Ch. 28 Just come to Church!

Chapter 28: Just come to Church!

Well, this week was a little disappointing after last week. But, these weeks come and go during the mission. It´s not that it was a bad week, just a little slower than usual. I think I should count my blessings though, because we really had some great lessons. The only problem is that nobody came to church! The only one that came to church is Aglaece, our sweet Brazilian lady who we found Gospel Caroling last week. She wants to be baptized the 12th of October and she is super great. Her piso roomate, Mygl, is a different story. He also wants to be baptized the 12th of October, and he really loves learning about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, he doesn´t love coming to church! We went to pick him up for church, and he told us he got called into work, and that he will come next week. He also had told us before that he doesn´t work on Sundays, and he has done this two weeks in a row...I think I am just going to drag him out of his piso next week. haha After finding so many new investigators last week, I was really thinking this week that the work would just explode. However, it seemed like all of our appointments fell through, and we had zone conference this week, so we had to cancel a lot of the appointments that we had for that day (it was moved up a week). However, we did find a cute very extremely Catholic family. Actually, it is just a grandma, mom and granddaughter that are living together. We are still moving forward in our Gospel Caroling approach, and they let us in. The mom said to me, "We want to hear you sing again, but just to let you know, we won´t be changing religions!" Well, it was a start, so we went in and sang a couple hymns, and then they started asking us questions about our church. We were really careful to be very positive about the Catholic church and just say how grateful we were to see a happy, practicing religious family. BINGO. They started asking more doctrinal questions, and after we got past the fact that my companion and I did not share a husband, we really started making some progress. They invited us to come back, and the thing that made them really interested in the church was, you will never guess, the visiting teaching program! They thought it sounded like an inspired program of how to take care of the women in the church, and that they were really lacking that unity in the Catholic church. So yes, we have 3 new investigators based on the idea of visiting teaching--who would have thought! haha Well, I accidentally left my little hymnbook in their house, and so we had to go back the next day and get it, and they were so sweet! They were just saying, "Now, where are you going to eat today? Do you have members in your church feeding you? We were just making paella and would love to share it with you." So sweet! Unfortunately, we were just on our way to eat with a member--I love paella! (it´s a rice and chicken and vegetable dish extremely popular in Spain). I love the people here in Castellón. Most of them aren´t that open, but we will see what we can do here. They wanted to come to church, but they said they all accidentally slept in. I think sleeping has been Satan´s greatest tool here! We are going to keep working with them, though and really get them involved in the ward. I think I am just starting to get used to the area here. It was really scary for the first couple weeks when neither me nor my companion really knew how to get around or knew anyone, but the ward is really incredible. The bishop has been calling a lot of the young adults in the ward to be ward missionaries to help us out, and we are becoming really great friends with them. All the missionaries are really putting an effort to strengthen the Young Adults and The Young mens and Womens programs. They are incredible here, and they just make me laugh!! They are so funny! I love that I am getting to the point where I know enough Spanish that I can understand their jokes. Not completely, but most of the time. haha I think the biggest problem here in Castellón really is just getting people to church! It´s funny how there are different problems in each area. They are much more open here, but something always just happens to come up! It seems that no matter how much we drill church attendance, how many people we offer to help get to church, the results is just the same. So, this week, our focus will really be on just coming to church!! I never realized just how important it was before my mission; It´s really hard to build your testimony of the Lord´s church without attending! Oh well, the work goes on. Aglaece´s got our back! haha Our Ward Mission leader is seriously an angel dropped from Heaven. He just talks to the ward members about helping our investigators feel really loved when they come to church so they want to come back. When Aglaece walked in, he went over and put his arm around her and said, "Welcome to the Lord´s house. I hope you feel of our love for you here." I love that man! Well, hopefully next week we will be able to get more people to church! It´s a tradition in the mission that when you have a lot of appointments cancel on you, or you just have a bad day, you go get ice cream. We had to put an end to this tradition this week in fear that I won´t be able to fit into my skirts. haha But there´s always next week. Thanks for all the prayers!

¡Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins