Chapter 12: The Number 11

 Chapter 12: The Number 11

 There is power in starting off your week with faithful and hopeful heart. I truly think the Lord will bless us and guide us to the people that are ready to receive our message. We began our week with eleven potential investigators. That’s incredible, right? Well, I thought so too; but apparently, this week I wasn’t faithful or hopeful enough because every single one of them cancelled their appointments with us. So, you could say that we had a little bit of a rough week. Haha It almost became a joke. We even started calling three hours before to confirm that we were coming at a certain time, and every time without fail, they were not home or they didn’t want to meet with us anymore. However, we did have a couple really great appointments still. But, I am sure that you are anxious to hear about Francisco. Oh Francisco. Because we had “so many appointments”, my companion and I were forced to do splits. I know, I know—it sure doesn’t sound intimidating, but it is. I tried to convince my companion that I REALLY don’t know Spanish yet, but she had faith in me, told me the Lord wouldn’t have called me here if He didn’t think I was ready, and gave me the boot out the door. I was simply terrified. I don’t think I realized how much I rely on my bi-lingual companion. Haha Well, I met Jackie, a member here, and we went off to do missionary work for the evening. We were supposed to go to a cita (appointment) to a boy and him mom named Carlos and Maria, but they cancelled on us an hour before we went out. (You thought I was joking, didn’t you?) Carlos is 14 and has been faithfully coming to church for a couple years now. He is practically a member. He is going to EFY here this summer, he goes to mutual every week, and the only problem is his mother. His mom doesn’t want him to get baptized, and cancels on us every time we want to go visit him. It’s sad, really. Anyway, so instead we made a list of less actives we could pass by, and then do contacting on the way. It was honestly a gift of tongues experience: she spoke some English. Hahaha I wish it was the other way around, but I am working on getting there, and she helped with my Spanish as well. I was just praying that we would find one person that would want to listen to us so this member could see a miracle during the work. Jackie is 32 and her husband died almost a year ago. He was a cop in Honduras (that is where she is from) and he was caught in a shoot out and killed. Her faith I think was a little shaken, so I wanted her to have a great experience. She also brought her nephew, and he is 10 I believe and super excited to see into the life of a missionary. Only one of the less-actives was home, but we contacted this great girl on the street. I was so excited! She told us that her family was investigating the church and used to go to church in Ecuador, I believe, and that they have been looking for the church here since they arrived. Jackie literally grabbed my planner out of my hands and set up an appointment herself! She was a great missionary, and I actually had a good time. While I was on my split, my companion was teaching Francisco the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. (You can probably see now that I got the good end of the stick haha). We always start our lessons off with him asking about his reading in the Book of Mormon and if he has any questions. She told me it scared her because he started off with, “Sorry Hermana Wilson, I wasn’t able to read all that much these past couple days…” So she was just thinking, “Oh no, we’re losing him!”· But then he continued, “…because I am on chapter 8 of My Legacy.” I haven’t even read My Legacy.  I don’t even know how he got a hold of that book. He is just incredible. Now, this is the great part. Like I said, she was teaching two kind of intense lessons, but this is what Francisco told her: “Three years ago, I had a feeling that I should get married to my wife. We have been together for 35 years, but just felt like we should. Three months ago, I felt like I should stop drinking not only alcohol, but coffee and tea as well, and smoking is not a problem.” WHAT!!! I started jumping down right there on the street when she told me. Hermana Wilson challenged him to pray about him baptismal date for being June 7, and he said he would and would let us know on Friday…Well, like I said, it was a disappointing week. It’s not that he didn’t do this, but he was moving down the street, so he couldn’t meet with us. So, we’ll find out his answer during the week and hopefully plan for next week. He is so ready!! I just get so excited about the work whenever we are at his house. That was definitely the highlight this week. We also taught Angela and Manuela this week the Plan de Salvación (I can say that one is Spanish.) They aren’t really progressing, but we felt like we should move on to this lesson anyway. It was so powerful! Just to brush up, they are Evangelicals that are mad at their church for something right now. They are not sure if the Book of Mormon could really be considered the word of God. It was an amazing lesson. Angela, the mom, told us that she had never thought about the option of becoming an eternal family here on earth. We bore our testimonies of eternal families. I told her that I would not be thousands of miles away from my family if I didn’t know with all my heart that through the gospel, we have can live forever. My companion bore a really strong testimony as well, and it was just like