Hey
fam.
Good week.
Lots of tender mercies came my way, some in the form of answered prayers, some
in the form of experiences that were answers to prayers, some in the form of
USPS and FedEx. (:
Shekera's
confirmation was yesterday in sacrament meeting. A very sweet blessing was
given, and all the Hoy kids- Shana, Tiara, Lamont, and Shekera are now members.
Now we wait for the parents. They will be there soon. In the meantime, Lamont
continues to be rock solid. Mom, I gave him your letter last night. He told us
last night he convinced his friend to come to church with us this week! Lamont
really wants to serve a mission, but he is already signed up for the marines,
which means a four year commitment of active duty..This week he said he talked
to his sergeant about serving first, he said he didn't get a definite answer
yet. So please keep him in your prayers! Lamont would make the most amazing
missionary, and if anyone knows anything about getting out of the marines- help
a sister out. Haha. He is already talking about mission papers. I love that
family so much! The AP's requested a video of Lamont sharing his testimony and
conversion story that will be shared with the entire mission. I was surprised
when he willingly agreed to do it- maybe I'll share it with you next week. The
two questions we were told to ask him is 1- how the missionaries (us) played a
role in his conversion and 2- how the gospel has changed his life.
This week at
our regular dinner at Ivan's I got to talk to his sister from Puerto Rico on the
phone. It was pretty intimidating, talking on the phone makes understanding that
much harder, especially when they speak 100 words/ minute. I said a silent
prayer in my head, meanwhile missing everything she was saying, to help me
understand her. And then I tuned her back in, haha. And I heard "Era hermoso y
blanco, me sentí tan tranquilo y feliz cuando yo estaba allí. Era una cosa muy
especial para mí." (It was beautiful and white, I felt so peaceful and happy
when I was there. It was a very special thing for me.) She was describing the
Salt Lake temple! What are the chances his sister from Puerto Rico, happened to
have been to the temple when she was visiting for work in Salt Lake? I hadn't
even asked her, she didn't even know I was a missionary at that point. So in my
broken spanish, I got to tell her about the temple.
Robbie is
doing great. Good news- he has decided he wants to be baptized! Bad news- his
parents will not let him. So he will have to wait until he is 18. The family
friends of his in the ward said they would keep writing me and keep me up to
date until he gets baptized. He is only 16 right now, so it will be some time.
But such an exciting decision for him.
Phyllis has
officially been dropped. This week we had our last visit with her. She let us
in, we sat down to begin, and she asked us to stop coming. She had talked to her
catholic priest, who- obviously told her she needed to tell us not to come back.
(What did you think he would say? It's like going to the Honda dealership and
asking about a Toyota! Of course he's going to tell her to stop.) I asked her to
pray for us one last time before we left, and in her prayer she still said she
knew it all to be true, but couldn't continue.
Ross is trying
to quit smoking. If he could give up drinking and cocaine, he can quit smoking.
He already quit drinking coffee. It may take a long while, but he can do it.
Pretty funny this week, we were at our usual spot in the park where we teach,
and Joe, the local wanderer- came by and started chanting "nun sandwich." He's
quite the character. He's homeless, we see him all the time. Sometimes he
follows us around as we street contact downtown hahah.
So Perry's
baptism was supposed to be Saturday, but he decided to hold off because of his
girlfriend.. She is really trying to pull him towards the Jehova's Witnesses. It
got pretty intense in a lesson with them.. She and her mom were there with us
and Perry. Her mom started asking us about what we do as missionaries. Perry
told her some of the things we sacrifice, including contact with our families.
She started putting us down, saying how "anti- Godlike" that was, and went off.
Perry had our back.. He threw down. Hahah. His response was
"Well your 19 year
old granddaughter is working at Walmart and on heroine, so I'd say what they're
doing is pretty great." Hahaha. We just sat there silently.. And then continued
with the lesson. Haha. Pretty awkward. I hope Perry decides to choose for
himself, and not let anything else sway his decision. Nothing else
matters.
