Our Hard Work Paid Off!

Well this week has been pretty great.  Although we didn’t see much success until the end of the week, we had some good experiences and our hard work paid off!  We started out with doing divisions on Wednesday.  My companion for 24 hours was Elder Ipabari who was born in Brazil but lives in Bolivia.  He had to learn Spanish on the mission also and only has 10 months speaking it.  We worked in his area and had a really good time!  We ate with Hermana Violeta who may just bet the sweetest sister I have ever eaten with in the mission!  She brought us an appetizer and then a main course and dessert after all the while telling us to eat because missionaries shouldn’t work on an empty stomach.  She even had me sign her missionary book even though I may not ever see that place again, but I was pretty honored.

Then we had Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) and ended up teaching about unity.  We had the Hermanas go first and they took a ton of time and left us with only about 10 minutes.  Elder Ipabari wanted to do an activity so I just gave my part of the lesson as homework for the branch to do.  After we ended up playing another game for some reason and the Hermanas voted us in to play too which may not have been a good idea.  We played musical chairs and were almost late getting home.  I got to experience air conditioning for a night, so I was happy even though their house was super dirty.

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to go to the gym and I was so tired the whole day, but was glad to get back to my area to work.  Friday, we found a new investigator while we were exploring the area.  He is an old disabled man who really liked our company.  The next day we asked him if he wanted to come to church with us and he did!  Sunday morning we got to his house to help him climb the hill in front of his house to the main road and it took about 15 minutes.  After we got a taxi and got him to church with time to spare.  During Gospel Principles we taught him about prayer and then a recent convert named Carlos started explaining to him what he needs to do to get a testimony of our teachings.  The spirit was so strong and Humberto (the new old guy) even said he felt it right then and there.  We gave him a blessing with Melchizedec Priesthood authority and he wanted to go home afterwards.  As we were leaving the church he told us ¨My knee actually feels better! Its a miracle!¨  I had explained to him before that he shouldn’t think about the pain or the money for surgery or even how long he has had this problem, but to think about the savior and how he paid for our sins and knows everything we have been through and I honestly think he had enough faith to start to heal in that moment!

Ariaga

1. Having interviews come out of nowhere even though I called it.  The donuts weren’t very good though so I ate 3.

2. We ended up finding a ride for Humberto so hopefully he will be able to be baptized in 4 more weeks!

3. We found out this morning that we had another investigator in church yesterday and one that already has 3 assistances, so we might be able to get him in the waters of baptism this transfer!

4. The family from Texas we found last week is making plans to reactivate and it’s mostly thanks to the youngest daughter of 8 years old.  Every time we have been in their house she has asked her dad in English when she is going to be baptized and the last time she did her dad said on her birthday!  Well we aren’t sure when her birthday is, but at least they know they need to reactivate themselves before she can be baptized!

5. Whilst we were playing the off version of musical chairs, a woman and I body slammed a little bit and I found part of an eyelash and lipstick (makeup) on my shirt the next morning.  Let me explain a little better.  We were going in opposite directions and so when I saw her I stopped and moved to the right and then to the left but she did the same.  The only problem was she didn’t stop and ran right into me ha-ha hopefully it came out in the wash, but I forgot to look!