Hello Family and
Friends!
Well we had Christmas
this week. It was fun opening up presents and other festivities, but the best
part of my day was talking with my family at home, and with Hannah. It was nice
to see them.
After that our
Christmas day was really busy! We stayed a little at the Fraydey's house after
we called our families, and after we went to eat dinner at the Ramirez house.
We had ten minutes in between that dinner and another dinner we had at the
Flores house. At the Ramirez, we ate tamales, rice, ribs, and a jello/nut
dessert that was really good. We then went to the Flores where we ate more
tamales, and after had a dessert of bread that sits in a batter of honey and
some other things. Both dinners were really good, unfortunately it was a
little hard to put my belt on after both of those dinners!
We also have experienced
a miracle in our mission work. It happened the day after Christmas. We had an
investigator, whose name was Belkis. We had taught her once, set up another
return appointment, but when we went to stop by her house again no one was
there. Well we've been really busy these past few weeks teaching people, so we
never had a chance to stop by her again, and we had lots of other people that
we wanted to continue teaching because they were progressing pretty well. But
during daily planning Christmas night, we felt that we needed to stop by
her house the next day. So we went and knocked on her door. She opened it, and
instantly said "pasen adelante!" So we came into her house, and
taught her the Plan of Salvation. We taught her this lesson because recently
her daughter was killed in Honduras, so she was going through a really hard
time. But after the lesson was really when we were able to see the hand of God
in our work. We asked her if she had any questions, and she told us this.
"Last time you stopped by I was entering the neighborhood right as you
guys were leaving. I honked at you, and you all turned around and looked, but I
don't think you realized it was me." She then explained to us that when
she got home she felt awful. And she thought she missed her chance, and that we
were never going to come back again. She said that no one has ever taken the
time to teach her about Jesus Christ, and she wants to learn so she really
appreciates us coming back for her even though she missed our last appointment.
We assured her that we were going to come back again, because she was
practically begging us to teach her more. We offered a closing prayer to end
the lesson. We invited her to say it, and she said she had never prayed before.
We taught her how, and then she bowed her head to pray. The Spirit was so
strong, and I know she felt it too. Halfway through the prayer she stopped,
sobbing while she struggled to get words out of her mouth. After the prayer, we
also invited her to church which was the next day. She said she would come but
she would need a ride because her license plates had just expired. We told her
we would do everything we could to make sure she had a ride tomorrow. The first
person we called said they couldn't give her a ride because their wife was in the
hospital and they wouldn't be attending church the next day. We only had one
more family that lived close enough to give them a ride, so when we called them
we knew they were our last hope. Well, they gladly accepted to give Belkis a
ride to church! So the next day, it was no surprise when Belkis and the
Martinez family entered the chapel. But what was surprising was when she
entered the church, she waved at several different members! It turns out that
she knew about four members of our congregation really well through work. I
kept thinking that the circumstances couldn't get better, but I kept being
amazed! The sacrament talk we had planned was about salvation for the dead.
Which fit perfectly because she had just lost her daughter. Now she knows that
she can live forever with her family in Heaven. We went through the rest of
church. During the different classes she was able to participate and sit with
her friends. Then during Relief Society, we asked the sister missionaries to
sit by her. They did, and after told us that she said she was coming back next
week. She wants to meet with us as much as possible. Luckily we can because she
doesn't have work until the 24 of January, so she told us to come over as much
as we can between now and then! We have an appointment later today with her,
and we are all really excited to go and teach her!
The last story this
week took place this morning. Every transfer we have the option of going to the
beach in the morning to watch the sunrise and exercise there. So we got up
early this morning, and went to the Fort Monroe beach! There we played soccer
in the sand, and went for a run on the beach. We were able to watch some large
cargo and military boats pass by. After, when we were getting ready to go back,
we looked where we had parked and found out we parked right by an old military
fort! So we looked around a little bit before we went home to do our studies.
Well, that's all
that's happened since Christmas! Thank y’all for your Christmas wishes and all
the support I get here. I love y’all.
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