¡Buenos Días!
So last night we got told about our transfers, I'm staying in Brisas and training again! I'm going to have another baby! I'm excited because I like training for the most part. I think it completely depends on the person you train whether its easy or not though...just like any other companionship really.
Today I'm staying with another American sister for the day and we're doing our normal P-day stuff and have a training meeting at 2pm. Then tomorrow we receive our new companions. I met a few of the new missionaries today and it is so fun to see where everyone is from. Of the four I met, 3 are from different parts of Mexico and one from Chile. I know there will be a bunch of American sisters this transfer too because I saw the paper in the offices last week. I think 4 are from Pleasant Grove too, haha.
Transfers were probably the most exciting thing I have to say for this week! Sunday we spent with only members because we knew one of us would get switched out. We also went to the farewell of an elder that's leaving from our ward to serve a mission in Mexico City. He has accompanied us with appointments a bunch, so it was fun to be at his farewell and wish him well on his mission. Since it was Fast Sunday, they did the farewell in the evening which worked well. I've never heard of a farewell not being in sacrament until yesterday though! At church we had 2 investigators. I was disappointed because we were almost positive 3 more would be there and a less active, but they didn't come :( Why is it so hard to go to church on Sundays???
This week the other sisters in the ward had a baptism, so we brought an investigator to show him what he would be working towards. He liked it a lot, so hopefully he can stop smoking so it is possible!
Things have been going good in Brisas. Lots of lessons, lots of sun, looots of sweat! And I still feel like every day I'm learning a lot about the people here and how I can teach better to help them understand the gospel.
One random thing I learned from a member we ate with on Saturday was about that number in the bible that the Jehovah's witnesses think is the number of people who will be saved. I never understood what the number meant, but this member explained to us that with the priesthood there are quorums, and once it reaches a certain number, you have to make a new quorum. With the priesthood office "seventy" the max is seven times seventy in a quorum and I guess the number in Apocalipis is from that. Haha that's something I never even thought about, about the priesthood...all those technicalities. Goes to show just how perfect God's church is though!
Until next week,
Hermana Harper
Monday, August 4, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Brisas - Week 11
Holaaaa!
Well, I'll start off to say today was one of the funner P-days I've had. The whole mission was together and the President and his assistants talked to us. Apparently our numbers have been lowering and he's worried about it. He talked about putting all of our energy into the work, and that's honestly something we need to work on! It's easy to work a little slower because you're tired, but I'm trying to remember how short our time is here!
Another thing they mentioned is to really listen to our investigators, and to talk WITH them instead of AT them. Teach people, not lessons as we put it. That topic is one of the hardest things for me. Asking questions that really allow you to understand the person and their needs...from my MTC days I've struggled with that. A lot of it goes with just listening to the spirit though.
During practices, my old companion Hermana Tozcano grabbed me and we taught together with two Elders. The way practices are always set up is everyone partners up with someone who isn't their current companion and find elders, if you're sisters, or vice versa. We were trying to practice how to really listen and what I got out of the practice is that all the missionaries struggle just as much as I feel like I do- some even worse. It surprises me how hard being a good missionary really is. I was with one elder who is almost at his 2 years and he stilllll barely can speak Spanish.
It is so interesting to me how much God puts on us to grow and change. You'd think just being on the mission changes you and turns you into a better person, but that's the farthest thing from the truth. A persons efforts and desires reflects who they become and what they get out of life. There's American missionaries who get here and barely know Spanish, but have the desire and attitude and do it- and not just that, but turn around and train after they get out of their own training.
This week though, was pretty normal. Every week we do so good with lessons and finding new people and trying to get our less actives to church on Sunday, but this Sunday all we had to bring to church were 2 investigators. Victor (grandpa) and Roberto (tried to commit suicide after wife left him) were there at least! The two poor guys have lots of problems we need to help them with, but I'm hoping we make progress. All of our little miracles always cost a lot on our part it seems like.
Some random things that I forgot to say last week were that I almost ate something really gross the other day! We ate with this really poor family and they cooked all parts of the chicken just about! They offered us the chicken feet, but we told them we were good with the legs. The feet looked super gross though. Like little hands or something...it was hard watching the little kids gnaw on them the whole time haha. So far that's the grossest I have come across.
