Week 18

Mis Seres Queridos,
The one word I would use to describe this week: rollercoaster. Thursday we had exchanges and I stayed in my area and they sent another greenie to work with me for a day. It was crazy being in charge of everything, like planning the lessons, deciding what we did when an appointment fell through and leading all of the lessons. I had a lot of fun though and gained more confidence in my ability to speak the language and in just doing the work. While we were on exchanges we taught the first lesson to a 17 year old boy named Fabian. He is a friend of one of the recent converts in the ward and came with him to church on sunday. The lesson went really well, we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed him to read from it and pray to know if it is true. We had another lesson with him on saturday, but we really wanted Emerson, his friend who referred him, to be able to come to the lesson. Since we aren't allowed to give anyone men who aren't missionaries a ride in our car, we parked the car at Emerson's apartment complex and walked the 3 miles to Fabian's house. My feet were killing me, I was so grateful that day that we are blessed to have a car! But, the lesson was completely worth the 6 miles of walking there and back! We started the lesson and asked Fabian if he had read his assignment in Moroni 10, and if he had prayed about it. He said he had. We asked how he felt when he prayed and he described it like this: "Well, when I first started praying I felt kind of warm, and thenas I kept praying the feeling got stronger, and once I finished it was a pretty strong feeling of warmth." I had the biggest smile on my face! I could barely keep from jumping out of my seat and shouting! He said he wanted to be baptized and we set a date for March 28th. Yesterday we had another lesson with him right before church, and this is where the rollercoaster takes a dive right after climbing to the top. Before we started teaching he said he wanted to tell us something. He had told his mom about his decision to be baptized and she was not happy about it. She said that he would not be allowed to meet with us anymore or go to church. Poor Fabian was on the brink of tears as he told us all of this, and I was pretty close to crying as well. It just about broke my heart to see him so happy and excited one day after receiving that divine answer from God of the need to be baptized and then to see him so depressed the next day. Please pray for Fabian to have the strength to keep studying the Book of Mormon and praying, for his Mom's heart to be softened that she may allow him to be baptized, and for my companion and I to know how to help his family. I am so grateful that my parents, although they didn't understand or agree with my decision to be baptized, they didn't try to stop me and trusted in my judgement. I am so grateful to be blessed with such amazing parents.
I don't know what Bishop Davila was thinking when he asked me to speak in church, but I agreed, and spoke in church, in spanish. I was so scared! I have only been speaking spanish for 4 months, yet I was supposed to get up in front of the congregation on sunday and give a 7 minute discourse on how missionary work helps me to love the Savior. If he had asked me to teach about the Restoration that would have been no sweat, I do that several times a day. This was a bit of a challenge, just because I had to just talk in spanish, instead of reciting the words I am familiar with in teaching the lessons from Preach My Gospel. I think I did alright, no one boo-ed me off the pulpit, no one laughed hysterically because I said something wrong, so I will consider it a success haha even though I felt like an idiot because I had to talk slow and had to stop and think at times and figure out how to conjugate something. The Elders said I did a good job, but why would I trust them? ;)
Transfer calls come this Saturday, eek! I really don't want to be transferred! I love my area and all the families we are teaching! The rest of my district says I am out though, boooo! I will update y'all on Monday on whether or not I will stay or go. I love everyone so much and an grateful for your prayers, e-mails, letters, etc. :)

Love, Hermana Taets