Hunucma - Week 10

Hola!
I Hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's day!

This week was pretty average, a little low on lessons too because my companion was sick Tuesday.  At church, it was super disappointing because NO one we invited came. And they all promised they would. We're thinking it was for the holiday though because the church attendance overall was lower than usual.

Throughout the week, we found 3 new people. The first was a reference from someone we met on the street. She said her neighbor (Jaime) was sick and suggested we visit him. His wife received us really well, and we found her husband on a hospital bed in their room. He had an accident 12 years ago, and was paralyzed from the neck down. It is such a sad story, because all his kids were little when it happened, so all growing up the wife had to care for her husband and kids. The one good thing I could see from it is that their whole family is really united and really sweet. They go to church every week too and have strong testimonies that God exists. We were only able to meet him and talk to him for a little bit before his physical trainer came to do exercises with him, but we scheduled another appointment. I hope it goes well because he says he's received lots of missionaries, but has never been interested in anything else because he believes all the churches lead to the same God.

The second person we met was Armando. We met him when he gave us a ride in his mototaxi, and he said he was interested to learn more when we talked to him. We brought a member to the first visit with him and he listened really good to the entire lesson of the restoration and accepted to be baptized. We invited him to church and he said he'd come with his wife and 2 little girls, but they didn't make it, unfortunately.

The third was a young kid (16 years) named Edwardo. We found him while looking for someone else, and had a little mini lesson on the spot with him. He said he's listened to lots of different churches and loves learning. I had a lot of hope with him, but he didn't come to church like he promised, so we will need to follow up with him.  That’s the life of a missionary though- getting excited after a first lesson, but you never really know until you get the chance to verify!

On Monday in our district "council" meeting, we were brainstorming what we needed to change to start seeing more miracles in our areas, because all of us are struggling. Everyone in our district (3 companionships) is in a pueblo, so we have a lot of the same weaknesses as far as people we are contacting. One of the companionships is a married couple, and the wife (Sister Lopez) made a comment that brought tears to all of the sisters eyes! She said she felt like we were all trying to give so much to our areas, but you can't give what you don't have.  We all know what we need to do, but just aren't quite making our goals because discouragement gets to us too often throughout the day. She gave the idea that we ask for priesthood blessings. My whole entire mission, I've never asked for one because I always felt like there was something else we needed to be doing, but I really felt the spirit when she made that comment. When we're falling short and need extra strength from God, we shouldn't hesitate to use the priesthood that God has blessed us with as members of Jesus Christ's church. I feel super thankful honestly to have that resource!

Love you all and see you SOON!

Hermana Harper