July 28, 2014

We still talk with Gustavo over phone.  Myra's doing great as well.  She tells us some days she feels totally ready for baptism and other days she feels a little nervous.  We advised her to hold on to the good feelings, because those are from the Holy Ghost.  She was supposed to go to the singles ward yesterday, but I guess something came up and she told those sister missionaries that she couldn't...we have a lesson with her tomorrow, though, so we can find out more then.  We also picked up a former investigator named Rafael.  Do you remember Rafael?  He had a baptismal date while sister Hill and I were teaching him, but didn't come to church enough times before his date and started smoking again and said he needed time to be 100% positive this is something he wanted.  Yep, that Rafael.  Well, we stopped by in the beginning of the week and he told us he was 100% sure now and decided that baptism into our church is what he wanted.  He told us it was a sign from God that we came by and that he would be in church every Sunday for all 3 hours (which he never was that committed to before.)  So, we set him with a baptismal date for Aug. 16th along with Myra.  He came to church yesterday and stayed all 3 hours for the first time.  He is ready to change his life. 

We've also been getting a LOT of referrals lately, which is rare for Alta Vista...well, with what we're used to anyway.  Our area may have died last week, but it must have just been to make way for it to be built up again with a whole new teaching pool.  Haha. 

Exchanges are good.  Exhausting, but good.  Haha... only 1 left!  We're doing it tomorrow.  Last exchange was weird with sis Hill in Los Feliz.  We ate dinner with a member couple, but the husband started going off on how he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon and him and his wife started arguing... none of us were expecting that. Haha. 

As for Gustavo, he texts and calls us from time to time.  I'm really impressed with Gustavo.  He's having a ton of spiritual experiences out there.  The other day he  was having the worst day and didn't have enough money for food and gas, so he prayed and out of no where someone gave him 20 dollars which he used to buy some gas and food and then he went looking for work and made 350 dollars in one day.  Every time he shares those experiences with us, it ends up being the result of fervent prayer and reading in the Book of Mormon.  And he recognized them as blessings from God.  He already has a job as a carpenter and is looking for an apartment over there.  That's super impressive because he's been homeless for a little over a week and now he's barely homeless now.  He's working hard.  If there's a will there's a way... President Pecjak told us he had been praying for him and has a feeling Gustavo's going to be just fine.  That's the feeling I get as well.  Yesterday he asked us how often we fast and we told him and then asked him if he knew how to fast.  His simple response was, "ensenenme como"  And so we called him and gave him a little lesson about fasting.  That's just how he is.  'Teach me how.'  He opened up to us yesterday a lot about his childhood.  He wants to go back to Mexico one day to talk to his dad because his dad was abusive and alcoholic to him, his siblings and mom and he's apparently one of the only kids who doesn't have hatred towards his dad.  It seems he's forgiven him.  He told us he's been struggling his whole life from timidness and low self esteem because of his father.  I still remember one of our first lessons with Gustavo where he told us about the marital problems his sister and her husband were having.  He told us he used to bust out the bible and try to help his sister see how their fighting was influencing their children.  And when his sister told him to leave the house, he told us, 'todo va a estar bien' and that he knew she was just acting on emotions and didn't mean what she said.  Now knowing how he grew up, it really impresses me how he handles things and how he really strives to be the example in his family.  It's all from experience.  It's no wonder the Lord is blessing him.  Keep him in your prayers.     

It hasn't really hit me fully that i'm leaving in a week yet.  I'm not trunky at all...hopefully it hits me soon, though, so I can actually think of something to say for my departing testimony.  Hah. 

