Chapter 21: The Rose Among the Thorns
This week was full of miracles, but full of disappointments
as well. I guess that has become sort of the norm for this area. BUT can I just
scream this from the rooftops: FRANCISCO IS BACK!! Now, before you get too excited--like
I did--I think it would be important to mention that he said he would come to
church again, but indeed did not. However, I don't even care! He met with us
again, and said he would pray about his baptism. We noticed something though:
Francisco has a fear of praying for specific things. We asked him to kneel with
us right there and pray about his baptism, he agreed, but when he prayed he
never once mentioned his baptism. We told him that it is ok to ask for specific
things, and he just didn't say anything. So, that is something we will have to
work on. But thank you for all the prayers, I know that with time our special
little Peruvian will come around! This week was so full, I don't even know
where to begin! I had my first intercambio of the transfer with Hermana Haglund
again! (Oh my goodness I love that girl!) and we had a day just full of
miracles. The first man we talked to on the street said, "Oh, so you are
missionaries. My best friend served a mission for you church. All my friends
listened to his message and were converted, I guess it is me and my family's
time to listen and be converted as well" Why yes, sir. Yes it is! I am
really excited to see how that goes. Then we went to our first appointment, but
she was sleeping, so we decided to pass by some less actives on the ward list.
We got into this huge apartment building and started knocking doors because the
one we were looking for wasn't home. On our last door, this timid little latin
American woman peeked open the door and almost started crying. I was thinking,
"I know that I have kind of let myself go since I have been on a mission,
but do I really look THAT bad??" haha Well, she said, "Hermanas I am
a member of your church, but have not been able to attend because of my work
here. I have been praying for a miracle, and when you knocked on my door I had
a thought come to me to open the door because the Savior would be standing
there. When I opened the door I found two of his missionaries ready to help me.
I am have been aching to hear a hymn. Can either of you please sing me a hymn,
and I will know that I can move on." Wow!! The Lord is really watching
over the members here! We went in and sang for her, and then left her with a
prayer, and she just kept saying over and over that the Lord really does answer
prayers. It was so cute. Speaking of answered prayers, we had another huge
miracle. Earlier in the week, I was calling some members to make appointments
with them so that Hermana Shaffer could get to know the ward, and I
accidentally called the wrong number, and it turned out to be this less active
member that I have never heard of. I figured since I already got her on the
phone that I would get her address down, and we could go visit her. So that
night, we went and visited her, and she said, "Hermanas I have to tell
you, the night before you called I decided to pray for the first time in a long
time. I prayed that the Lord would send me missionaries, because I don't know
how to get back to the church and my son is not a member, and I know he needs
this in his life right now. The next morning I got a call from Sister Hopkins
asking if she could come meet with me." Now, I remind you that I dialed
her number on COMPLETE accident because I messed up the number. If that isn't a
visualization of the Lord's hands in my life, I don't know what is! I was so
excited. Now, this week we went crazy on finding new investigators, because it
is really hard, and we found 11 new investigators!! We were so excited, and
they all sad they were going to come to church! Well...here comes the sad part
of the story. We didn't have one. Not one person showed up for church. So, it
was a hard Sunday,
especially when Feily wasn't there either! Which was surprising since she said
she wanted to come out and help us teach this week, and has been faithful in
praying and reading the Book of Mormon...anyway, it was really discouraging
that we had worked so hard this week, and no one showed up to church. Then one
of the biggest miracles of my life came to pass right before my very eyes.
Remember one of my first emails in the mission that one of our less actives is
a self-proclaimed Evangelical?? Well our dear sweet, 80 year old, Catalan Rosa
showed up to church!!! WHAT?? Now, we have been visiting her every other week
pretty faithfully, but lets just be honest. It was like a hopeless visiting
teaching, or so I thought. Turns out after our last visit about coming to
church and taking the Sacrament, she called the bishop and said she was going
to church. When she walked in, her best friend in church just started bawling.
It was almost as good as a baptism to watch. It taught me that even when you
think someone is just hopeless, don't give up hope because God doesn't! This
week we are going to get some of our investigators to come to church, and we
are going to keep up the work here in Barcelona
Les Quiero!
Hermana Hopkins
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