Good Morning!
Today I'm writing early because our meetings were cancelled and now we have the whole day to do something fun!
This week we didn't have the baptism we were planning on because Pilars mom got sick and she had to take care of her. BUT, this Saturday we're on for the baptism! It'll be right before the transfer ends, so I'm glad I get to be here for it.
I can't believe the transfer is almost done. I'm pretty much already "dying" here because I'm only going to have 12 weeks left! We'll see if I stay more time in my area. I rrrreally don't know anymore because the president told my companion he wanted to keep us together as long as he could, but if I stay much longer, I'll almost complete just a year here. Hopefully if I do stay, I'll at least get to spend my last transfer in a pueblo or something, because I think they're so cute!
This week we had a lot of success with one of our less actives, Felipe. He finally made it to church this week and brought a friend who is interested in learning more. Unfortunately, the friend doesn't live in our area. Felipe knows lotsss of people so, we're hoping if we keep working with him we'll find some really prepared people.
Love you all,
Hermana Harper
Monday, February 23, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
Brisas - Week 40
Happy Late Valentines day!
This week was pretty fun! Tuesday we had a mini miracle, all thanks to Heavenly Father's perfect timing. We have this member, Cristian (18 yrs) that introduced us to his friend Jordan and we've been teaching them. We went to Cristian's house, but his friend had cancelled, so we just decided to visit with his parents. His mom loves the missionaries, a lot, and has had some drama with the members, so decided to take advantage of the time and try and help her out. The drama was that her and her husband have been taking the sacrament (they're still not members because they're trying to finalize the wife's divorce with her ex in order to get married) and the bishop had asked them not to and some members had said stuff too. Long story short is, they felt bad and had their minds set on not returning until they would be able to get baptized (they've already waited 8 years!) and mean while would go to other wards. Well, we'd asked for the Bishop's help with them, and without even planning it, he showed up while we were still there visiting them. Right as he got there, some people showed up to install some stuff in their house, and there was A LOT of commotion, but we were able to sit down and the Bishop explained the sacrament and how he was trying to help them. He said very lovingly how he needed them to progress towards baptism because it's so crucial, and without plans and goals, that privilege had to be taken away. The parents did really understand, especially when the Bishop put it into the perspective of eternal families and the temple. It was neat because the wife is a really stubborn person, but the spirit pricked her heart ! :)
A few days later, we finally had our lesson with Cristian and his friend Jordan and the lesson melted my heart. The two are really good friends and Cristian is a really faithful member and wants more than anything for his friend to accept the gospel. Jordan isn't closed off to it, but he also feels a pull to the catholic church because that's what his family and ancestors were, yet he's not active in that church either. Christian spent a pretty big part of the lesson just sharing his testimony and love for his friend and how he'd felt prompted to share with Jordan right now. One thing Cristian said that I really liked, is that really soon he'll be leaving to serve a full time mission and he said he couldn't leave to share the gospel without having shared it with someone really important to him. That's really the spirit of missionary work! Sharing something that's important to us, with people we love and care about.
This week we also found 3 people with tons of potential. A member in another ward gave us the reference of a less active in our area (who just moved here a few months ago), and from this less active we received the reference of his friend Gabriel. Gabriel is divorced with 2 or 3 little kids and he's pretty sad. He's a radiologist at the little hospital in our area, and he says when he can't distract his himself with his kids or work he turns to drinking, and he hates it. He says he feels like he's doing all these dumb things and knows they're dumb but something pushes him to do it. He says he wants something more wholesome to replace the drinking. He believes in God and is willing to make whatever change is necessary. We barely talked to him, so we'll see where he goes. He would have gone to church, but the member that introduced us to him didn't wake up to go with him. :(
The other new investigator is Rodrigo, who DID go to church on Sunday. His mom is less active and I've been trying to get her to go back to church pretty much since I got here. Rodrigo has been really busy with school and stuff, but all the sudden decided that now he's ready to listen and see if all this is for him or not. Our ward mission leader was super impressed by him because he's really engaged and really sharp. In gospel priciples class, he was answering all the questions!
The last is Felipe. Hna Pitcher contacted him on the bus, and he's willing to listen because he's had a lot of problems with his wife leaving and kids too. He wants his wife back more than anything, and is worried because he feels like his wife's family is against him. Its looks like the wife still loves him though, but she wants to see a change in him. We explained that that's what the gospel does and how we are positive that if he trusts God, he'll get his family back because families are really important to God. That lesson was intense because the spirit was so so strong. I felt like my companion and I always knew what to say and when, and that it was really what he needed to hear.
