Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo a todos!! These past 3 weeks have been awesome! Sorry I didn't send out an email the last three weeks we've been super busy! But hope you all had a great Christmas and happy new years!
These past weeks have been full of many miracles. All I have to say is the Lord’s timing is PERFECT. A couple days ago we had set some time to call some yellow dots and members. We weren’t having much luck with any of the yellow dots, they would either answer and say they weren’t interested or just hang up on us. So we moved on to some members. The first member we called did not answer the phone so we moved on to the next. This is CRAZY. So he answered us and talked for a second. We found out he’s an inactive member and said I need you guys to come to my house tonight and give my wife a blessing, she has a big surgery tomorrow. So we immediately went over to their house. The spirit there was so strong. We talked for a little bit and all of us got emotional talking about this tender mercy of the Lord. He told us there’s no coincidence that we called tonight. He said he had no idea what to do at that point and didn’t know of anyone he could’ve called, and then we called him! We gave his wife the blessing and then we both had the impression to ask if he wanted a blessing but my comp beat me to it! haha. It was just a super cool experience. We got to give them both blessings!
This also leads me to my next point… even after all that happened it took me until the day after to truly realize it wasn’t just a coincidence. My comp told people that I was prompted by the spirit to call this member but I felt otherwise. My head was full with doubt thinking that this was just a coincidence, I was struggling to see how much of a miracle it truly was. I was reading a talk and it said “There may be times when you, like the servant, find yourself struggling to see how God is working in your life—times when you feel under siege—when the trials of mortality bring you to your knees. Wait and trust in God and in His timing, because you can trust His heart with all of yours. But there is a second lesson here. My dear sisters and brothers, you too can pray for the Lord to open your eyes to see things you would not normally see.”. There is no way that all of that was a coincidence. I can testify that His timing is perfect, trust Him, and follow the spirit. It may not be a big deal to you but it can completely change someone’s life. This could’ve been what this member needed to see how amazing the Gospel truly is.
Our boy Rony! This dude is so dope. He literally doesn’t need us. He’s so ready for baptism. Funny story… Monday we were basically fasting for his baptismal date to not happen hahah. We started the fast with him and his wife that morning. He wants his son Alex to baptize him. Alex is a returning member so he had to get interviewed and for him to be able to baptize his dad he has to attend church 4 sundays in a row. Because of his work he wouldn’t have been able to attend church. A part of our fast we were fasting that he would be able to get work off. Later that day we found out he got work off!! Kind of like my bishop said it’s killing two birds with one stone. This will help Alex become a stronger member in the church, help their relationship be strengthened and make their whole family happy! So his baptism will be sometime next month!
Margarita!!! This lady is like the hispanic version of my mom! She is always making sure I have enough food, enough water, and watching out for me. On the 23rd we went over to her house and boy it was quite interesting. She’s a roman catholic. There was another family there who was also a different religion. The one lady in the other family said she was a pastor for some other church which I thought was pretty funny. #sogratefulfortherestoredgospel. But kind of a weird tradition, she did a live event for her church so basically we were doing this event in front of a couple hundred people(good way to make yourself seen!!), during this live event we did a lot of singing, walked around the house and then went into this room with the nativity and she sprayed this weird scented stuff on us and then sprayed it on Mary and Joseph and then did the cross sign and they all said amen. Then they were basically praying to mary and all saying amen. They said like 10 different prayers I swear. We sang like 5 different songs. Kind of weird but it was also a lot of fun. I was trying not to laugh the whole time but it was dope. After, she fed us and it was SO good. Potato taquitos are literally amazing!! Margarita was watching out for me as usual and was telling me to only put a little bit of the salsa on my food because it was hot. Knowing me I kind of just shrugged, laughed and put a lot on. It honestly wasn’t that spicy but I inhaled some of the salsa so I was basically coughing up a lung and everyone was just laughing because they thought I thought it was spicy but really it just went down the wrong tube hahaha. After dinner, and done talking with the pastor lady everyone left and it was just us and Margarita and her fam. We were about to leave and she ran into a room and came back with a present for us!!! She got us both scarfs! I hope you all know this isn’t a member. This is a lady we are teaching!! She is literally amazing. Bless her sweet little heart.
Of all the missionaries in my district I had to give a talk in church this week. I was pretty nervous but super excited. I thought it went pretty well. At the beginning I obviously started off with a little joke basically saying sorry my spanish is awful but blah blah blah. One of the first things I talked about, I said that this year has been hard. As I was saying that I made eye contact with one of the mothers in the ward who is raising 7 kids by herself while her husband and father are being hunted by the mafia in honduras. She began to cry and was nodding her head. Right then I couldn’t hold it back I tried to not cry but it was quite sad so I teared up a bit. But other than that it was a super fun experience and I know it won’t be my last!
We’ve been able to do a bunch of service this week. We went to a place called Target Hunger and we did some good hard labor which I’m always about. Service is always so much fun. We had Christmas zone conference combined with 3 other zones and I got to see my home boys Elder O'reilly and Elder Merriam!! #CVGANG It was super good to see them, talked to pres and he said us 3 are gonna be comps next transfer…(probs not but we will see)
The time is going by too fast. I cant believe it's already 2021. I remember starting the MTC thinking Christmas is in forever and guess what… it has already happened, but I’m excited for what this new year will bring! Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and hope you all have a great 2021!!