July 21, 2014

This week, sad to say, was not the best.  Myra is still awesome and ready to be baptized on the 16th of August.  She told us she prayed about her date and felt butterflies in her chest.  SPIRIT!  She wants to go to the singles ward, though.  Gustavo...well, that's kind of a heart breaking situation.  He's in Colorado right now and homeless.  This past week we called him and he said his sister and brother in law got upset with him and suggested he leave the house.  So he told us he was going to Colorado.  The next day he met us at the chapel after district meeting to say goodbye and he was very emotional about it.  He kept touching his heart and saying, 'it's always in my heart' and even gave us a gift.  A whole bunch of face wash products.  He told us he would continue working hard at going forward with what we've taught him.  He also gave us his business card so we could keep in touch and we told him we'd send missionaries to him when he settled down.  He gave us a hug before he left (what can you do) and took off.  We've been texting him on and off and we're really worried about him.  President Pecjak called the bishop of the spanish ward where Gustavo is right now in Colorado, so we hope he'll get some help soon and find the church out there.  Gustavo is a really smart man, so this is very unlike him to just take off and be homeless.  We pray for him often.  Please keep him in your prayers as well.  It's been really hard for Sister Hutchinson and I because for whatever reason we had a really cool connection with Gustavo.  It's so weird how much you can love people!  I never knew so many different types of love existed before my mission.  Ay, ay ay...

As for the rest of the week, a lot of people either dropped us or we dropped them...so we basically have to start all over again.  Oh, and one of our really awesome recent converts moved back to mexico and her dad went off the deep end and decided he's going to stop going to church for a year so he can do some sketchy stuff to make money and doesn't want to mix the 2 together.  Super messed up.  We testified/warned him of the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and how he will be blessed temporally by living it, but he straight up doesn't respect us.  Then in gospel principles yesterday the same recent convert asked me what exaltation was and when I explained it to him, he insisted I was wrong and then the whole class looks up the word in the dictionary in their phones and came to the conclusion that exaltation is 'praising and shouting'...  okay, whatever... sure, the covenants we make in the temple prepare us for 'praising and shouting' and NOT the highest state of happiness in the celestial kingdom in the presence of God, Jesus Christ and our families for eternity.  Whatever.  Don't listen to the missionaries who have been through the temple.  Anyway, I'll end this on a positive note, I promise...

We are keeping our heads up and maintaining an eternal perspective.  These let downs are only building me up and making me stronger.  It's just hard when I want to help the branch grow because I love the people here so much, and all these unfortunate things happen.  I won't let Satan win, though.  I won't give up until my mission ends in 2 weeks...and even then I won't give up.  I just won't be involved in the same way I am now.  During interviews President Snow talked about being a Preach My Gospel missionary for LIFE.  That's what our missions prepare us for.  I'm so ready!  Well...maybe. 

July 14, 2014

Well, anyway, I guess I'll tell you how my week was.  Gustavo and Myra both have baptismal dates.  Gustavo for the 9th and Myra the 16th.  They both came to church yesterday.  It was Myra's first time and Gustavo's second time.  We had a lesson with Myra after church and taught her the plan of salvation and set her with her baptismal date for the 16th.  Gustavo seemed to really love church.  One of the talks was all about how to make and keep covenants.  He loved that and even participated in gospel principles.  WE had a lesson with him on Saturday and talked about how to overcome the natural man.  We shared Mosiah 3:13 with him.  He really wants to change and he talks all the time about how it is a process that includes changing your habits and developing new, more positive ones.  Whenever we ask him about the book of mormon he wont tell us straight out that he knows it's true, but he tells us he's reading it daily because he knows it's important and he's trying to make a habit out of it.  We testify all the time of how this gospel can truly bring about that change he wants and how he will notice extra help and hope in his life when he is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy Ghost.  He told us some other things that were cool.  When we asked if he was going to church again, he tells us, 'of course I am!  It's important!  It's a priority.'  In that talk about covenants yesterday, the guy mentioned how important the sacrament is and Gustavo afterwards seemed very determined to come every Sunday.  Because he's so focused on habits and consistency and he has that drive to change, I think he'll stay solid.  He also told us that our presence is very powerful and it brings peace and happiness.  It's a mountain of a difference, he said.  Of course we gave all the credit to the spirit.  He's a very smart dude.  He gave us a whole bunch of health advice and told us all of these interesting things about how the mind works.  He's the kind of person who if he's not at home reading a book or pondering about something or looking for work somewhere, he's at the library filling his brain with more knowledge.  Haha.  He has his own little schedule, too.  He liked hearing about how we organize our day because he likes to do that to keep his mind focused on positive things.  It's all about good habits!  He even walks around with ear buds in his ears listening to inspirational speeches by famous psychologists.  This helps him with depression.