Our Valentines together was fun :) We bought ourselves a balloon with candies from an investigator that was selling them. Then we bugged a member that helps us a lot to get us flowers, and he did! That morning we also made pancakes- which we always do for special days haha. And that's about it!
Love,
Hermana Harper
This week was pretty fun! Tuesday we had a mini miracle, all thanks to Heavenly Father's perfect timing. We have this member, Cristian (18 yrs) that introduced us to his friend Jordan and we've been teaching them. We went to Cristian's house, but his friend had cancelled, so we just decided to visit with his parents. His mom loves the missionaries, a lot, and has had some drama with the members, so decided to take advantage of the time and try and help her out. The drama was that her and her husband have been taking the sacrament (they're still not members because they're trying to finalize the wife's divorce with her ex in order to get married) and the bishop had asked them not to and some members had said stuff too. Long story short is, they felt bad and had their minds set on not returning until they would be able to get baptized (they've already waited 8 years!) and mean while would go to other wards. Well, we'd asked for the Bishop's help with them, and without even planning it, he showed up while we were still there visiting them. Right as he got there, some people showed up to install some stuff in their house, and there was A LOT of commotion, but we were able to sit down and the Bishop explained the sacrament and how he was trying to help them. He said very lovingly how he needed them to progress towards baptism because it's so crucial, and without plans and goals, that privilege had to be taken away. The parents did really understand, especially when the Bishop put it into the perspective of eternal families and the temple. It was neat because the wife is a really stubborn person, but the spirit pricked her heart ! :)
A few days later, we finally had our lesson with Cristian and his friend Jordan and the lesson melted my heart. The two are really good friends and Cristian is a really faithful member and wants more than anything for his friend to accept the gospel. Jordan isn't closed off to it, but he also feels a pull to the catholic church because that's what his family and ancestors were, yet he's not active in that church either. Christian spent a pretty big part of the lesson just sharing his testimony and love for his friend and how he'd felt prompted to share with Jordan right now. One thing Cristian said that I really liked, is that really soon he'll be leaving to serve a full time mission and he said he couldn't leave to share the gospel without having shared it with someone really important to him. That's really the spirit of missionary work! Sharing something that's important to us, with people we love and care about.
This week we also found 3 people with tons of potential. A member in another ward gave us the reference of a less active in our area (who just moved here a few months ago), and from this less active we received the reference of his friend Gabriel. Gabriel is divorced with 2 or 3 little kids and he's pretty sad. He's a radiologist at the little hospital in our area, and he says when he can't distract his himself with his kids or work he turns to drinking, and he hates it. He says he feels like he's doing all these dumb things and knows they're dumb but something pushes him to do it. He says he wants something more wholesome to replace the drinking. He believes in God and is willing to make whatever change is necessary. We barely talked to him, so we'll see where he goes. He would have gone to church, but the member that introduced us to him didn't wake up to go with him. :(
The other new investigator is Rodrigo, who DID go to church on Sunday. His mom is less active and I've been trying to get her to go back to church pretty much since I got here. Rodrigo has been really busy with school and stuff, but all the sudden decided that now he's ready to listen and see if all this is for him or not. Our ward mission leader was super impressed by him because he's really engaged and really sharp. In gospel priciples class, he was answering all the questions!
The last is Felipe. Hna Pitcher contacted him on the bus, and he's willing to listen because he's had a lot of problems with his wife leaving and kids too. He wants his wife back more than anything, and is worried because he feels like his wife's family is against him. Its looks like the wife still loves him though, but she wants to see a change in him. We explained that that's what the gospel does and how we are positive that if he trusts God, he'll get his family back because families are really important to God. That lesson was intense because the spirit was so so strong. I felt like my companion and I always knew what to say and when, and that it was really what he needed to hear.
Our Valentines together was fun :) We bought ourselves a balloon with candies from an investigator that was selling them. Then we bugged a member that helps us a lot to get us flowers, and he did! That morning we also made pancakes- which we always do for special days haha. And that's about it!
Love,
Hermana Harper
Monday, February 9, 2015
Brisas - Week 39
Hola!!!
