Hot, Crazy Kids, etc

Hola!

It has been a CRAZY week this week. But it has been miraculous. Literally, Full of miracles.

 

The beginning of this week I had a expectations meeting with the new missionaries! It was really inspiring but our president basically guilted and scared us into to NEVER being disobedient.

 

Right now we are teaching an investigator named Esperanza. I LOVE her.  She is the sister of Jhoanna, who got baptized last month. She is 18 and has a little baby named Ryan. She knows the church is true. She already has such a strong testimony and she wants to get baptized. She is on date, but she has to get married because she is living with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, Jose, is a nice guy, but he like hides from us when we come over. He does not want to have to become the "church going type." This week we had some amazing lessons with Esperanza. It's hard because her sister Mary-Lou drops off her three girls everyday so our lessons are far from smooth. But this week we watched "The Testaments" with her.  After we watched it, I shared with her a journal entry I wrote about the movie in the MTC. As I read, she started to cry. The next day when we asked her if she read her scriptures, she said "Yes I did! I punched Satan right in the face!" It was so funny. We fasted for her and Jose yesterday, but sadly she didn't show up at church.

 

We have been trying to visit Esperanza'a and Jhoannas Mom too. She loves anything to do with god, but she can't read at all, and she is not really understanding our message. We are going to keep working with her.

 

One miraculous thing that happened was that we got this other sister's boyfriend to talk to us! He also hides from us everytime, and his girlfriend won't listen to us unless he does. Basically, he has TONS of questions, he is just too afraid to ask. We got him interested in talking about the Book of Mormon. It really is a powerful converting tool, because it's true!

 

So I had Sushi this week. We get a call from our Ward Mission Leader and he wants to take us to dinner. I guess the elders picked sushi. First time ever! Not a huge fan...

 

On the drive, we had our ward mission leader following us, and at a read light, he totally rear ended us. It was extremely minor, barely a scratch on the car, but he bumped us pretty good, so we both had headaches from hitting the headrests.

 

Apparently, for liablities purposes, if we have any headache or neck pain, we HAVE to get checked out. Sister Riggs, the mission president's wife, told us to go to the ER the next morning to get checked. We both felt completely fine and looked like idiots going to the ER healthy. But Hermana Simpson had to get 3 X-rays, so we wasted like 3 hours of our Saturday at the ER. It was kind of funny.

 

Yesterday was halarious. Jhoana texts us sunday morning to tell us she wasn't going to church because  her sister dropped off the three girls at her place, and her other sister left her 2 kids and didn't have a ride. So we show up before church and convince her that she needs to go. We help gather 6 kids, all under age 6, and get then ready for church and eat lunch. We then WALKED 1.8 miles to the church building in 100 degree weather. It was absolutely miserable. We had kids complaining, crying, running in the road, and dripping wet. We show up for sacrament meeting late, red faced, and completely soaked. On top of it, me and Hma. Simpson were fasting. We spent the next 2 meetings taking care of the screaming baby that refused to go to nursery. We wanted Jhoana to listen to the meetings, so we sat outside the Relief Society door playing with the 2 youngest kids, completely pooped. We found a ride for everybody home, and we were very grateful because it started raining. Me and Hma. Simpson laughed about the experience for the rest of the day. But at least Jhoana got to church!

 

Also, we have a joke now, because one of the kids, Kevin, had a hard time saying my name. I am now Hermana Expensive.

 

My testimony and gratitude for this gospel increases everyday. Everyday is a great day in the work of the Lord. Hma. Simpson keeps calling me Positive Polly.  I love this work and I am excited to continue serving here for the next 16 months!

 

I love you all, keep the faith! :)

 

Much Love,

Hermana Spencer