On Friday we
got to paint Mrs. Waltraub Webber's farmhouse. She's an older widow, her husband
passed away a few years ago, and the man she paid to paint her farmhouse took
the money and ran with it. So we said we would do it. She's the cutest little
old lady ever. She is from Germany, she has the greatest accent. The whole time
we were painting she was up at her house up the road, and when we had finished
all the painting we went to check on her before we left. She has been baking us
pies and muffins and treats all day. She was all upset that we were finished
before they were done baking, so we went back later and had pie and hot cocoa
while she told us stories of when she moved to America from Germany. She moved
here in the 40's or 50's, and shortly after met her also German husband. Her
husband was a "master baker." She shared some of his experiences, including when
her husband was a prisoner of war in Africa. We are going back to help her with
the second coat on her house this week, man I love that lady. She is a
character.
On Sunday we
finally got to give Norah a Chinese copy of the Book of Mormon, which we just
received months after requesting. Teaching was very different. Try explaining who
God is to someone who knows nothing about Him. It felt kind of like trying to describe the
color red to someone who is blind, haha. We simply explained that like we have a
father here on earth, we have one in heaven, who created us, and loves us. Next
we taught her about who Jesus Christ is, and then promised that by reading the
Book of Mormon she could get to know them. It was different than any lesson I
had taught before, but it went well. She seemed to understand, and was eager to
read. She's a smart girl, she will learn quickly.
Saturday we
had a multi stake relief society event which was perfectly timed and themed "I
can do this." (I can do hard things.) My favorite speaker was one who taught how
it doesn't matter how you start, it's how you finish. He told the story of an
Olympic athlete from Africa who was severely injured during a race, but decided
to finish, despite the fact that all the other runners had already crossed the
finished line an hour before. He said "My country didn't send me 5000 miles to
start the race, they sent me 5000 miles to finish." I could relate this to
myself, the missionary, like any other, always struggling with feelings of
inadequacy.
Alright, my
highlight. We were visited by the newest member of the quorum of the seventy.
Elder Stanfill's visit changed what the rest of my mission will be. It was an
answer to my many prayers. I guess if you're lucky sometimes answers can come in
the form of personalized advice from general authorities. Haha. Any attempt I
make to share it won't measure up to how great it was. Maybe I'll share some
notes I took from it throughout the next few weeks and weekly emails. President
invited me to tell the story of Lamont during the meeting, he's a mission wide
celebrity by now.
After the
meeting, I got to talk to Elder Stanfill for a few minutes and meet him and his
wife. I thanked him, and he noticed I was a spanish speaking missionary. He
asked me if I had much success here, or use it much. I told him I did here and
there, but not much, and how honestly I am really struggling with the language.
There is just no substitute for being immersed in it. I'm in a place where not
even my companion speaks the language. He shared some insight with me, some I'll
never forget. Something to do with my personal future. I know that I am not just
learning Spanish for the next year and a half of my life, but for the rest of my
life.
He told me
that this was where I needed to be, and that nothing else that I could be doing
right now could be more important, that nothing else could be "changing the
eternities." Some of what he said to me I will share:
"I promise
you, that whether or not you see a baptism, that when you pass through the veil
you will be greeted by thousands, if not millions of people who will know your
name."
These men are inspired. All this came from a man I had
just met. A few other things were said that are too special to share. But what a
great day it was.
It couldn't
have been a more perfect night, we finished the day with dinner at a members
home with Cynda, the friend who we met from our Meet the Mormons movie
night.
It was such a
great night. The members, the husband being a member, shared with me that it
took him 20 years of going through missionary after missionary after missionary
until the right one came. They told me they thought I was the one for Cynda. And
this was the time for her. The spirit was so thick in that room, everyone knew
it.
I will share
some of my notes from Elder Stanfill's visit next week, and you'll hear from him
yourselves on the Saturday morning session of general conference! (I know him.)
Thanks everyone for the letters and support. Love you all!
You know it's a good week when
you can't pray without crying.
I am learning that obedience is the most important when
it's the hardest.
And hey, if you didn't know it, the church is
true.
“Sacrifice
allows us to learn something about ourselves--what we are willing to offer to
the Lord through our obedience.” -Elder M. Russell Ballard
Hermana
Sears💜
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