Ch. 73 UNO

Chapter 73: UNO

 “Ok,” I thought as I looked down at my cards, “I got two reds, a wild, and a draw two.” As we continued our fast pace game of UNO, I knew this had to be the craziest missionary tactic that I had come up with yet. As we were sitting with José Luis and his family in their dining room playing, I also knew that it was going to be worth it. José Luis is the boy that I told about a few months ago that had decided to go on a mission despite all the conflicts that seem to keep coming his way (many of those coming from his own family), and we promised him that we were going to try our very hardest to help his family be baptized before I leave my mission. When we got there on the blistering hot, August afternoon. It would seem that everyone was dying of the heat with little or no energy left in them. Well, that is hardly the kind of attitude needed if we are going to have an interactive lesson about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. I knew we were going to have to do something different because this particular family has had the missionary lessons for over 4 years, and the dad hardly has stayed in any of the lessons before. I was determined that this was going to be different. So, when I sat down in the dismal room, I looked for anything that could spark some energy. That´s when I saw the deck of UNO cards waiting for us on the table. That was it. I started to second-guess myself, but I really felt like we needed to play this game of UNO. I think their family was expecting us to start a normal lesson, but when I suggested we start with a game of UNO instead of a prayer...let´s just say it spiked everyone´s curiosity!  Everyone joined for a couple rounds of some UNO, and it did just the trick. When it was time to start the lesson, everyone stayed and was alert during the whole lesson. José Luis´s cousin, Hector, is our age and doesn´t believe (or should I say doesn´t think he believes, but he really does) in God. I´ve noticed that problem a lot with the young adults in Spain, it´s really sad. But, we taught him the Restoration, and we watched the Restoration movie with him, and he seemed like he was really starting to understand. What I love is that all his questions and concerns are easily resolved in the Book of Mormon. The more and more that I teach, the more and more I realize how and why the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. What was the miracle about the lesson is that José Luis´dad not only stayed through the whole lesson, but he told his nephew, “If you want to know if God exists, you have to do what Joseph Smith did and ask with a sincere heart.” My companion and I just stared at him—yes, we were seeing progress. In fact, José Luis was so excited afterwards that he said he saw new hope that he had never seen before in his family. He wants it so bad...and so do we! Even though they didn´t come to church this week, we plan to have a good Family Home Evening with a couple families in the ward and Bishop´s family. It will be great. Also, this week we had a really touching lesson with Nicole. Nicole has a goal to be baptized in two weeks, and she was progressing so good....until her boyfriend comes into the picture. I´m not sure if I have already told her story or not, but this is the same girl who was 17 and thought she was pregnant, it ended up being negative, and then her boyfriend turned abusive. We´ve been really able to progress with her, but she still has some ways to go. She told us that she wanted to go back and be with him, and we just stared at her like some sort of wild zoo animal. WHAT??? My companion grabbed her shoulders and said, “NICOLE! What are you THINKING??” Sometimes as missionaries, I feel like people´s mothers. Haha But, she just replied, “Well I just love him and he asked for forgiveness....and I really love him!” I couldn´t understand. How could you love someone like that when you are seventeen, and he´s almost put you in the hospital not once, not twice, but five times!! We want to help so her see she deserves better than this. I was thinking that she must be lacking some serious attention around the home maybe. So, we called the whole family in, and we talked about how we are children of God and that he loves us, the impression came to mind that we should do a “love circle”. I have done it several times in the mission, and I go around and have each member of the family say something nice about every other member in the family, or something they admire in them. I thought it would be good for Nicole to see that she can find love within the home, but I must say, I was definitely surprised. When it was time for Nicole, her mom just started bawling and went off on a pretty much where-did-I-go-wrong tantrum, and don´t even get me started on what the grandma said!! I just stared at them, and said, “OK, let´s just focus on the positives.” and then her grandma just stared at me. I gave her an encouraging nod, but she just continued giving me a blank stare. Are you serious?? The dad told me to just continue and move on to the next person. I could now start to imagine why she is having so many problems! When it came to the dad, he started by saying some things that were kind of harsh as well, and by this time Nicole just broke out bawling, and threw herself to her mom. All we could make out was, “Mom, I´m sorry. I´ll change and try to be better. I want to be better!” And that´s when the dad said something that was so inspired. He said, “Nicole, if you want to change and be better, I think you need to follow the invitation of the Hermanas and be baptized. It won´t be easy, but it will be worth it. I´ve made some bad decisions in my life, but the decision to be baptized I will never regret. To this day, I still remember how I felt as I entered the water. You can experience that as well just as your brother did recently.” (Her brother was baptized 8 months ago) Now, this father has been less active for over twenty years, so we were all taken-aback when he said that. It will be a miracle to see Nicole baptized, but as a missionary I know that we can expect miracles when we do all that we can...even if that means pulling out a deck of UNO cards.

Les quiero a todos!

Hermana Hopkins