I am going to try really hard to remember the things that happened this week.
*We were praying that Luis would be willing to move his baptismal date up so, he pushed it back. 🙁
* The mission president’s fireside was in our branch, and everything went really well. Carmen shared her testimony again. I think she’s already given about 4 talks in the month that she’s been baptized. Hna Coronel also spoke. It was her first time, and it was super simple and sweet. I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Hna Coronel. She hasn’t missed a sunday since she was baptized even though her husband misses pretty frequently to play soccer.
Also, the Ontiveros couple, the proffesional opera singers in the branch, sang. It was crazy good.
*Enrique currently doesn’t have a baptismal date, because he hasn’t come back to church since that first week, and he and kayla need to decide what they’re going to do in order to live the law of chastity. Kayla said they’re thinking about separating which would stink for us because that would mean he doesn’t live in our area anymore, and we have to give him to someone else.
*We found a family! A huge family! With 6 kids, 4 of which are old enough to get baptized. The 15 year old, Ana, has wanted to go to church before because she has friends who are LDS, but her mom has never let her because she didn’t know the parents and she’s always a little bit nervous about any church that isn’t Catholic. So, huge miracle that we committed them to go to a pioneer day activity that we were going to have at the church. When we showed up at there house 30 minutes before to wait with them for the branch president who was going to be giving them a ride there. They were all dressed up and ready to go. MIRACLE.
Unfortunately we didn’t really know what the activity was. We knew that it was for pioneer day and there was going to be a ‘short’ video, and then a potluck dinner. Yeah, turns out it was an hour and a half of music and the spoken word. They featured some ridiculous opera singer and there were only 2 religious songs the whole time. So the kids more or less died of boredom, and then at the dinner part we really struggled to find people to hang out with them because they’re all pretty shy.
The younger kids were all sold and wanted to go to church the next day, but unfortunately Marcella definitely was not. We’re going to have to work a little bit to get back in confianza? with her.
* There was a HUGE dust storm. Luckily we had our dinner appointment early that day because of the pioneer day activity. Before that we had just been walking trying to get more familiar with the area and doing TTI’s (teach, testify, invite). Anyways, the Elders showed up while we were at dinner, we’re still not sure why. They were out on the front porch, because there wasn’t a third male, and as Hna Schwartz starts to share a scripture Elder Samuels yells, “Que feo!” So, we run outside to see why the elders are freaking out, and half of the sky is orange. It was like those videos we watched on YouTube where you can see the huge cloud of dust moving towards the city. So, we took some photos, and then all ran inside the Chavez house. In about 2 seconds it was totally dark, and when you looked about the windows everything was orange. It only lasted a few minutes where it was really bad, and then a regular storm came in with just a little dust and rain. The whole thing was really cool, and luckily it really didn’t affect our day much.
* We’ve also been finding quite a few families and couples lately where one parent might only speak Spanish, but everyone else in the family speaks English. Toni speaks only Spanish. Brenda his gf both, but English is easier for her. Then Brenda’s kids only speak English. So, I was talking to Brenda and Toni about baptism and the law of chastity. While Hna Schwartz was teaching Brenda’s daughter. Haha, aparently she’s a 10 year old with ridiculously hard questions.
*So I got lazy, and stopped wearing makeup for about a week. Yeah, 2 different people ended up giving Hna Schwartz and I makeup. Then someone gave us both bracelets. THEN the young women in the ward gave us Christmas in July packages. I felt really loved/that I should probably try harder to look pretty.
Anyways, that’s my week in no particular order.
Where is Hna. Lamb from? Hna Lamb is from Panama, but her parents are American. She’s the most equally bilingual person I know. I was able to call her the other day, because I have a referral she gave me.
When does Hna. Fors go home? In December just one transfer before me. She had only been out in the field 12 weeks when she trained me, and because she already knew Spanish she was in the MTC for just 4 weeks. Yep, so my trainer leaves just one short transfer before I do.
Is this your second or third transfer being full field? This is my third transfer being full field. My second full field transfer in Valencia.
Are you allowed to wear sun glasses? Yeah, we’re allowed to wear sun glasses when we’re driving and we’re out walking around. I just haven’t brought myself to buy any because I know I have like 10 pairs at home. I think I’ll get a pair today though, because the headaches keep getting worse.
I assume you are still with Hna. Schwartz full field. What area are you in? Is it a ward or a branch? Are all your areas close to the temple? How many areas are there that you can be assigned to? We’re in the Valencia branch. It’s my third transfer in this area. It’s probably the furthest I’ve been away from the temple, and it’s only about a 10-15 minute drive. I think there’s 6-7 Spanish vc areas. I’m not quite sure because there was one that closed a couple transfers ago, and another that was switched to sisters that are always full field.
Are you able to get the Ensign? Yeah, we get the Ensign and the Liahona. My companion really liked that in the middle talk as well. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I will try harder to get to it.
love you,
Rachel