Chapter 51: Keep Strong

Chapter 51: Keep Strong

Sometimes in the mission, you have bad days. Sometimes you have bad weeks. Sometimes, you have REALLY bad weeks. And sometimes, you feel like Job. This week, we felt a little bit more like Job. However, we did see some really neat miracles, so we´ll keep to the positive. This week has been really good at finding less active members. Bishop asked us to pass by a list of members that don´t have phone numbers or haven´t been seen for a while. So, we looked at the list and noticed a note by a girl named Virginia that said, “Not interested at all. Don´t even try.”....Challenge accepted. I knew we were going to need extra help, so we made Oreo truffles (and we prayed, don´t worry we asked for that extra help too). So, when we knocked on her door, we were just like, “Hi we´re the Hermanas, and we brought you a dessert!” We were answered with the sweet sound of the door unlocking. She invited us in and began to tell us why she is inactive. I was speechless. She told us how her mom would go beat her if she didn´t wake up at 5 to say prayers, or if she was late to church, etc. I didn´t even know how to respond. I have never even heard of that kind of situation before. What?? She even told us that looking at the Book of Mormon gives her like night mares. Any help with this situation is greatly appreciated, because I have studied and studied, and feel slightly at a loss. Obviously we know that the church is perfect, but the people in it are not... but we just tried to love her and help her feel the love that God has for her. She told us we were invited back whenever we wanted and that she has some service projects she could use some help with, but she doesn´t really have any desires to come back to church. Well, it´s a step in the right direction! We also came in contact with a man named Marc Blanc. He has an interesting story as well, but a lot more manageable. He was baptized just a little bit over a year ago, and right after, his girlfriend left him and he lost his job. So, he went into a depression and has been fighting it ever since. The hard part is that he thinks he was only baptized to please his girl friend (who luckily doesn´t live in our ward) and that he is doubting the testimony he had. However, he agreed to take the lessons over again, and we hope that we can just start over from scratch so he can really develop an undeniable testimony. I love working with the less active members! We also are now teaching this lovely girl from Brazil (I feel like I am a Latin magnet!) She is from Sao Paulo, and is this cute little grandma, and her husband just passed away. She is really interested in the church though, and doesn´t have the all-to-familiar “I am too old to change” attitude. We just got to get her to church, but she said she would be very much open to baptism if she felt the Book of Mormon is true. She is super sweet! Also, we had the sketchiest cita with our Muslim. Ok, it wasn´t really that bad...I just felt like we were stepping into an epidsode of 24 (the TV show). (Before you panic mom, it really wasn´t that bad. Haha) So, he invited my companion and I to come eat Couscous in his friends restaurant. We invited one of the young adults to come with us, and we went to the restaurant. Well, I am pretty sure we stepped into a little hole in the wall, dark, well...you get the picture. I am pretty sure we were the only American girls that have ever stepped into that shop before. We were led into a back room with 4 men including our member. I thought we were going to die right there. I think that may be horrible of me, I promise I am not racist, but it was definitely a different environment. However, all of the men ended up being interested and asked for copies of the Book of Mormon. They are very open and giving people, really. We just left laughing though of how crazy it was of where we were teaching. So, really it was a great week. However, it did have some rough spots... like when we had a couple days where every single visit fell through, and no one wanted to listen....those days are really hard.... but what made it unbearable was the phone call I received on Saturday night. I answered the phone from my dear companion in Castellón. She could barely get it out.

“Hermana......”

“Yes?”

“Cathy and Tony dropped us.” I choked out the reply, “What???”

“Cathy and Tony dropped us. Cathy said she never wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon or the church ever again.”

I just stood there in shock. I had dropped the Book of Mormon I had been holding in my hand on the street by now, and didn´t really seem to notice the streams of tears that were dripping down my face. I honestly have never felt like that in my entire life.

Hermana Portas continued, “The investigator that she had been translating for gave her a lot of anti-Mormon material. She says she thinks the Book of Mormon was written by the Devil, and that he can do miracles too to trick us.” I was just dumbfounded. How could it be that she could forget everything with a little pressure. I just felt anger as I thought about the tears she shed while watching the Restoration, or the happiness and hope she felt when she learned she could repent, or the dreams she told us about when we explained the Plan of Salvation and the temple. Not only was I mad, I was so upset that not only is she throwing it away for her and her husband but for Gemma and their new baby that they are expecting. (I am really hoping that this is just a hormonal outburst). But then I just felt sad....I had told Marc Blanc earlier that when it explains the sacrament and the atonement in the scriptures, it says that when they ate of it, they were filled. Just one hour earlier I had been explaining that sometimes we have to feel empty in order to feel filled by the power of the Atonement. I didn´t think I would eat my words so quickly! I came home and had a really good long talk with my Father in Heaven, and just felt this feeling of peace and hope wash over me. I know it will work out, I just hope it´s sooner rather than later. I love Cathy and Tony so much, and it was really hard to hear that they were struggling, but even Joseph Smith questioned where God was while imprisoned. Only time will tell. I guess I have to be more patient and give God sometime to put his miracles into place. He loves them too. I felt so blessed after church as well, two families invited us over for their big Sunday night paella. So it was fun, we got to go up in the hillside and have a big paella! It was huge!! And I ate sooo much! I am going to miss that. :) I know that it was a tender mercy of the Lord to remind myself that He is still watching over me here. Sometimes it feels like nothing we are doing is making a difference and that people are too easily swallowed by the power of Satan to really bring them back to the Light of the Savior, but I know you just have to keep going forward and trusting that God not only has us in the palm of his hands, but all of his children. I was a little wounded, but I am ready to go. I know that I can´t let disappointments keep us down! On the train to Barcelona today, a man came up to us and said, “Are you Mormon missionaries?” We replied with a smile on our faces, “Why yes we are!” He told us that he was baptized about 20 years ago, and had made some wrong choices. He wanted to come back and feel the love of the Savior again. He also said his wife is not a member, and maybe she would be interested too. So, even when it gets really hard, I know to not give up because there is always a miracle just around the corner.

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins