I have a child...

Familia,

Oh hi guys.  I almost have a year left.  Wait, didn't I just start?

 

THE RUNDOWN:

-I have a child and she's 22 years old and latina...

-People get upset because my name is hard to say.  I'm sorry it's not my fault.

-My right arm is pretty ripped from hand washing my clothes in the dirty pila... doesn't matter if the water is black, as long as it's wet it's clean right...??  I just try not to think about it.

-We are breaking mission rules.  We are told that we can't have pets of any kind... does a house infested with cockroaches count?

-You know you're tired when you go to sleep with a bunch of mud on your legs every night.  I have forgotten what clean is.

 

So yeah I'm training folks.  My comp is Hermana Lopez, she is from Nicaragua, and she is super dope.  The first day I was with her,and a bunch of other missionaries before we left to go to our house.  A bunch of them were talking in English and I said something hilarious like always and she started laughing..... UH WHAT.  SHE SPEAKS ENGLISH.  I about cried.  I have a sweet comp, she has an amazing testimony, and she speaks english.  In other words, she is sent straight from heaven above.  STRESSED BUT BLESSED.

 

We went to our first lesson and after teaching about faith and repentance she invited to baptism.  whaaaaa.. she is blowin me away.  I am still scared to invite people haha.  She is really animated, friendly, a little sad, but strong.  I think about all I have to offer her is a bunch of incorrect spanish and a little help not getting too lost in our area haha.  It's good.

 

We had a super cool experience with a less active member yesterday.  With hermana gonzales we always placed appointments with her but every time we went looking she said she was busy, about to leave, about to eat, about to do whatever thing that didn't involve listening to us.  aight.  Last night we were close to her house but walking in the opposite direction to look for someone else, but I had a random thought, "We should look for Heidi again."  It seemed like a lost cause but I thought we could try anyways.  We went knocking and she let us in!  I was amazed.  We had planned to share 2 Nefi 31 with her to give her a little sincho. (there's literally not a word for sincho in english.  For example, she is baptized but doesn't go to church, so we were going to tell her she needs to shape up and endure to the end.... that's sincho)  After talking with her for a few minutes and we were about to share the lesson, we both paused and looked at each other.  We knew there was something else Heidi needed to hear last night.  We asked her what she was hoping to talk about, learn about, or wanted us to teach her.  She asked if we could talk about faith.  Immediately Hermana Lopez and I had thoughts, insights, questions, and scriptures come to our minds and we had a new lesson formed in about 3 seconds without saying a word.  We knew there was a lot more meaning to her request to talk about faith.  She was searching for help.  We were able to teach her and turns out it was exactly what she needed, exactly when she needed it.  She apologized for not receiving us for so long before, but that she hadn't been ready to let Christ back into her life yet.  She said that our visit was perfectly timed and that maybe she was at home alone without any distractions for a reason.  She needed to feel Christ's love.  We left her with a few scriptures to read and the invitation to come back to church.  When we left her house and walked quickly out of the scary dark lane in our scary dark area, we were smiling and talking about how we both had the same promptings and how perfect it was.  Oh how grateful I am for tender mercies, especially on days when I feel like I really don't want to keep going.

 

I love you all!

No Empty Chairs

Hermana Llátez