Ch. 66 Operation Peanut

Chapter 66: Operation Peanut

I knew we were going to have to do something drastic. Things were just not progressing. A couple weeks ago, we made a “non-smoking” kit for Josep—our Catalan investigator, and he sort of followed it half-heartedly. Well, that was just not going to work. We knew that if he wanted to feel the spirit, he was going to have to stop with his smoking problem, so we took things to the next step. Operation peanut has commenced. He told us that of the entire kit we gave him, only the peanuts took away any of his desire to smoke. Ok, I can work with that. So, Hermana Ward and I went to the store, and saw that they were having a sale on peanuts. Obviously, our idea was inspired. We ran and picked up 7 bags of peanuts. We wrote on each one: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. and then an inspiring scripture and a little note of encouragement. We would go at different times of the day and leave it by his door. He called us on Saturday night and said, “Hermanas, you are either going to get me to stop smoking, or turn me into a monkey!!” Either way works for me....haha But, what was really incredible is we got to see the power the word of wisdom has for making us more in-tuned to the spirit. Not sure if that makes any sense, but let me explain. My companion got the transfer call on Saturday night as well that she would be leaving Vilafranca, and so we went to his house on Sunday so that she could say goodbye to him. He told us, quite non-chalantly might I add, that he recognized a time in his life where God had truly helped him. We just looked at each other, and I think my jaw literally dropped. We have been working for that for the last 4 months. We asked him to tell the story. He looked at us, and the tears came to his eyes as he told us, “11 years ago when I went to get my daughter out of the orphanage so I could take her to Spain with me, I remember talking to the Colombian worker and convincing her why I would be a good candidate. As I was talking, I remember the words just coming, and I didn´t know from where. It´s taken me almost 12 years to realize that God was giving me the words to say through the Holy Ghost.” He wiped the tears from his eyes and continued, “I have....I have....what is it that the people in church say?? I have....oh that´s it. A testimony. I have a testimony now that God really was watching out for me. I just don´t know how to express my testimony very well.” Hermana Ward and I were just shocked. We have been trying to get him to recognize the hand of the Lord in his life for so long, and we finally got him to admit it. I am really excited to see him progress now. I feel like the hardest part is done, now we just need the spirit take over in the teaching.

This week was much harder than last week—probably some humbling was necessary. There was one funny story that happened though. I shared the story a few weeks back of Lucresia (the woman who saw the light on the Book of Mormon) and meeting her friend, Consuelo, who had a lot of interest in the church. Well, we always struggled getting into the friend, but we decided to pass by the other night. We got to the door to go in, and she pushes us aside and takes off running and crying. Hermana Ward and I just kind of stared at each other with a what-on-earth-are-we-supposed-to-do look in our eyes. We decided to follow her and see if she needed any help. We found her on the street corner heaped up in a little ball just crying and crying. I had no idea what to do, so I just sat down on the street next to her and rubbed her back...Then she looked up and started talking to me, and all I could smell was pure alcohol. Oh no. I was honestly getting drunk off her breath, I am sure of it. I have never smelt something like that. She was so drunk....She explained to me that her son is stuck in Colombia, and that he can´t seem to get his visa to come here. So, she really did have this problem, but this is where the drunken part comes in. She just looks at me, squints her eyes, and says, “You´re a princess, do you know that?” Why...yes....yes I did....haha She continued, “Will you please marry my son. PLEASE. I will pay you ANYTHING to marry my son so he can get his Spaniard residency. PLEASE MARRY MY SON.” Well, if that´s not the weirdest marriage proposal I´ve ever heard. Here we are on the street corner with a bawling lady and she´s begging me to marry her 35 year old son. I tried to explain to her, “Look Consuelo, first of all that wouldn´t work. I´m American....” She looked at me for a long second, and replied, “That´s ok. America is great too. My son could be American. PLEASE MARRY MY SON.” Oh my goodness. I tried to be nice, “Consuelo, I am a missionary, I can´t marry your son.” She cried even harder. Oh my goodness I had to get out of this. “Consuelo...it´s just...” she cut me off. “No. Don´t Speak. Just marry my son.” Ok, it was time to get out of here. Just then, her friend Lucresia came down (miracles do happen) and took her back inside, and we were able to flee from the scene. Phew. That was a close one. This week we really didn´t get to meet with very many of our investigators since they were all working crazy hours. I have never seen anything like that! It was a hard week, but it made us really value the experience we had with Josep on Sunday. I am sure that this week will be better, especially with my new companion here, Hermana Vaziri. She is from Nevada and has such a fire and energy for the work; it will be fun to see where our area takes us. President kept Vilafranca closed to elders, so it´s just us here. When I look at all the people we are supposed to visit on a map, I have to just close my eyes and pray that we´ll be able to get to all of them. I know that we are God´s hands here, but sometimes, that´s a big responsibility. Ok, all the time. Especially now that I am the only one that knows the area (and by knowing the area, I mean I can at least get to where I need to go for the most part, and the other part I can use a map.) I am really going to need the angels help this week, but I guess they have never failed me before. Pray for me!

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins