Melissa went to church for her first time!! Whoo!! That was awesome! We have a cita (appointment) with her this next jueves (Thursday). We taught her son as well, which was great too.
We also had a great lesson with Maritza this week. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and read 2 Nephi 2 with her a little bit. She's so great! She knows it's all true, comes to church, she just needs to get married. We challenged her to talk to her boyfriend about that. He works at the mines and is gone for about 1 or 2 months and then comes home for about 5 to 7 days. Man, how blessed I was to have my parents always there for me throughout my life. It must be so hard. But yeah, we left her with that so we will see what happens on Thursday!
I am loving personal studies. They're legitimate and I feel the spirit a ton. I could do that all day long! This week we had some great spiritual moments! Earlier this week we visited Victor who sells the tamales. It was such a humbling experience. He lives in a dirt house with dirt everything and sleeps on a little cot. He has like 2 or 3 changes of clothes and just lives in a really dirty situation, but wow, that man has a heart. We talked to him... well he talked the whole time haha, about how he just wants to serve others, and go to cities and just knock door to door asking their needs and helping the poor... Here is a man who lives in such poverty and still wants to help others. He sees himself as happy and well lived and still believes there are others to be helped. He doesn't say "pity me", he just wants to help! Wow, what a humbling experience for sure!
Yesterday as we were in a gated community, where you have to have a key to get in or leave, the cita (appointment) fell through that we had there. As we were leaving, I saw this family sitting in their house and thought, "knock that door", but I kept walking. We got to the gate and it was locked. I sat there for a second, then said "Elder, we´re going to visit this family." He had a little fear because we had knocked there before and got rudely shut down, but I thought about Elder Rasband's talk from conference and thought, I needed to be that first responder, and it paid off! We went there and knocked. The lady who had shut us down before was sitting in the kitchen. Her kid had opened the door. She kind of gave us the "why are you here.. go away" look. We said we are missionaries and then we heard a voice from the hall from an older man, "adelante caballeros!"(go ahead gentlemen!) and he came and let us in. He then told us he is happy loving God and praying to Him, but wanted to know more about "the green book." Haha we explained it was blue, explained the First Vision and whatnot and then continued talking more about our religion and answered questions he and his son asked. They were such great people and it payed off for sure listening to the spirit. The man invited us to return and come freely. He said he's always open to listen and learn more! It was so amazing and such a great testimony builder for sure!
Something I read in "The Fourth Missionary" this week was this - It says, "He cannot work on what He doesn't have, and He cannot have you, unless you give yourself to Him." I've been trying to really give myself to Him in the work and forget about home, put my heart and mind in the work and just work hard!
This week has been great! And training is great. My companion is a stud in lessons and with the bible. He's doing great! I love the kid. We get along really good! But yeah, all is well. I love you guys and hope you all have a great week. Keep doin' what you do.... fam.. I will talk to you SUNDAY!!!!!! Les quiero muchísimo, cuídense! (I love you very much, take care!)
Me sippin' on my maté.
Me sippin' on tereré (Maté cold with fanta or sprite) in our reunión distrito (district meeting).
The truth.... that the bible says.... not me, the bible. (Because I do not allow women to teach, nor to exercise dominion over man, but to be silent.)
Our Zone after hiking a sand mountain.
The following pictures didn't come with explanations, so we'll just have to enjoy them on our own.