As for Myra, she's just a cute 20 year old girl who's going to be the pioneer in her family.  Her big thing is guidance.  She just wants guidance in her life.  When we invited her to be baptized, she told us her only worry was making such a big commitment and then falling away or not being as faithful to that covenant.  She doesn't want that to happen because as she says, Jesus is someone you do NOT want to disappointed.  I've got to agree with her there.  I think church was very different from what she expected, especially because they talked all about the second coming in the 2nd class, but when we explained the plan of salvation, it answered a lot of her questions.  She accepted the 16th right away. 

Apparently the Pecjak family wants us to eat dinner with them on the 6th or 7th because they're going out of town on the 8th.  Just so you know, we have a dinner apt that day.  The mission office wants me to send baptism pictures for a slide show at the departing testimony meeting, but I'm too lazy...ugh.  Btw, just so you know, Pres Pecjak told me he was proud of me because I'm not trunky at all.  So I'm still working hard! 

I've been on 1 exchange so far and I'll be doing another one tonight.  I'm going to their area.  This morning we got up at 2:30 and drove to las vegas to hike Sunrise mountain as a district.  That was intense.  And afterwards we ate breakfast with a member in the East stake.  Our district leader set the whole thing up, with permission from president Snow, don't worry.  It was fun, but I'm tired. haha.  I took a nap, though, so I have enough energy.  I'm just always tired.  I tell you what, the mission wears you out!  I love it, but now that I'm, at the end I've got like no energy.  I'm running completely on the strength of my spirit.  Haha.  We see lots of blessings, though.  Still haven't found the Ramos family, but Gustavo and Myra are legit.  You guys will be able to be there for Gustavo's baptism, too.  Not Myra's, though. :(  I don't think so anyway. 

Love you all.  I also worry I'll fall into the slug life again...that does scare me.  So I'll need your support, but i'm determined to do something with my life now.  I should keep in touch with Gustavo so I can follow his example!  Haha.  Well, of course I'll do that anyway with all my recent converts.            

July 7, 2014...4 more weeks

Howdy hey!  So far it has been a blessed p-day.  We went to Nelson this morning with sister Ripplinger and let me tell you....that place is impressive!  We had a mine tour and it was the coolest thing ever.  The couple who owns the place are members of the church and have preserved the whole western town look.  It has some really cool history, too.  Typical old western town.  It happens to be a pretty famous place, too.  They've filmed many movies, music videos and TV shows there, among other things.  They have some really cool haunted mine stories, too and shows like Ghost hunters and all those scifi/history shows have filmed there.  Apparently one of those ghost shows wanted to interview them, but they refused because the production crew wanted to them to lie on air and say they were 'concerned' about the supernatural activity in the mines, which is not true and they don't want the place to be known for its spookiness. Haha.  What was really funny is that in the mines, the woman told us to take pictures in the pitch darkness and see if any ghosts pop up, just for fun.  Apparently a lot of people have weird things pop up in pictures.  It was so cool.  These people were even offered their own reality show several times by different people.  Super cool people, really good friends of Sister Ripplinger.  You've got to meet sister Ripplinger, she knows the most interesting people.  Haha, they also have aliens in jars chilling in the gift shop to poke fun at people who think aliens actually roam the mines.  The Colorado river is also over there, so we got to see that.  I have picture proof! 