Also this week, I held a live Iguana. It was pretty scary and it just lasted long enough for a picture! Also, I caught a frog when it rained the other day. Can you tell I love animals? Haha. Along with animals, my other love is the fruit here. There are sooo many kinds. Just when I think I learned them all, a new type comes in season. I'll send pictures:) Don't worry... (I just couldn’t get them to download this week, the computers were too slow!)
Next week is transfers again. My baby is almost all grown up, so I'm pretty sure we'll get separated. Hopefully not though, because we're finally starting to work really well together.
Until next week,
Love, Hermana Harper
Well, I'll start off to say today was one of the funner P-days I've had. The whole mission was together and the President and his assistants talked to us. Apparently our numbers have been lowering and he's worried about it. He talked about putting all of our energy into the work, and that's honestly something we need to work on! It's easy to work a little slower because you're tired, but I'm trying to remember how short our time is here!
Another thing they mentioned is to really listen to our investigators, and to talk WITH them instead of AT them. Teach people, not lessons as we put it. That topic is one of the hardest things for me. Asking questions that really allow you to understand the person and their needs...from my MTC days I've struggled with that. A lot of it goes with just listening to the spirit though.
During practices, my old companion Hermana Tozcano grabbed me and we taught together with two Elders. The way practices are always set up is everyone partners up with someone who isn't their current companion and find elders, if you're sisters, or vice versa. We were trying to practice how to really listen and what I got out of the practice is that all the missionaries struggle just as much as I feel like I do- some even worse. It surprises me how hard being a good missionary really is. I was with one elder who is almost at his 2 years and he stilllll barely can speak Spanish.
It is so interesting to me how much God puts on us to grow and change. You'd think just being on the mission changes you and turns you into a better person, but that's the farthest thing from the truth. A persons efforts and desires reflects who they become and what they get out of life. There's American missionaries who get here and barely know Spanish, but have the desire and attitude and do it- and not just that, but turn around and train after they get out of their own training.
This week though, was pretty normal. Every week we do so good with lessons and finding new people and trying to get our less actives to church on Sunday, but this Sunday all we had to bring to church were 2 investigators. Victor (grandpa) and Roberto (tried to commit suicide after wife left him) were there at least! The two poor guys have lots of problems we need to help them with, but I'm hoping we make progress. All of our little miracles always cost a lot on our part it seems like.
Some random things that I forgot to say last week were that I almost ate something really gross the other day! We ate with this really poor family and they cooked all parts of the chicken just about! They offered us the chicken feet, but we told them we were good with the legs. The feet looked super gross though. Like little hands or something...it was hard watching the little kids gnaw on them the whole time haha. So far that's the grossest I have come across.
Also this week, I held a live Iguana. It was pretty scary and it just lasted long enough for a picture! Also, I caught a frog when it rained the other day. Can you tell I love animals? Haha. Along with animals, my other love is the fruit here. There are sooo many kinds. Just when I think I learned them all, a new type comes in season. I'll send pictures:) Don't worry... (I just couldn’t get them to download this week, the computers were too slow!)
Next week is transfers again. My baby is almost all grown up, so I'm pretty sure we'll get separated. Hopefully not though, because we're finally starting to work really well together.
Until next week,
Love, Hermana Harper
Monday, July 21, 2014
Brisas - Week 10
Buenas Tardes!
This week turned out to not be too bad! We were able to have a bunch of lessons with new people, which was a blessing.
At church we only had one investigator, Roberto. This week we taught him for the first time and he is a SUPER nice guy. He`s about 40 and lives with his mom. One day his wife took their two kids and left him. His mom told us it was really hard on him and he tried to hang himself, but the mom caught him before he died. I really hope we can help him to be happier in his life. His mom is really great too, but she's scared to switch religions because she worries she'll be sinning. With a little bit of time, we're hoping we can convert her too!
One of the harder parts this week was visiting our less actives. We have tonsss in our area and they're so stubborn! I think what it really is, is procrastination. All of them want to go back to church and everything, but just not right now, they say. Or Sunday rolls around and they think something that came up was more important. Its so frustrating because I can't help but feel like its our fault because we're not saying what we should or something...but we're trying! Its hard to see what a hold Satan has on these people, because they're missing out on so many blessings!
