Hola Hermanos y Hermanas
(So, everytime someone says Hermanos y Hermanas I get a flashback of the Restoration video that we watch a ton with our investigators, because it is amazing, and there's this part that says "Hermanos y Hermanas, teneis fe?" Oh man, I love quoting that movie randomly throughout the day)
Speaking of the Restoration, I realized something this week about the Restoration: Satan HATES it! Almost every single time we share the story of Joseph Smith's first vision, something happens to interrupt us, or distract them from the Spirit. Por ejemplo: one time early in my first transfer we first just about to share the first vision when the child of the man we were teaching decided to nose dive off the couch and then started screaming, Several times the phone has rang, someone rang the doorbell, kids start screaming, almost everytime, something happens right as we start to share the first vision. Last week we were watching the Restoration video with these two younger girls and right when Joseph's knees hit the ground in the sacred grove, their mom crashes through the door, laughing hysterically and is like "Oh my [Good golly gee molly] (censored for your viewing pleasure), you have GOT to see this text I just got, bahahahahahaha who wants some tamales?....Oh hi...Sorry I interrupted Hermanas." And by this time the movie is practically over, Joseph just experienced one of the greatest miracles known to man, aside from the atonement of the Savior, and our investigators missed it. Bah. Satan is so dumb.
On a much lighter note, I am filled with such gratitude this week for those we teach and interact with. We are teaching several families and it is a miracle to me as I watch their lives change as they attend church and read from the scriptures as a family. There is no greater joy to be felt, I am convinced. I am so grateful for the blessing of being able to teach and to witness lives change. Our investigators are so amazing, and they just love us so much! I feel so spoiled. Everytime we go to Jaime and Maribela's or to the Patino familia there is hot chocolate waiting for us and pan dulce. Everytime our investigators say a prayer during the lesson they thank God that we came to teach them and pray for our safety and success. It still brings tears to my eyes when I hear them prayer for us. They always walk us to our car too, since we teach in some sketchy areas and they want us to be safe. The Patinos asked if they could feed us this week, and they are so excited! Hermana Patino likes to tease me and said she was going to make me some iguana wrapped in tortilla, haha, I told her to bring it on, I will eat it all up. I love these people so much, it's like having an additional, hispanic, family.
So, I think I cursed myself by telling Adela Patino that I would eat whatever she made for us (she also joked about making tiburon y ardilla, shark and squirrel) because I think I might have eaten bugs the other day... :/ We went over to a member's house and they gave us this bowl of something and said to just peel the shell off and eat it. Hna. Blanco kept asking what it is but wasn't familiar with the word, so we just ate it because that's what you do, you eat the food they give you no matter what. As I was eating I thought to myself that what I was eating kinda looked like bug, it was crunchy, kind of a see-through yellowish color, but I ate them, because it's the rule. The next day we were talking to the Stake President before Stake Conference and he is white but speaks spanish and married a hispanic, so we asked him what we had eaten yesterday and he said, "Well that word means wasp in spanish, but maybe they were just called wasps for fun." Haha he is so funny. So, I might have eaten some chili covered wasps the other day. Bring on the iguana shark squirrel casserole. ;)
Yesterday we went to visit a less active member and afterward we were standing outside talking about what we should do (since our next 3 appointments called and flaked on us). I was feeling like we should stay in the area and so I told that to Hna. Blanco, and she said okay, let's get in the car and go up a street where there are more houses. As we were about to get in the car I just felt like that wasn't right, and looked to my left and saw a small street with a few houses. I told Hna. Blanco that I think we should go up there and knock those houses. So, we got up there, came to a fork in the road, and this whole time I was praying so hard in my head that we would be led to a family who was ready to hear our message and prepare for baptism, and I felt like we should go left. So we turned left. We knockeda few houses, no answer, but eventually we came this one house, no one answered. As we were about to leave the wind blew pretty hard and the gate to the back porch blew open. So, I went over to the gate and looked and saw that there were people back there so I knocked on the gate. Two little girls came up and we asked to speak to their parents, so they went and got them. The parents let us in and we ended up teaching this great lesson and they said they would pray to know if what we taught was true and that we could come back this week and teach them some more! I am SO excited to teach them and see what happens. Who knows if they will comtinue meeting with us or be baptized, but I am so excited to find out! I have never felt guided like that before, and was rather surprised at how gentle the promptings came. It was nothing very clear or like a voice in my head, just a very gentle feeling of what I needed to do. I learned that we need to really pay attention and seek that guidance from the Holy Ghost or else we won't be able to hear it.
Well, the work is going great, I couldn't be any happier! Love you all!
Hermana Taets