Over all, this week was pretty good.  In the beginning of the week, we had a funny experience with an older woman named Olga.  We knocked on her door and she started telling us how she was a christian, blah blah blah...  we told her we were, too, but she insisted we tell her who we really were.  We kept giving her the full name of the church and then she asked if we were Mormons.  We said yes and she just started getting all defensive for no reason...going of on all these random things...'I'm a christian, I'm fine'  blah blah...we were just like, 'yeah, that's great, we're not attacking you'.  Haha.  Then out of no where she tells us this story about how she had a really bad accident and was brain dead and then when the doctors put her in a plastic sack, she came back to life. (Sounds like something you'd see in ET or something)  So anyway, she explained to us how she was brought back to life to be a messenger for God.  She then told us God had a message for us and says, "After this, there are no more second changes...are you ready?"  So we said yes and suddenly she gets all weird and closes her eyes and acts as if she's possessed by something and goes, 'I want all of my children to know...that in my kingdom... I will always forgive them... so that they can have a place...in my KINGDOM.'  She went off like that for about 4 minutes and we were trying really hard not to laugh.  THEN as she ends, she almost passed out.  Her eyes roll to the back of her head and she gets all dizzy as if whatever possessed her just fled from her body again.  As she's recovering from that, I go to slip one of our cards in her hand as an attempt to make a quick get away while she's half conscious...didn't work.  She just went on again about some random stuff.  By the end of it she tells us, "I might be brain dead, but I'm not mentally retarded...I'm just slow."  Quote of the year.  Anyway, that was a first on my mission so I thought I'd share it.  Needless to say, we are not currently teaching her. 

Gustavo came to church for the first time yesterday!  We taught Myra again this week, and she's still super prepared and interested.  Said she was for sure coming to church ,but had a family crisis last minute and wasn't able to make it. :(  Gustavo and her should have a baptismal date by the end of this week.  Gustavo is SO legit.  We had a really long lesson with him last week with president Pecjak...president LOVES to talk bastante and went off about temples for a while (which Gustavo knew nothing about), but Gustavo took it well.  We taught the plan of salvation.  Anyway, after that lesson I was praying hardcore everyday that Gustavo would be able to come to church.  He said he would, but I just felt so nervous he wouldn't for some reason and I was even a little scared!  I was just pleading with Heavenly Father... come Sunday morning, we come out of our ward counsel meeting and are waiting out in the lobby for Gustavo...turns out, he was already seated in the chapel.  I had to translate in the corner for the English speakers using headsets, so I didn't get to sit with him, but he told us after church that he really liked it.  He told us something else really cool, too.  One of the other lessons we had with him last week was focused on how to recognize the Holy Ghost, because he's a man who apparently hasn't felt a lot of peace in his life in we testified of how the spirit often communicates with us in very subtle ways.  So on Sunday after church Gustavo told us he was reading the book of Mormon the night before and felt a subtle sense of peace come over him.  I was so excited to hear that!  He is so prepared, I can't wait for you guys to meet him.  It's funny, too, because when I was with hna Hill, she didn't want to ever try him because with the sisters experience with him before was not that successful.  He was rarely ever home.  We were the sisters meant to teach him I guess.  It's his time.  It was actually cool how we first met him because he was a former investigator and we were driving around one day without our traveling area book with all the addresses and stuff, but all of our backups fell through and it just came to our minds to try visiting Gustavo.  However, we didn't know where he lived.  We decided to just go where we thought it might be and we pretty much turned a couple corners and boom, we were in front of his house.  It was a miracle and he happened to be home, we met him for the first time that night and have been teaching him ever since.  We shared that experience with him one night to help him see there really was a reason we had been placed in his life.  He was so happy we shared it with him.  He was like, 'wow, you sharing that with me makes me feel really good.  Wow.  Thank you so much.' Then he opened up at told us that before that day he had been praying for God to guide him.  He's an amazing guy.  He's one of the most sincere people I've taught on my mission. 

New mission president is cool.  I like him and his wife a lot so far.  I met them at MLC and again at our zone training meeting.  We have interviews with them on the 16th.  Looking forward to it. 

I'm supposed to be getting my "trunky papers" today.  We'll see.  Haven't gotten to pick up our mail yet.  

Love you all!  See you in like... a few weeks.