Hi everybody!
So, I accidentally left my planner at the house and it had all my notes of things I wanted to write, so I hope I remember everything!
Last Sunday we got a referral for this guy named Tony, so we called him and set up an appointment and he seemed super nice. So we went over on Wednesday morning and taught him the first lesson, but he told his a ton of his life story and I thought it was quite interesting... He grew up catholic but they didn't really go to church at all and he never really read the bible or prayed. So now he's 29 years old, not married, doesn't have a girlfriend and he's got at least 4 kids who don't live with him. So he used to be in a gang and he said he's done pretty much every illegal thing in the book except for rape. He went to prison when he was 21 (we're not quite sure for what, and we probably don't want to know), but he was in prison for 5 and a half years! During this time he started reading the Bible. He read it all the way through and started to change his life, he decided he wasn't going to smoke or drink anymore. So he gets out of jail (I think about 2 years ago) and continues to live his new life of no drinking, smoking, and actually obeying the law :) But he said it's super hard because his friends and family all still smoke and drink and they always bug him to do it, they just don't understand it, and he doesn't want to leave his friends behind because he'll feel bad.
But as he was talking I was just thinking, "oh my crap, he has TOTALLY been prepared for our message!" So he keeps talking and all the sudden he's like, "yeah, sometimes I wonder what the purpose of life is." And I had to keep myself from laughing and yelling "that's exactly what our message is about!!" I almost started laughing because of how ridiculously ready he is to hear this message! We invited him to read the intro of the Book of Mormon and come to church on Sunday and he said he would. I've begun to notice how hard it is to get people to commit to things, or they will commit to reading or praying or whatever, but it's surprising if they follow through. So he said he's read the intro AND come to church and he seemed like he genuinely meant it.
We called him on Saturday night to remind him of church and he seemed a little iffy about it but on Sunday he showed up! After sacrament (oh yeah, I had to give a talk in sacrament, in SPANISH! yesterday... .hahaha it was actually fine, I just wrote it on a piece of paper and read it straight from that :) ) I asked him how how it was and he said, "good." and I was like, "did you think it was weird?" And I just laughed and he smiled and was like, "yeah, a little bit!" Haha but I think he liked it! AND he actually read the intro of the Book of Mormon, so I think the fact that he actually kept his commitments from the very first time we met with him just shows how ready he is! I'm super, super excited to teach him!
So Hermana Lopez and I actually live with some members, not of our ward, but he's the bishop of an english speaking ward in our area and they're nice enough to let the Spanish speaking sisters stay with them. But, they have these little neighbors who come over to their house all the time and kids aren't members so they're super fascinated with the missionaries. The boy's name is Bradley and he's like 3 or 4 and yesterday he was over while I was eating lunch and he came over and said in his cute little voice, "Hi Sister Robert!" So I said, "Hi Bradley!" while I had food in my mouth and he says, "Hey, don't talk with your mouth full!" Hahahaha I laughed so hard! He's so cute :) He thought it was pretty weird my name was Sister Roberts :)
So when we have dinner appointments we share a message at the end and Hermana Lopez has this favorite story of hers that she shares and it's about this women who is super, super poor and is homeless and has a tiny little baby to support, but she doesn't have a job, house, money, nothing. One day this man walks by and she asks him for help so he says he has a house and she can go in for exactly one minute and get anything that she needs for her baby and then after the minute the door automatically shuts and locks and she can't go back in. At this point we asked the people what they would grab, and most people say either food, clothes (one lady said a cow, I'm not sure who keeps cows in their house, but whatever...haha) or money.
Well, the other night we had dinner with the Relief President and we got done with dinner and told her the story and asked her what she would get and she looked us in the eye and said "a bible." Hermana Lopez and I just sat there for a second and stared at each other because we were so shocked by the answer! We asked her why and she said, "because it's the word of God. If I have that and the Book of Mormon than nothing else matters." And some people I think would just say that because they knew that was the "right answer" or whatever, but she was totally genuine. It was just amazing though because honestly out of all the time Hermana Lopez has told that story I have never once that about getting the BOM or the Bible.
So the end of the story goes that the lady grabbed the stuff and ran out of the house just and just as she shut the door she heard it lock. She got out and caught her breath and then realized she had left the baby in the house! So the point of the story is that Heavenly Father (the man) lets us come to the Earth for "one minute", but if we get so distracted by the materialistic things and all the hundreds of other distractions in this life then we forgot what's really important in this life. And it's doing the simple things everyday, like reading the scriptures and praying that help keep us focused on the real goal -- eternal life and joy.
I'm starting to be able to understand more and more Spanish (slowly, very slowly) but I still just sit and listen most the time :) Haha, last night we went to visit these investigators and there was a lady there who is a member and she's friends with them, and the lady, Hermana Fryer, speaks english as her second language (she knows quite a bit of english, but she's not fluent) and her niece was there and her niece was telling me about this work in Peru that they use all the time and they were trying to figure out what the english translation would be and they were like, "would it be shoot, dang, etc?" And Hna Fryer yells, " I know!" And she proceeds to say the d word like three times and we all just started busted up laughing and Hna Lopez was like "haha don't say that!" and she just covered her mouth and was like "Sorry!" Haha it was so funny :)
There was a baptism on Saturday of this kid who's probably like 16 and next week his sister is getting baptized! It's always interesting to me when teenagers and people from their 20's-late 30's want to change their lives and get baptized. I don't know why, but it just seems so amazing to me that people at that age, especially the teenagers, would have such a strong desire and that they would care so much. I just wonder what exactly got them to that point that they want to change when they are probably going to have to get new friends and stop doing all these things like smoking and drinking. I don't know, it's interesting, but I guess it just goes to show that the gospel can change anyone.
All the time I wish that I was a convert because I wish SO badly that I could see things the way people who have never heard about the church or the Book of Mormon or about all these different things. I don't know, I think it would be super interesting to understand exactly what they were thinking and how they were feeling as we were teaching them.
Will you all pray for the investigators out there in the world as well as the missionaries? Gracias :)
Well, I gotta go, but I will write next week!
I love you all sooooo stinkin' much :)
-Kelsey
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