Another trial this week that I feel like we're finally starting to overcome, is my companionship. Hermana Pinguelo and I really struggle sometimes when we have different opinions, but during companionship study we read this talk (by Elder Craig Zwick "What do you think?") from last conference. It talked about understanding where the other persons intentions are coming from and communicating. When I shared the talk, my companion had been a little annoyed because I went ahead and called a member to do us a favor and she wanted to ask a different member. It was a silly thing, but even little things kill the spirit and I hate it. We got to a point where we understood the reasons behind why she was annoyed, why I just went ahead and did it and everything, but there still was a tension. Usually what we do is just give each other space and get over it, and it usually works, but whenever we do that we don't REALLY forgive each other. What changed things that time is instead of just cooling off, we stepped back and realized that we care for each other and don't want to be hurting the other one's feelings. In the talk, Elder Zwick talked about him and his wife's arguments and what really fixes the problems is realizing you love the person. In the moment, a lot of times I forget, but its true!
Love to you all,
Hermana Harper
This week turned out to not be too bad! We were able to have a bunch of lessons with new people, which was a blessing.
At church we only had one investigator, Roberto. This week we taught him for the first time and he is a SUPER nice guy. He`s about 40 and lives with his mom. One day his wife took their two kids and left him. His mom told us it was really hard on him and he tried to hang himself, but the mom caught him before he died. I really hope we can help him to be happier in his life. His mom is really great too, but she's scared to switch religions because she worries she'll be sinning. With a little bit of time, we're hoping we can convert her too!
One of the harder parts this week was visiting our less actives. We have tonsss in our area and they're so stubborn! I think what it really is, is procrastination. All of them want to go back to church and everything, but just not right now, they say. Or Sunday rolls around and they think something that came up was more important. Its so frustrating because I can't help but feel like its our fault because we're not saying what we should or something...but we're trying! Its hard to see what a hold Satan has on these people, because they're missing out on so many blessings!
Another trial this week that I feel like we're finally starting to overcome, is my companionship. Hermana Pinguelo and I really struggle sometimes when we have different opinions, but during companionship study we read this talk (by Elder Craig Zwick "What do you think?") from last conference. It talked about understanding where the other persons intentions are coming from and communicating. When I shared the talk, my companion had been a little annoyed because I went ahead and called a member to do us a favor and she wanted to ask a different member. It was a silly thing, but even little things kill the spirit and I hate it. We got to a point where we understood the reasons behind why she was annoyed, why I just went ahead and did it and everything, but there still was a tension. Usually what we do is just give each other space and get over it, and it usually works, but whenever we do that we don't REALLY forgive each other. What changed things that time is instead of just cooling off, we stepped back and realized that we care for each other and don't want to be hurting the other one's feelings. In the talk, Elder Zwick talked about him and his wife's arguments and what really fixes the problems is realizing you love the person. In the moment, a lot of times I forget, but its true!
Love to you all,
Hermana Harper
Monday, July 14, 2014
Brisas - Week 9
Hola Friends,
This week was pretty normal. Sunday was a bummer because we had our hopes up for 7 investigators to come to church, but only one made it. From our 3 from last week, only Victor made it to church. His wife and sister we're pretty tired because they were up partying until 3am! They crack me up because they're like 80, but they still get super dolled up for parties- even if its just a family party.
This week we had a lesson with a guy we've been calling "Miguel creeper." This guy stopped us in the street to get our names, so consequently we contacted him and he has been texting us ever since. He keeps asking us if we were allowed to get married and how it works being a missionary and stuff. He'd been out of town for awhile, but finally got home so we met with him. We tried really hard to bring a member, but no one could :( We went though and told him what's up and how we're missionaries and our purpose was to help him get closer to God in his life. Haha, he honestly didn't seem to normal to me because he got distracted way too much and was eating paper when we were with him. We haven't heard from him since though, so I don't think he's too interested anymore!
Something funny this week is that I climbed a roof to pick some fruit. We were teaching this super old lady and she had a guaya tree and my companion has been craving them lately, so we asked the lady if we could pick some for her and us. She obviously was too old to do it, so I climbed the roof to get to where all the fruit was. Haha, that's been me and Hermana Pinguelo's thing lately. We're always helping old people pick their fruit! It was cute because this old lady told us she hates eating alone because she's scared to choke with no one around to help her. So, while I was picking fruit, my companion was watching, and the cute old lady was taking advantage of the moment and eating the guayas haha.
