February 24, 2014

Well, this week was even longer then all of the others put together.  Last Monday for p-day a women in my ward, we call her grandma Bair, she did my hair.  She is 92 years old and fingerwaved my hair.   It looked so cool!  Just like in the old 50's movies, or Hna. Noffz said it looked like from the move "The Notebook."  But she had not done fingerwaving in over 50 years, and it was really cool to have it done.  We want to buy the clips and learn to do it ourselves.

    Tuesday we were trying to contact a referral and knocked on a door when they let us in immediately.  The woman's name was Veronica and we just began talking to her and talking about the gospel.  Then all of a sudden she is in tears and crying.  She told us about her mother dying and how things are hard for her and she has been praying to God for help.  She said that we were an answer to here prayers and came straight from God.  She has the sweetest spirit and seems to accept and want everything that we have taught her about the plan of salvation so far.  We are exctied to teach her more, and just hope her husband is on board.  He very bluntly told us he was Catholic but respect what we do.  Vamos a ver.  (we will see)

   Then we had a lesson with Yesenia that was almost 2 hours long.  She is so ready to be baptized.  And she asked us how we know she is ready.  She wants this so bad and can't wait to come to church next sunday.  fingers crossed.  But she is completely special and has a lot of love for us.  I really want to stay in touch with her.

    Now Wednesday was the hard day for us.  We got dropped by our investigator Gabrial who had a date for baptism and we were so excited for him.   We went by that night and his wife opened the door and let us in.  But we could tell that she wasn't happy.  Gabrial had told her about the baptism and it was not okay with her.  Her entire family is catholic, baptized and married in that church, and her kids were raised in the catholic church.  She did not like how we were trying to get her husband to be baptized.  The whole time she was talking Gabrial could not look at us.  He knows everything is true and he wants it.  But he does not want to break up his family at the moment.  Which we understand completely.  It is just so sad.  We will keep praying for them and hope that the wife softens her heart so Gabrial can get baptized and they can be sealed as a family.  One day.

    Thursday was zone training; which lasted until almost 8 at night.  It was kind of ridiculous.  But it was also good.  We had a lot of trainings that helped me learn how I can be a better missionary and things I can do differently.  Trainings are always a boost for me, a little motivitaion.   And while the trainings were going on President Murdock and Sister Murdock were doing interviews.  We are supposed to get interviewed by them every other transfer.  They are awesome mission presidents!  REally, I love them.  They are really personable and easy to talk to.  But my interviews were good.  They gave a lot of good advice and I feel very comfortable with them. 

    And a miracle happened for Hna. Noffz and I.  Our stake president approached us and talked to us about starting our own spanish Sacrament Meeting!  Yay!!  This is going to be amazing for the members and for the investigators we want to bring to church.  I guess that our area is the most successful in the entire stake right now.  Which is pretty cool because our stake is the biggest stake in the country.  I don't know exactly what we're doing that is so good, but something must be working.  We are so thankful for this and for our stake president for seeing our needs and wanting to help.  We have been trying so hard to make a difference for the people here.  And our prayers are being answered! 

   This Sunday I was asked to give a talk in church.  With about an hour of preparation time.   It was definitely not the funnest thing that I have had to do, but I also know that I am a missionary now.  And this kind of stuff happens a lot.  But it went decent.  Not great, but not terrible.  I just walked up and started talking, pulled out a few scriptures, and bore my testimony.  Just like what I do everyday as a missionary haha.

   Alex is doing a lot better and we are so happy for him.  We are staring to teach him in spanglish lessons.  He knows english really good but not as much of the gospel terms.  So at church he gets a little confused.  This will help him learn a lot better.  And the situation with his uncle is imporoving.  Juan wants to get him a job so he can stay busy but also have some money.  I guess we will see how it all turns out. 

    And now on to Karina.  Have I mentioned how awesome she is and how much I love her?  If not, then I have to let you know how completely amazing she is!  This week we taught her The Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom.  And she completely understands and accepts everything.  Her sister had 2 kids in high school and she knows that she wants to live her life diferently.  She wants to be an example for her 2 nieces.  And this is how great she is; we saw her last night again and asked her how keeping the word of wisdom was.  And she was worried that we saw her brothers soda cup and thought it was hers.  She wanted us to know that she was keeping it completely.  But I guess we confused things for her becasue she thought that she couldn't drink any soda!  So she hasn't had any soda all week long.  No worries, we cleared things up for her and said that soda she can choose to drink.

    Then last night we talked about prophets.  She is amazed that we have a prophet living today and can't wait to listen to him. Oh and she came to church and completely loved it again.  The girls and the entire ward are really taking her in and making her feel good.  Karina is actually so excited for her baptism.  Her baptism will be March 8th at 9 in the morning!  Can you believe that?  A teenager excited to get baptized early saturday morning.  There is a big youth stake activity that mrning at 10:45.  So all of the youth are going to go to her baptism and then afterwards go to the activity with Karina.  It is perfect. 

    I wish that everyone could meet her because she is really so special.  I can't explain it, but there is just something different about her that is so good.  So pure and wanting to do good in the world. 

     This week was long, and missionary work is exhausting.  But the rewards of a mission are far too high for it to be easy.  And rewards are always worth it.  To see Karina's eyes light up as she feels the spirit, to see Alex's smile every day, and to be able to try my best to help these people is an amazing feeling.  I love it.

     Thanks for all of the love, support, and prayers that I have back home.  It means the world and makes such a huge difference.  I love everyone so much! 

Les Quiero!

-Hermana Adair