August 5, 2013

Hola Familia!

I hope all is well. I loved getting all the fun emails this week. They are awesome and fun to read :)

This week has been good (of course). We are always so amazed with how many miracles we see on the mission.

Biggest news is that, Esperanza is getting married! On Tuesday we went to see her. We have been fasting and praying that she would be able to get married and be baptized on August 31st. This is her 3rd time being on date. She has been too scared to talk to her boyfriend and tell him that she NEEDS to get married before then. I guess, Monday night she told him that she wanted to get married this month so that she could be baptized. He was very understanding and they decided on getting married on the 24th. That is also the day 3 kids we have been teacher are supposed to get baptized. It's going to be a great day that day.

So, apparently, being a missionary also means being a wedding planner. We are going to have to help Esperanza plan everything. She wants to get married at the church, but her boyfriend Jose feels iffy about it because he doesn't want to be considered "Mormon"? (Yet). Her main goal is to be sealed as a family. She knows that it might take a while and a lot of faith, but she knows that it will happen.

We are also teaching Heidy a ton. Heidy is Esperanza and Jhoana's niece. She is living at Jhoana’s apartment because her step-dad was abusive. Her mom had Heidy when she was 13 and is very lost. It's so sad because nobody really has a lot of faith in Heidy, they think that she is just doomed to have the same life that they all live. But, we have taught her in the past few days. We were teaching her in the staircase outside of the apartment (because no woman was home, so we couldn't go in) and she was acting a little weird. Finally, I felt very inspired to say "Okay, Heidy, we love you. We are here because we love you and we want to help. What's going on, how are you feeling about what we are teaching you?" It was SO neat. She completely opened up. She believes what we have to teach her, she just is nervous because her step-dad is anti-Mormon and her mom is very active at her Pentecostal church. Her mom took her to that church yesterday, and Heidy liked it. She is just feeling confused.  Like everybody else, she LOVES the idea of the temple. She wants to get married there. She is just so lost, but she has so much potential. I am excited to continue teaching her. We hope that she is going to be baptized on the 31st as well.

NO accident's this week :) Yay! But, me and Hma. Simpson both have been getting a few headaches from the accident still. Luckily they are going away.

On Saturday, there was a Relief Society temple trip. We were going to go with them, with Esperanza and Jhoana and go to the visitor center. We were SO excited to go. They were too, they even got up early and got ready on time (which is a miracle for that family).  But, when we got to the church, no sisters showed up except the 2 sisters that planned it. So, there weren’t enough seats for us. It's so frustrating working with members that aren't reliable. They are such great people, with great hearts, they just lack the reliability.

Our apartment is cute. It is a disaster most of the time with study materials everywhere. We have a nice walk-in closet though, which is so nice :)

My companion Hermana Simpson is fantastic! We are the only Hermanas in the stake, and I guess everybody says that Hermanas are way cooler than sisters ;) She is an excellent trainer. I know I lucked out. I guess her last companion was very shy and rarely spoke, so she says it’s weird adjusting to me jumping right in! We get along great. We both keep saying that being companions is a tender mercy. She is teaching me a lot, and I hope I am doing the same for her. Her Spanish is perfect, so listening to her helps me a ton. Missionary work is fun with her. It's still work, and busy, but it's fun too!

I love being a missionary. I know without a doubt that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel has been restored to us and it is because we have the gospel that I am sharing it was others who don't. I know that families are eternal and through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can live with our father in Heaven again and be happy for eternity. I love this gospel and I love this work.

You are awesome! I am sorry I don't have time to respond to all the emails I got this week, but I can try to write some later. If possible, have anybody just put their address in their emails too and I can write a response to them later. I don't get very much email time.

Much love,

Hermana Spencer