Well, on a spiritual note, I'll share something from my studies of the book of Mormon! I've been reading about Alma the younger, and I noticed a verse that hadn't stuck out to me before. When the angel appears to alma and his friends, he specifically says the reason he's there is on behalf of the prayers and faith of Alma (the father) and the members of the church. It's interesting because God always allows agency, and could have let them keep using it how they had, but due to faith and prayers, God sent miracles that changed their lives. I think I discredit prayer sometimes because we pray alllll the time and for the same things pretty much. When we truly have faith and do all God's asked of us, we're able to receive the blessings.
Well, love you all! Enjoy your week!
Hermana Harper
This week was pretty normal. Sunday was a bummer because we had our hopes up for 7 investigators to come to church, but only one made it. From our 3 from last week, only Victor made it to church. His wife and sister we're pretty tired because they were up partying until 3am! They crack me up because they're like 80, but they still get super dolled up for parties- even if its just a family party.
This week we had a lesson with a guy we've been calling "Miguel creeper." This guy stopped us in the street to get our names, so consequently we contacted him and he has been texting us ever since. He keeps asking us if we were allowed to get married and how it works being a missionary and stuff. He'd been out of town for awhile, but finally got home so we met with him. We tried really hard to bring a member, but no one could :( We went though and told him what's up and how we're missionaries and our purpose was to help him get closer to God in his life. Haha, he honestly didn't seem to normal to me because he got distracted way too much and was eating paper when we were with him. We haven't heard from him since though, so I don't think he's too interested anymore!
Something funny this week is that I climbed a roof to pick some fruit. We were teaching this super old lady and she had a guaya tree and my companion has been craving them lately, so we asked the lady if we could pick some for her and us. She obviously was too old to do it, so I climbed the roof to get to where all the fruit was. Haha, that's been me and Hermana Pinguelo's thing lately. We're always helping old people pick their fruit! It was cute because this old lady told us she hates eating alone because she's scared to choke with no one around to help her. So, while I was picking fruit, my companion was watching, and the cute old lady was taking advantage of the moment and eating the guayas haha.
Well, on a spiritual note, I'll share something from my studies of the book of Mormon! I've been reading about Alma the younger, and I noticed a verse that hadn't stuck out to me before. When the angel appears to alma and his friends, he specifically says the reason he's there is on behalf of the prayers and faith of Alma (the father) and the members of the church. It's interesting because God always allows agency, and could have let them keep using it how they had, but due to faith and prayers, God sent miracles that changed their lives. I think I discredit prayer sometimes because we pray alllll the time and for the same things pretty much. When we truly have faith and do all God's asked of us, we're able to receive the blessings.
Well, love you all! Enjoy your week!
Hermana Harper
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Brisas- Week 8
Hola!
First of all, the mission president changed P-day on us this week, so that's why I'm writing a day late! We got notified like Thursday, which is annoying, but that's how things always go here it seems like. At first I was super bugged because we'd either waste a lot of time or money to change all our appointments, but then I remembered that the zoo is never open on Monday, but Tuesday yes, so then we were excited :) Everything has worked out in the long run because we ended up having like 7 lessons that day, which is really good for us.
This week felt like it was pretty eventful! We found two new investigators that seem really promising. One has her husband in jail, so we had her take him a Book of Mormon and she said he was really grateful for it. When we extended the baptismal invitation she accepted and asked if her 2 kids could get baptized too...Uh, of course they can!! :) One is 8 and the other 10, so its perfect. We've only had one lesson with her though, so hopefully everything goes smooth. Her name is Najelli.
Another lesson we had was with a young mom of two little kids, Anai. Our lesson was super short with her, but I can already tell she's promising!
Oh, so I went to the doctor on Wednesday. I've had this weird breakout on my chest for a couple weeks that I just thought was acne or something from the dirt and sweat...bbbuuutttt...the doctor told me they were little bugs!!!!!! The presidents wife had thought it was heat rash or something, but the cream she gave me wasn't helping much, so I finally decided it was time to go see the doctor about it, and yeah, I have little bugs. My companion was laughing at me because I was like freaking out a little to the doctor when he first told me. The doctor gave me cream and pills and am using some special soap and so far I think its helping, thankfully.
Thursday we had immigration, so that took up a lot of our morning traveling there and getting that all taken care of for my companion.
Friday (I think), my companion and I had a little bit of contention. I'm definitely learning a lot from this companionship, about how to get along with others. It's hard because Hermana Pinguelo loooves to push me when I'm already upset, but honestly our companionship has gotten stronger because I'm learning to say sorry and forget and forgive.