Well, this week we officially didn't find Hermana Pilar's baptismal record, so she can get baptized again! I called the elders in the offices, and they called Salt Lake, and apparently she has records in the church, but not as a member. It’s called a leech record, or something like that. So, she was probably blessed as a baby, but never baptized. We were going to have the big day this Saturday (Valentines Day), but we couldn't get in touch with her and she slept in Sunday morning, so more than likely in 2 weeks we'll be doing it. We're hoping our other, Leticia, will be ready by then too because she said she has the papers she needed for her divorce. As far as baptisms, that's all that's really very sure. Our 2 others who've said they want to get baptized have just been being kinda flaky!
On Sunday, Henry's family made it to church, all of them, AND on time! I was so proud :) The two little girls really crack me up. There's this member named Moroni that we take with us to visit them and he also has passed by to bring them to church, and Betzi has been starting to confuse him with "Mormon" and calls the book of Mormon the book of Moroni, hahaha. I think it confuses her too because in primary they were taking about the Angel Moroni, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, so she gets it mixed up a lot and I think its really funny. One thing that Henry's wife (Suzi) told us once, is that her 2 girls like to put on their little dresses and pretend they're missionaries. She says they'll round up their parents and have them read the scriputres and ask the parents questions and stuff. Too cute!! Hopefully they'll both be future missionaries when they grow up!
Our recent convert, Ricardo, is doing REALLY well! We had him accompany us with visits and he seems like he's been a member all his life. We only began with his like maybe a month and a half ago, so everything is still pretty fresh. We visited Juan Enrique, and right now he's just starting- exactly where Ricardo was a like a month and a half ago. We laughed afterwards, because Juan Enrique was just like Ricardo when he started. Like for example, when we taught Ricardo to pray, in all our lessons he'd always pull out his Book of Mormon and read the 4 steps on the back first. When we asked Juan Enrique to say the closing prayer, he automatically pulled out his book to see the steps and I saw Ricardo smile. Its cool that Ricardo was in his place not that long ago, yet has already come so far and gained so much confidence. It makes the mission so rewarding to see that. I just wish all our investigators could be so ready like he was!
This week we had interviews with President and Zone Conference. Zone Conference was in the morning and long and boring as usual haha! Interviews were fun because it took our whole day! The president really needs to learn to plan interviews better because he puts someone at every half hour or so, yet he takes like 45 min - 1 hour with everyone. Mostly he just talks and asks random stuff too. In the interview we looked at how our personal family history is going and how we're doing with developing Christ like attributes. I found that where I need to work more is expressing love more. I guess I'm not very verbal about it with a lot of people, so that's what I'm working on!
One thing that was pretty cool is that we found a new investigator named Joel. We were in the bus with a member and starting talking to him because he was with his uncle who looks exactly like a less active in our ward named Carlos. Turns out they're brothers (the Uncle and Carlos) and we made appts to see both of them. The uncle wasn´t there when we went, but Joel was home and he's a really sincere guy. He's younger and divorced, with a little boy and more than anything he wants to be a good example for his little boy. He accepted the goal to be baptized!
I learned how to make one of the foods here! I'm actually suspicious if it exists with a different name in the US (potato salad?), but here its common! Its called ensalada rusa and its really easy. All it is, is chopped up carrots, potatoes, onion, peas, and chicken with pepper, mayo, and media crema. Everyone just eats it with saltine crackers and its really good. We made some Wednesday with a member to take to a couple leaders who help us a lot. We have another appt with her to learn to make empanadas, so I'm excited for that!
Love,
Hermana Harper
Well, this week we officially didn't find Hermana Pilar's baptismal record, so she can get baptized again! I called the elders in the offices, and they called Salt Lake, and apparently she has records in the church, but not as a member. It’s called a leech record, or something like that. So, she was probably blessed as a baby, but never baptized. We were going to have the big day this Saturday (Valentines Day), but we couldn't get in touch with her and she slept in Sunday morning, so more than likely in 2 weeks we'll be doing it. We're hoping our other, Leticia, will be ready by then too because she said she has the papers she needed for her divorce. As far as baptisms, that's all that's really very sure. Our 2 others who've said they want to get baptized have just been being kinda flaky!
