Hola familia!
This week has been CRAZY!! All the weeks are crazy. But this one has been especially crazy. Tuesday morning super super super early I left to go to a leadership training in McAllen. It was awesome. Sister Petersen and Sister Vasquez(another greenie) were left up here to man the areas! They did wonderful. Ha sister Petersen was a little nervous- but she is a champ and did really great work on the island when I was gone. The three day training constited of zone leaders, district leaders, STL's, and trainers- sitting in the chapel pretty much all day for three days strait. It was like everything we learned in the MTC in three days. AND it was ALL in spanish! Yeah for a chilean mission president! So it was like drinking from a hispanic fire hose. great. ;) They taught a bunch of fundamentals of missionary work and then we would do role plays. We also learned a lot from the scriptures. President Maluenda is AMAZING. He is such a great President. I learn so much every time he pulls out the scriptures. The zone leaders from brownsville did a really cool training about following/ leaning to follow the impressions of the spirit. They compared it to learning a language. In order to learn a language you have to read, write, speak and listen. Same exact thing with the spirit. We need to read the scriptures with the spirit there to learn from it, we need to speak the words that the spirit gives to our minds. We need to listen- LISTEN- and then follow the promptings we receive. by doing those things it fine tunes our ability to hear and respond to the spirit. It was a great parallel and helped me relate to it. I would go into more detail... but i forgot my scripture journal. such is life. Anyways- it really is amazing though. There have been SO many time on my mission when i have followed a little prompting and we have found people home, or found someone that we needed to find right at that moment. It really is amazing. i have a new favorite phrase. 'Yo no sabia, pero El Senor sabe" - I don't know, but the Lord knows. I really like it. Because the lord always knows. Especially with investigators. We have NO idea what they need sometimes- but the lord does, and when we are worthy instruments in his hands everything works out. =D love it.
So another great thing! when i was at the training we got to go out and work in the evenings in the McAllen Zone. and i got to go back to DONNA! I was so happy. So it was Me, Sister Andersen(from the MTC) Sister Sanders(my mission mom) and Sister Dudding(the STL from last transfer). And they have this family that they are teaching right now. There are a 10. The grandparents- then two brothers- Juan and Pepe. Juan and pepe both speak only spanish and their wives (jennifer and sharon) speak only English. So i that makes communication a little difficult i am sure- But whateves. Sister Sanders and Sister dudding had been working with them for about a week. and Sharon, Jennifer and all the kids were solid- but Pepe and Juan were being difficult. So the plan was to divide and conquer. Sister Dudding and Sister Andersen were going to go to Pepe and Sharon's house then we were going to go to Juan and Jennifers house. But we had this feeling that we all needed to stop by Pepe's house first. So we get out and he is in the driveway- so we get out and start talking to him. Sister Sanders is a BOSS and started teaching him. THEN- like 2 minutes later Juan and Jennifer drive up! THE SPIRIT! -anyways so we are all out there talking and Sis Dudding and Sis Andersen go inside and are talking to sharon and pepe. And sister Sanders and i are outside talking with Jennifer and Juan. and this is totally is spanish- and yes we were on splits at the same house. It was craziness. So we start talking to Juan and he was saying that he never felt the spirit in his life, and God wouldn't accept him because of his super loco cray cray past(he was in jail for a while and he is usually drunk.) AND the entire time Jennifer is yelling at him "Juan! you just have to change your life! for your kids and for yourself!' and So it was a battle of spanish and english yelling for a while there. So we are trying to teach both of them from the scriptures and sister Sanders pulls out enos and starts reading it with juan. SO I go over and start reading it with Jennifer. At this point the other sisters, pepe sharon and ALL the crazy children are back outside. and they were basically all in a semi-circle around sister sanders and me. Juan in the middle of the circle. Jennifer would'nt stop yelling at Juan- sp Sister Dudding pulls her aside-starts teaching about the word of wisdom and COMMITTS her to live the word of wisdom. And Sister Sanders and i just completely focused on Juan. It was awesome. I shared the STRONGEST testimony of my life about the savior and the atonement. How Christ really can heal us and help us change our lives. It was amazing becuase as soon as i started testifying EVERYONE else stopped doing whatever they were doing and started listening- it was SO quiet. The spirit was there so strong. I just had tears streaming down my face. It was really amazing. and Juan-who was kind of confrontational before was completely changed. He was listening so intently. I like to use an analogy, and i usually say something like 'Christ is standing right infront of you- holding out his hand- All you have to do is take it." so i did that and as i said 'holding out his hand' i put my hand out infront of me. and he reached out and took my hand! COOLEST THING EVER. Sister sanders then backed up my testimony and I invited him to be baptized. He is preparing for september 8!! BAUTISMO! it was the coolest/craziest/espanglish encounter ever. But it was amazing. The Lord truly sends his missionaries to prepared people. (that was also a referral- thank you referrals) It was such a testimony builder for me. And it was all in spanish and i new what was going on. GIFT OF TONGUES.
THEN- Saturday morning we got a call from the AP's and they said President wanted us to go down and sing in a meeting he was speaking at! So we got to sing when president talked sunday morning. There were 8 of us, and a cello, and an elder on the pano. Sister Garry was there singing soprano with me. It was awesome. just like old times. It was a great sacrament meeting. Then we stayed for the next ward and sang it again in Spanish. I love being a missionary. It was probably the most random sunday of my entire mission. Then all 12 of the missionaries that participated- or had a companion participating- got to go to lunch at the mission home. It was great! We got to know the Maluenda children. And i played the guitar and sang. It was kinda like a singing time. We sang hymns together. And president really encouraged us to use our talents. Every human that has a guitar here- gets to hear a song from me. =D it has been fun. It was a great experience.
Like i said- it was a crazy week! But great.
I have to run! But i love you all- Hopefully the story makes sense. Just know that i love you and i am praying for you. I know my Savior lives. Through Christ ALL things are possible. He loves us and cares for us. and when we reach out and take his hand he will pull us through whatever trial we are going through. How great the goodness of our God! I love being a missionary! I love the Gospel! God bless!
-Hermana Wiser
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