Something exciting,
WE HAD THREE INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH THIS WEEK! It's the first time since we got here, so we're super happy! Haha when we reported our numbers to our district leader he was wayyy happy for us and even our zone leader called to congratulate us. It was fun to finally see our efforts paying off. Our 3 investigators are Rita, her husband Victor and Rita's sister Erlinda. They're all like in their late 70's - 80's and are the funniest ever. I love going to visit them because they feel like grandparents to us now. Erlinda always asks me if I'll take her home with me to the U.S. when I leave, haha.
That’s all for this week. I love you all, Hermana Harper
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| My Trainer, Her Trainee (My Sister) and My Daughter |
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| A new fruit I found...Pitaya! |
This week felt like it was pretty eventful! We found two new investigators that seem really promising. One has her husband in jail, so we had her take him a Book of Mormon and she said he was really grateful for it. When we extended the baptismal invitation she accepted and asked if her 2 kids could get baptized too...Uh, of course they can!! :) One is 8 and the other 10, so its perfect. We've only had one lesson with her though, so hopefully everything goes smooth. Her name is Najelli.
Another lesson we had was with a young mom of two little kids, Anai. Our lesson was super short with her, but I can already tell she's promising!
Oh, so I went to the doctor on Wednesday. I've had this weird breakout on my chest for a couple weeks that I just thought was acne or something from the dirt and sweat...bbbuuutttt...the doctor told me they were little bugs!!!!!! The presidents wife had thought it was heat rash or something, but the cream she gave me wasn't helping much, so I finally decided it was time to go see the doctor about it, and yeah, I have little bugs. My companion was laughing at me because I was like freaking out a little to the doctor when he first told me. The doctor gave me cream and pills and am using some special soap and so far I think its helping, thankfully.
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| Brisas Scenery! |
Thursday we had immigration, so that took up a lot of our morning traveling there and getting that all taken care of for my companion.
Friday (I think), my companion and I had a little bit of contention. I'm definitely learning a lot from this companionship, about how to get along with others. It's hard because Hermana Pinguelo loooves to push me when I'm already upset, but honestly our companionship has gotten stronger because I'm learning to say sorry and forget and forgive.
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| 2 of the 3 investigators we had at church this week!!! |
Something exciting,
WE HAD THREE INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH THIS WEEK! It's the first time since we got here, so we're super happy! Haha when we reported our numbers to our district leader he was wayyy happy for us and even our zone leader called to congratulate us. It was fun to finally see our efforts paying off. Our 3 investigators are Rita, her husband Victor and Rita's sister Erlinda. They're all like in their late 70's - 80's and are the funniest ever. I love going to visit them because they feel like grandparents to us now. Erlinda always asks me if I'll take her home with me to the U.S. when I leave, haha.
That’s all for this week. I love you all, Hermana Harper
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| Catholic Decorations |
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| Party Food! |
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| Lizards are EVERYWHERE! |
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| A Friend From Home...She went to Mountain View HS! |
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| The Zoo Here is called Animaya! |
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| Comps at the Zoo! |
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| Zoo Pics! |
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| More Zoo Pics! |
Monday, June 30, 2014
Brisas - Week 7
¡Hola!
We just had our first week after transfers! I think I forgot to write about transfers last week, because nothing changed. I'm staying with my baby though haha:) Last Monday we all got to be together when transfers happened (because it was our stake MTC night), so we got the news face-to-face, instead of a phone call late at night. That was the first time that ever happened, so that was pretty cool.
We just had our first week after transfers! I think I forgot to write about transfers last week, because nothing changed. I'm staying with my baby though haha:) Last Monday we all got to be together when transfers happened (because it was our stake MTC night), so we got the news face-to-face, instead of a phone call late at night. That was the first time that ever happened, so that was pretty cool.
This week was good and bad. I feel like most weeks are like that though.
The mission president changed the sister training leaders thing, so now
we only have 2 for the entire mission. The sister training leaders have
to spend 24 hours with every companionship, every transfer, so they'll
be crazy busy. We had Hermana Torales with us (my grandma:)) so we got to
learn from her a lot Saturday. It was really helpful because she opened
Brisas. There were a couple people in our area book she was able to pull
out that might be promising to teach. One thing the president is pushing is for
us to teach the atonement really well with investigators. Hermana Torales
was showing us how we can do it better, but its hard!