On Sunday, Henry's family made it to church, all of them, AND on time! I was so proud :) The two little girls really crack me up. There's this member named Moroni that we take with us to visit them and he also has passed by to bring them to church, and Betzi has been starting to confuse him with "Mormon" and calls the book of Mormon the book of Moroni, hahaha. I think it confuses her too because in primary they were taking about the Angel Moroni, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, so she gets it mixed up a lot and I think its really funny. One thing that Henry's wife (Suzi) told us once, is that her 2 girls like to put on their little dresses and pretend they're missionaries. She says they'll round up their parents and have them read the scriputres and ask the parents questions and stuff. Too cute!! Hopefully they'll both be future missionaries when they grow up!
Our recent convert, Ricardo, is doing REALLY well! We had him accompany us with visits and he seems like he's been a member all his life. We only began with his like maybe a month and a half ago, so everything is still pretty fresh. We visited Juan Enrique, and right now he's just starting- exactly where Ricardo was a like a month and a half ago. We laughed afterwards, because Juan Enrique was just like Ricardo when he started. Like for example, when we taught Ricardo to pray, in all our lessons he'd always pull out his Book of Mormon and read the 4 steps on the back first. When we asked Juan Enrique to say the closing prayer, he automatically pulled out his book to see the steps and I saw Ricardo smile. Its cool that Ricardo was in his place not that long ago, yet has already come so far and gained so much confidence. It makes the mission so rewarding to see that. I just wish all our investigators could be so ready like he was!
This week we had interviews with President and Zone Conference. Zone Conference was in the morning and long and boring as usual haha! Interviews were fun because it took our whole day! The president really needs to learn to plan interviews better because he puts someone at every half hour or so, yet he takes like 45 min - 1 hour with everyone. Mostly he just talks and asks random stuff too. In the interview we looked at how our personal family history is going and how we're doing with developing Christ like attributes. I found that where I need to work more is expressing love more. I guess I'm not very verbal about it with a lot of people, so that's what I'm working on!
One thing that was pretty cool is that we found a new investigator named Joel. We were in the bus with a member and starting talking to him because he was with his uncle who looks exactly like a less active in our ward named Carlos. Turns out they're brothers (the Uncle and Carlos) and we made appts to see both of them. The uncle wasn´t there when we went, but Joel was home and he's a really sincere guy. He's younger and divorced, with a little boy and more than anything he wants to be a good example for his little boy. He accepted the goal to be baptized!
I learned how to make one of the foods here! I'm actually suspicious if it exists with a different name in the US (potato salad?), but here its common! Its called ensalada rusa and its really easy. All it is, is chopped up carrots, potatoes, onion, peas, and chicken with pepper, mayo, and media crema. Everyone just eats it with saltine crackers and its really good. We made some Wednesday with a member to take to a couple leaders who help us a lot. We have another appt with her to learn to make empanadas, so I'm excited for that!
Love,
Hermana Harper
Monday, February 2, 2015
Brisas - Week 38
Febuary. Wow!
This week's highlight...Ricardo's baptism. He was SO happy, so that was so neat. The day before (Friday) we had his interview in the mission offices, so afterwards we walked right next door to the temple with him. It was just starting to get dark, so we talked to him about all he has to look forward to. He has the goal to get married in the temple one day and hopes his little daughter chooses to follow his example instead of his mom's. At his baptism, his mom and cousin came, who are both members! We didn't have any idea his mom was a member, but that was cool. At the end she bore her testimony and I think it meant a lot to her son. I was a little disappointed by the turnout of members honestly, but Ricardo didn't seem to mind, and that's what's most important!
This Sunday we also had the farewell for Israel, the guy who was baptized a year ago and is the only member in his family. He leaves tomorrow and is SOOO excited. He is so humble and so sincere so I know he'll have a lot of success. Both of his parents came to his farewell (in the evening) and I think that's the first time they've ever set foot in the chapel. We're hoping their hearts were softened that night, because so far they haven't been very interested in listening to anything from another church.
At church we had 2 investigators, which means hopefully 2 baptisms soon! We're starting to count Pilar as an investigator because we haven't been able to find her baptismal record. It's funny because we first found her through her grand kids that live with her, who are members, but didn't know that their grandma was a member. Haha, the first day we met her we asked her to be baptized and that's when she came out with her little secret, that she is already a member. But now, we may end up baptizing her! The other investigator that came is Leticia, her husband was less active, but now the two of them have decided to invest in the church :) Her date isn't set because we're waiting for her to sign on her divorce, but it's supposed to be like this week. Or so they say haha- we've been waiting a month already :( But we're choosing to be hopeful!