girls camp. We had two members with us that live with her and they bore their testimonies and we were all crying! Haha I just love Angela and Manuela so much that I want them to experience the joy that I have! They are so adorable! I have said this a million times, but you develop such a love for the people you teach as a missionary. You want that person to know that God loves them and has a plan for them! The gospel is such a beautiful and happy thing; I can’t imagine not having it in my life. Which brings me to Iveris. I love her, but she is a frustrating girl! She told us straight up: I believe everything. I know the church is true, I know the doctrine is true; I just don’t want to change my life. I like it how it is, even if I know the gospel will bless me. Sigh… we are working on her! We are going to teach her Eternal Marriage next week. What teenage girl doesn’t want to live forever with their Prince Charming?? That’s got to be the bait we are missing to reel her into the church… (Fishers of men. Remember?). Which reminds me! Remember that group of girls I talked about a couple weeks ago, where coral bore testimony to them? Well, they come to the same spot in the park every week. They have welcomed us into their group. Haha It’s really hilarious. They have a HUGE group of friends, so they there are 2 that are usually there that we know and the rest are different every week. They called us over this week and yelled, “Hey, Hermanas! We have some questions for you!!” So we went over there and the other kids were like, “Uhh…what?? Sister Missionaries?? You got to be kidding me.” Then the others that were there were like, “Hey!! Give them some respect!! Give ém some besos!” haha! (Besos are the kisses on the cheeks) We were laughing pretty hard. Well, we weren’t really laughing when the questions they wanted to know were why we wanted to live the Law of Chastity. It got really awkward, really fast. Haha Actually, it was just really sad. One of them was fourteen, I repeat FOURTEEN, and she was telling us that WE were crazy. Then they offered us cigarettes, and we were like ya sure what the heck. NO I am kidding. We just told them that we respect our bodies and we don’t do that kind of stuff. Interestingly enough, they thought it was way cool. They were just like, “Wow, you guys are so profound!! We totally respect you.” I guess it’s good that we are in with the local teenagers, right? Haha They doesn’t like the Elders because they said they feel like they are judging them. Hmmm I guess sisters just have that kinder touch. ;) Well, to finish off our less than fantastic week, we had an…interesting experience on the street. We were contacting people on our way to our piso one day right before medio dia, and we came across this lady from South America. She seemed religious, so we thought, why not? (You start to be able to tell who is religious haha) Well, we started talking to her about the Book of Mormon, and she completely went ballistic on us. She was just saying that it was written by a 14 year old boy, it was not from God, it’s heresy, etc, etc. The usual. So, my companion took out her Book of Mormon to show her it is like the Bible and explain it to her, and showed her the picture of Christ in the front. Well, we found out right there that she was an Evangelical, because she was SO offended that we had a picture of Christ in our Book of Mormon. Apparently, people of the Evangelical religion believe that it’s pretty much sacrilegious to have pictures of Christ. She turned to us and pointed her finger in our faces and pretty much spat out, “You need to get on your knees and pray, and you pray about this book, and the spirit of God will tell you if it is true or not. And he will tell you that it is not! You just don’t have the spirit with you!! Shameful!!” My companion did tell her that we have prayed about it, and we know it is true, but it was to no avail. She took herself with all the energy she could muster and humphed off. (I don’t know if that’s a word, but that is the only way I can describe it.) Actually, to be honest, I thought she said we DID have the spirit with us. I almost said gracias!! But then, I felt like I shouldn’t, and my companion told me what she really said after. I am understanding more Spanish, but I am missing a couple little, but important words. Hahaha Our week did end on a good note though. We got to eat at a member’s piso in a beautiful part of the city to break our fast after church. She is a Filipina, so she speaks English. She was just the cutest thing! She says she made a new goal that she was going to Love the lords servants more by feeding them once a month! She is so cute. She was making the Bishop dinner too for after he got out of all his meetings. I love the Filipinos here, they are always so charitable. So this week had some hard times, but it’s during these hard times that I feel like my testimony is strengthened. I LOVE the gospel and the happiness that it brings. I have never realized how much I valued it when I was at home, and surrounded by it daily. It makes me sad when people don’t even want to listen, because I know the gospel can help them through any trial. My companion said it perfectly this week: The gospel is like a delicious, chocolate cake. You can look at it, you can smell it, but you won’t know that it’s delicious until you try it! I know that when we really study it and live it that we can know for ourselves that it is true! Yo se que este es la iglesia verdadera!! Les Quiero!!

Hermana Hopkins