson very well, and they all accepted the invitation to pray and read the Book of Mormon. The things I noticed most in the lesson were the reactions of Pamela. She was super happy and nodding her head the whole time. In fact during the lesson, she often answered the questions of other people in the class! Extremely well! She's practially mormon already! After the class she came up to me and I asked if her she was going to read the Book of Mormon, personally. She said yes. I asked her if she was going to pray. She said, ''Yes, I have to do it.'' She was super happy, like incredibly happy, and full with the Spirit. And I'm super excited to see what happens next! She may not get baptized while I'm here, but I know she will one day.
So that's my best week ever! I love you all! Remember that God is there and that miracles are real! Have a good week!
Love
Elder Fox
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