There is so much
about the church that took so long for ME to really understand, or that
I'm still understanding and to teach people here with their Catholic backgrounds, you'd think would be easier, but it´s really not. Too many
people here are content where they're at and its frustrating. One of our
biggest problems right now, like most missionaries, is finding people to teach. You'd
think because we're doing what we're supposed to, we're trying to follow
the spirit, we'd magically find all these ready people, but no. Its so
true that only a few out of dozens that you contact will be very
hopeful. Right now I'm just trying to not get too discouraged!
On Friday night we had an
especially tough night. We went to an appointment of this super nice
lady, and AGAIN, said she couldn't because something came up. We went to
our back up, who we've had one lesson with before, and I wasn't too
excited because the time before she said she was just listening to us
because her brother said she should. She's around
50 and kind of a grumpy person. She never married and her mom was her
world, until she died like a year ago or so. We figured we had her
"needs" figured out, so this lesson would be better, but it really
wasn't. At least on my part I guess :/ When we were there we tried to
get her to pray, and she absolutely refused to with us because she
said she "didn't feel 100%." Since she refused to pray, I decided to
turn the lesson into a "we should always pray" lesson, but before I
wanted to ask a couple questions to make sure that was really the
direction we should go instead of our plan. My companion always tells me
I don't leave enough pauses, so I purposely left more pauses for my
companion to be more involved, but it came across to the investigator
that I didn't know my scriptures or what to share and she totally let me
know it. I can't remember now everything she said, but she was super
rude. I explained that we wanted to share something that would
specifically benefit her, and since she was impatient, I just went ahead
and shared what I had been thinking. We read in the Book of Mormon (2
Nephi 32:8 - 9) where it says to always pray and when you feel like not
praying, its the evil spirit telling you not to. My companion read it
(this investigator also refuses to read with us) and explained it, then
looked to me, so I asked her if she believed what the scripture
is saying is true. I figured she'd be like, yes- now I understand that its
not good to not want to pray. But nooo, haha. She went off at me AGAIN
how it was a stupid question and that's why she hates having people like
us visit her, and duh if its in the scriptures its true. She also said
all kinds of stuff to me how I don't have confidence in what I teach if I
ask questions like that and all sorts of nice stuff. I've never, ever
had a lesson like that where I've just gotten attacked for everything. It
made me mad that because SHE was the one who refused to pray, and if
she really believed what it said, she should want to change. My companion
told me after that she probably just doesn't like Americans or
something because everything my companion said was angelic. I was the
only one she had a problem with.
We had that lesson, and then
right after, a lesson with a less active family. I think I have written
about them before, but basically everyone had a problem with the law of
chastity. I won't go into details about everyone, but its just sad
because their family always has so much contention. We went and taught
them the law of chastity finally and the seriousness of it, but when we
gave the commitment, the mom refused. The mom wants to obey it because
she 100% knows its true, but doesn't want to stop her relationship. Her
daughter was there too, who's barely starting to get into that stuff,
and the mom was criticizing her the whole lesson, yet the mom admitted
that she's not willing to change what she's criticizing her daughter
for.
To end that night, we
got home late, so my companion got grumpy like she always does when
she's tired, haha. It was just tough. When my district leader called that
night though, I told him it had been a discouraging day and he reminded
me how things we do now will have an eternal effect. I started thinking
about my converts from my other area and how they'll forever be my
converts and that's a pretty cool thing. It really made me want to work
hard here and activate all these less actives that are falling away and
baptize.
Maybe right now things seem hopeless, but I'm just really
hoping all our efforts will somehow help these people!
Love to you all,
Hermana Harper
Monday, June 23, 2014
Brisas - Week 6
Hola!
So this week was a little different that usual! Our proselyting time got cut short because we had two huge meetings this week, plus Friday we went to the temple! One of the meetings we had was Saturday, Ward Conference, and on Sunday we had a Ward Missionary "MTC." I'm not sure how big the ward missionaries are in other missions or wards, but our stake is really pushing missionary work through Ward Missionaries here. Earlier this week they got their official "calling" and all have little name tags like the real missionaries do. We trained them on teaching lessons in the MTC night, so that was fun. The Ward Missionaries are the ward members who usually come out with us and add to the lesson by bearing testimony, or teaching a principle. It’s good because a couple of the members that come out with us are future missionaries, so they get to watch how we teach and practice and all that.