Henry's family didn't make it to church because the baby got sick which seems to always happen, so it’s a little frustrating. As far as less actives/recent converts at church though we did have one new one! We met a random guy at the store a while back and he said he was a member, but hasn't gone in like 10 years. When we wrote down his info, it turned out that he lives in our area, so that was cool! We've visited him the last 3 weeks and finally this Sunday he was able to make it. His name is Italico, and he's divorced, so we're looking into our older single adults for a future girlfriend for him because he's super lonely.
Also this week we met a lady who has the saddest story! We met her walking past her house one day. Her and her sister listened to us and we really interested, even though I could tell they didn't probably understand quite everything. They said yes to being baptized, and a couple days later when we saw them again the one sister (Isabel) told us her whole life story. She grew up with abusive parents and pretty much raised her 7 sisters. She grew up and got married, but she´s never let go of her fear of her step dad. Her youngest sister lives with her (20 years old) and she took 2 of her nieces under her wing because her other sister abandoned them. So living with her are her own 3 boys, a sister, and 2 nieces. She's really incredible because she's so happy and so bubbly. You'd never know she has a past like she does. We're trying really hard to get them to come to church, but Isabel is worried her husband won't be okay with it :(
Until next week! Hermana Harper
This week's highlight...Ricardo's baptism. He was SO happy, so that was so neat. The day before (Friday) we had his interview in the mission offices, so afterwards we walked right next door to the temple with him. It was just starting to get dark, so we talked to him about all he has to look forward to. He has the goal to get married in the temple one day and hopes his little daughter chooses to follow his example instead of his mom's. At his baptism, his mom and cousin came, who are both members! We didn't have any idea his mom was a member, but that was cool. At the end she bore her testimony and I think it meant a lot to her son. I was a little disappointed by the turnout of members honestly, but Ricardo didn't seem to mind, and that's what's most important!
This Sunday we also had the farewell for Israel, the guy who was baptized a year ago and is the only member in his family. He leaves tomorrow and is SOOO excited. He is so humble and so sincere so I know he'll have a lot of success. Both of his parents came to his farewell (in the evening) and I think that's the first time they've ever set foot in the chapel. We're hoping their hearts were softened that night, because so far they haven't been very interested in listening to anything from another church.
At church we had 2 investigators, which means hopefully 2 baptisms soon! We're starting to count Pilar as an investigator because we haven't been able to find her baptismal record. It's funny because we first found her through her grand kids that live with her, who are members, but didn't know that their grandma was a member. Haha, the first day we met her we asked her to be baptized and that's when she came out with her little secret, that she is already a member. But now, we may end up baptizing her! The other investigator that came is Leticia, her husband was less active, but now the two of them have decided to invest in the church :) Her date isn't set because we're waiting for her to sign on her divorce, but it's supposed to be like this week. Or so they say haha- we've been waiting a month already :( But we're choosing to be hopeful!
Henry's family didn't make it to church because the baby got sick which seems to always happen, so it’s a little frustrating. As far as less actives/recent converts at church though we did have one new one! We met a random guy at the store a while back and he said he was a member, but hasn't gone in like 10 years. When we wrote down his info, it turned out that he lives in our area, so that was cool! We've visited him the last 3 weeks and finally this Sunday he was able to make it. His name is Italico, and he's divorced, so we're looking into our older single adults for a future girlfriend for him because he's super lonely.
Also this week we met a lady who has the saddest story! We met her walking past her house one day. Her and her sister listened to us and we really interested, even though I could tell they didn't probably understand quite everything. They said yes to being baptized, and a couple days later when we saw them again the one sister (Isabel) told us her whole life story. She grew up with abusive parents and pretty much raised her 7 sisters. She grew up and got married, but she´s never let go of her fear of her step dad. Her youngest sister lives with her (20 years old) and she took 2 of her nieces under her wing because her other sister abandoned them. So living with her are her own 3 boys, a sister, and 2 nieces. She's really incredible because she's so happy and so bubbly. You'd never know she has a past like she does. We're trying really hard to get them to come to church, but Isabel is worried her husband won't be okay with it :(
Until next week! Hermana Harper
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