Nov 25

Buenos Dias,

 

 

On Monday we had a great district activity. We all got together at the church and played speed (also called bump) and mafia. It was so much fun! Hna Anderson almost won, but not quite. Elder Wood eventually shut us all out. :) We also got Pupusas for dinner, and they were SO good!

 

Tuesday we had interviews with President. I LOVE interviews with President. He always makes you feel so good, and at the same time I always leave inspired to be the best missionary I can be. The zone leaders did some training while we were all waiting, and talked about how we need to talk with more people every day. We were so inspired, and at first it was great to put it into practice, but then it got cold, and suddenly there wasn't anybody on the street anymore. It's a little warmer today so maybe we'll get lucky and have a warm streak where we can talk to lots of people.

 

Wednesday we had district meeting, but the Zone Leaders (who have the keys to the chuch) went with the other district and couldn't let us in... We ended up doing it outside, and it was fun, but SO cold. I hope we don't have to do that again.

 

Thursday we had a major MILAGRO with a couple that we love but haven't been able to teach for more than a month (H and A). We went over to their house one night to 'drop' them because we realized that trying to keep them just wasn't our purpose any more. Hna Anderson was too emotional and couldn't really talk so I explained our purpose to them and how we left our family and friends at home to come do this work and that we don't have time for 'just' friends here either so we weren't going to be able to call or come visit randomly if they weren't able to make the time to let us teach them every week and do the other things we asked them to do. It was so sad, but then suddenly they both seemed to realize what we were getting at and set two weekly appointments and promised that they would make time for it from now on. A even asked us how long the process to get baptized would take. It was AMAZING!!! I think they truly understand our purpose now, and will be able to progress quickly from this point.

 

Nothing terribly exciting happened on Friday. We did some contacting and had a couple of citas, and then correlation at night. One of our citas was pretty cool though because we found out that the woman we had found, R, was actually baptized when she was 8, but then her family stopped coming to church so she hasn't been for almost 20 years! I really hope that we'll be able to help her an her mom return to activity and teach her husband the lessons.

 

The craziest story from this week was on Sturday my companion almost got hit by a car. We were riding along Sherman Way pretty fast because we were late, and we rode past this alleyway. Just as Hna Anderson passed in front of the alley a huge black truck came to a squealing stop 6 inches away from her side! I was right behind her going pretty fast, and I was SO SCARED! It would have been so bad because she would have been thrown out into traffic, and there's no way I could have stopped so I would have ended up running into the side of the truck as well. Luckily no one got hurt and we just continued on, but I really did see her life flash before my eyes.

 

Church was good on Sunday, and we got to practice with the choir (I play and Hna Anderson helps the Alto's find their note) for a little bit while we waited to have a meeting with Obispo. The we went home for lunch, one cita, and studies.

 

I love being a missionary! I love learning so much about the gospel and being able to share what I learn with so many others. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful that he came to live, suffer, and die so that I can know what to do and be able to do it in order to live with my Heavenly Father again. I am grateful for SO many blessings in my life. I won't list them all here, but I encourage each of you to take some time this week as Thanksgiving comes up and think about all of your blessings. I know that gratitude is the antidote for most of life's disappointments and trials; even if it doesn't make it go away, I promise that it makes it better.

 

Love,

 

Hna Marin Hardy