On Friday, the Missionaries were at the temple for the first time in a while! With the other mission president, I don't think Missionaries ever went to the temple, except for their last week in the mission, with the President. The rule for Friday was if we wanted to go to the temple, we had to bring recent converts and help them get the names of their family to do. We originally thought we wouldn't get to go, because the only recent converts in our area are a couple with 2 little kids. Thursday night they told us they worked out their schedules so that they could go, so we had to scramble Friday to help them with their names and figure out rides and everything. That day we had to cancel all of our appointments to be able to get everything done, that was kinda sad, but going to the temple was super fun!
We got there at 6pm and the missionaries had to wait until it slowed down to be able to go through, because the temple isn't very big...we ended up waiting outside until 9pm! That's technically when the temple closes, but they stayed open another 2 hours to let the missionaries do baptisms too. That day in the temple was CRAZY. I've never seen them go through baptisms so fast. Since there weren't enough rooms to do confirmations, the had to do a bunch in the hallways and wherever they could find room. With clothing too, they barely had enough...like they were handing it out as they came out of the dryer. Crazy, crazy day for everyone at the temple.
Other random things from this week that I wanted to share: The tooth fairy here is a mouse. Haha like the Easter bunny, but the tooth mouse. Another thing. We were talking about jobs the other day and all the little jobs in the USA, that would be a regular minimum wage job, like working at the movie theater, or burger king, those kind of jobs here only pay like a dollar or less an hour! I knew people made less money here, but when you think of it like that, dang! Another random thing is that I saw fireflies for the first time. Maybe they exist in Utah and I’ve just never seen them or knew what they were, but my companion pointed some out the other night and I thought that was kinda cool! I couldn't take a picture because they flash super fast and are really tiny, otherwise I would have!
Well, that's all I have time for this week! Hope everyone has an awesome week this week, Love you all :)
Hermana Harper
So this week was a little different that usual! Our proselyting time got cut short because we had two huge meetings this week, plus Friday we went to the temple! One of the meetings we had was Saturday, Ward Conference, and on Sunday we had a Ward Missionary "MTC." I'm not sure how big the ward missionaries are in other missions or wards, but our stake is really pushing missionary work through Ward Missionaries here. Earlier this week they got their official "calling" and all have little name tags like the real missionaries do. We trained them on teaching lessons in the MTC night, so that was fun. The Ward Missionaries are the ward members who usually come out with us and add to the lesson by bearing testimony, or teaching a principle. It’s good because a couple of the members that come out with us are future missionaries, so they get to watch how we teach and practice and all that.
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| Super Cute Couple we are teaching!!! |
On Friday, the Missionaries were at the temple for the first time in a while! With the other mission president, I don't think Missionaries ever went to the temple, except for their last week in the mission, with the President. The rule for Friday was if we wanted to go to the temple, we had to bring recent converts and help them get the names of their family to do. We originally thought we wouldn't get to go, because the only recent converts in our area are a couple with 2 little kids. Thursday night they told us they worked out their schedules so that they could go, so we had to scramble Friday to help them with their names and figure out rides and everything. That day we had to cancel all of our appointments to be able to get everything done, that was kinda sad, but going to the temple was super fun!
We got there at 6pm and the missionaries had to wait until it slowed down to be able to go through, because the temple isn't very big...we ended up waiting outside until 9pm! That's technically when the temple closes, but they stayed open another 2 hours to let the missionaries do baptisms too. That day in the temple was CRAZY. I've never seen them go through baptisms so fast. Since there weren't enough rooms to do confirmations, the had to do a bunch in the hallways and wherever they could find room. With clothing too, they barely had enough...like they were handing it out as they came out of the dryer. Crazy, crazy day for everyone at the temple.
 |
| Hermanas at the Temple! |
Other random things from this week that I wanted to share: The tooth fairy here is a mouse. Haha like the Easter bunny, but the tooth mouse. Another thing. We were talking about jobs the other day and all the little jobs in the USA, that would be a regular minimum wage job, like working at the movie theater, or burger king, those kind of jobs here only pay like a dollar or less an hour! I knew people made less money here, but when you think of it like that, dang! Another random thing is that I saw fireflies for the first time. Maybe they exist in Utah and I’ve just never seen them or knew what they were, but my companion pointed some out the other night and I thought that was kinda cool! I couldn't take a picture because they flash super fast and are really tiny, otherwise I would have!
Well, that's all I have time for this week! Hope everyone has an awesome week this week, Love you all :)
Hermana Harper
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