Ch. 64: And Then There Were Two

Chapter 64: And Then There Were Two

Women seem to be in short supply here in Vilafranca. I feel like almost all of our investigators are men, and we just had rotten luck having women to come out from the ward to help us this week. We only have two young women that are old enough to come and help us, and one of them is handicapped, and the other lives an hour away...The adults that usually can help us all have been out of work, and all found work this week. As great as that miracle is, it left us empty handed....and we can´t go and teach a man if a woman isn´t present. So, we had to get creative this week, and have a lot of lessons on park benches, in stairwells of apartment buildings, you name it. haha However, I think being in a couple of these humble circumstances helped build the humility of our investigators.

Eusebio has been a very interesting investigator. (He is the single father from Bolivia.) He´s been reading the Book of Mormon like nobody I´ve ever seen. He underlines almost every word I feel like, and looks up any word he doesn´t quite understand. He comes for Sacrament meeting, but he usually has to leave to go pick up his son from his mom´s house who lives in a different town. However, he always refused to pray about the church. We asked him to pray about if this was the true church, if the Book of Mormon was the word of God, etc. but he always seemed slightly leery. It was really strange. So, we were determined to uncover his doubt this week. So, on the slightly-damp floor of his staircase, we just read from the Book of Mormon, and the rest was kind of history. He started questioning us about baptism, why we do it, what the correct form should be, and all the usual questions. When we asked him what was keeping him from taking that step, well, let´s just say I never expected this kind of answer. He looked down at the ground, and looked up ever so sheepishly and said, “Look Hermanas, I really need to get a residency for Spain...so I am thinking about paying a Spanish woman to marry me...or something bad like that. So, if I am going to be committing sins, I don´t think I should get baptized...” I just kind of looked at him and the thought came to me, “Read from Alma 7.” I swiftly opened my Book of Mormon back up and read to him from Alma 7 where it says, “lay aside all the sins that easily beset you.” We explained to him that God wants us to be happy. He wants to bless us. However, if we want the blessings and help from God, we have to do things His way, and trust in Him. We then read with him one of my favorite scriptures in Mosiah 2:41 that explains how we will be blessed in all things if we obey the commandments. We asked him to offer the closing prayer, and it was the sweetest experience. He closed his eyes, and started, “Heavenly Father, thank you for sending the Hermanas to me...” Silence. I peaked one eye, and saw alligator tears falling from his cheeks. The spirit had cut him to the core. He just cried and cried, and continued, “Please help me to read the Book of Mormon more so I can find the strength to overcome these temptations. Help me be strong...” when he closed the prayer we just sat in silent for a good 2 minutes and listened to his little sniffles. Finally, I looked up at him and said, “Eusebio, this is the Holy Spirit of God testifying to you that everything that we have told you is true. Remember it, because it is evidence that God loves you and wants the best for you.” It was really one of the most powerful moments in my mission!

Then there was Josep. This week, we had a family home evening with him at the Stake President´s home, and it was fun to see! He is very open, and very honest, and quite frank. So when the Stake President was explaining the Holy Ghost and prayer, Josep was not afraid to cut in and say, “Well that´s great and lovely, but I have never felt it.” We spent the next hour talking about moments where he could have felt the spirit, but just didn´t recognize it. He´s so funny! He´s like, “Well there was this one time in church when someone gave their testimony, that it just hit me different. It really reached me.” and we were like, “Josep! That´s the spirit!!” He is so stubborn he just said, “Well, it might have just been her gift of speaking.” OH goodness. So, we decided to just leave it and pray about what he needed when we went and visited him again. We felt strongly that he´s got to stop his smoking to be able to fully recognize the spirit. So, we were going to need a miracle, and so what better than do a lesson out of Moroni 7 and talk about miracles and faith. So, we did. He looked at us during the lesson, and said, “Usually, the scriptures don´t reach me. But this one. This one reached me!! So he got up, got a pen and marked it carefully.” Hermana Ward and just looked at each other. It was time. We had been preparing all week an anti-smoking and anti-coffee kit, and we were ready for a miracle. We had been asking people who had quit smoking what they did, and so we compiled it all into a giant kit that included: peanuts, grapefruit juice, mint gum, sunflower seeds, malta (for the coffee), and other such materials. He just laughed as we took it all out and put it in front of him. He knew where we were headed with this. We gave him the challenge to try to quit smoking and drinking coffee this week, and that he would see a miracle. He accepted it!! We were shocked! So pray for Josep that he can get over this addiction.

The rest of the week was going by a little slowly, until Saturday morning. We were halfway through the second verse of “Now let Us Rejoice” in our companionship study, when the phone ring. I was tempted to just let it ring when I saw that it was the Elders, but I decided to answer.

“Hello?”

"Hey Hermanas, what are you doing all day today and all day tomorrow...? And would you like all of our food?"

Huh??

We were receiving a call from President at the same time, so I hung up from them and then answered the call from our president. President Pace started to explain, "Hermanas, I thought you should know that we are taking the elders completely out of Vilafranca, so come Monday you will be the only missionaries in Vilafranca. I trust you. You have two days to get caught up on the elders investigators and everything."  I just stared at the phone. Can this even happen? Two Hermanas alone with an entire ward?? Not to mention, an entire ward that covers 6 or 7 relatively big cities (not towns-big cities). We didn´t know whether to celebrate or panic. I was really excited to take on the challenge, but it´s a lot of responsibility. So, wish us luck here! We are going to need it. We are essentially white washing the Elders´area while maintaining ours. The rest of the weekend was spent learning the most important parts of the elder’s area and investigators. I still can´t quite grasp the idea, but here we go. Ready or Not. Two hermanas about to take on this entire area.

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins