como
estan?? entonces this week flew by!! i only have 2 weeks left in this
transfer. crazy right?? but so much happened! so first off we saw oscar
for the first time in a month! it was really good to see him and he is
definitely going to be baptized one day... i just dont know when :)
he's better than when we first met him.. but looks worse than when he
was reading the scriptures and going to church and trying to change. i
still have faith in him though. we had a little service project for
Gladis because she can't walk a lot you know. so we went to her house
and we cleaned her patio, and trimmed all her trees and bushes. she
also wanted to feed us lunch, so we had to put on our big girl pants and
eat double almuerzo (lunch) back to back. :/ but the service part was
great!!! it was really fun to actually do service in that sense and to
work with my hands again!!! :) so we were eating lunch with a menos
activo familia and their sobrino came over and he wanted to learn more.
so we are teaching him again and he's just an awesome guy! reading every
day! understands things perfectly! we are just hoping he can find a way
to come to church because he works. bueno, so today we got to travel
to the temple to clean it!!! :) :) that's why this is so late!! it was
so good to be in the house of the lord again!!! you really receive the
most peace there! (AND not to mention there are actually very powerful
toilets like in america... that was a nice touch too)! ;) after we went
to get some ice cream and we were walking out of the place and it was
seriously like, you know, that bird in the windex commercial? when he
flies into the glass door cuz he can't see it... yeah, that was me! i
seriously was a centimeter from walking through the glass door!! .... I
think the suns getting to my head! ;) haha. so for the miracles this
week... first, we were contacting before lunch on wednesday... and we were being rejected HARD CORE!!! it was not fun!!! we had lunch with familia Ramirez at 1... and it was12:45 and
we were both just sick and tired of being rejected and wanted to just
go to lunch, but we kept walking and decided to contact one more house.
so we did and we found miriam, a different miriam, and we said who we
were and started talking about jesus christ and how he can help
everyone, and she just started crying!! she said her daughter needs this
and told us to come friday, so we did and BAM!!! MIRACLE!! :) andrea
is her name. she has a little boy and a baby girl. she's had a hard
life, and she just wants to be baptized. she can feel the spirit so
strong every time we are with her and she is doing everything she can to
prepare for her baptism! i'm just sad that i probably won't be able to
see it. :'( second, we get to church and see a different
investigator named miriam.... I know right! ;) we've been teaching her
for a couple weeks but she didn't want to be baptized because shes
already done it once. but all of a sudden there she was in church. so
we visited with her after and it's amazing how god can change peoples
hearts!! we invited her to be baptized again and she told us "bueno, i
was told that i should only be baptized once....but whatever, i'm going
to be baptized again! when's my baptism??" oh my gosh!!! it was
awesome!! we were so flippin happy! we left that lesson and just started
laughing in amazement! we couldn't believe it! :) third, isaac came
to church too. he's the grandpa of the OTHER miriam in yukyty, you
know, with the evil husband that must be destroyed ;) well, we saw him
in the street and invited him, and the next day there he was! he wants
to be baptized and miriam too!!! only problem with miriam is once again
her evil husband..... aaaand they only speak guarani.. which we don't.
so, thats potentially problamatic! :/ oh well! faith right? so now for
karen! we made empanadas a week ago and it was so much fun and they
were delicious. but then after that, we couldn't meet with her.. all
week!! :( i was soo worried! then she tells us she's been to the
hospital twice to take blood and tons of other stuff because her bones
are killing her! since she was five her bones have hurt, and now worse
than ever! we are praying that it's nothing serious! shes only 16! :'(
but we finally met with her sat. night and she was just in pain! but she asked if we would be there tomorrow at 8:30 to
take her to church! oh my goodness! she is the best!!! so we take her
to church, she bares her testimony about the holy ghost in young womens
and is just awesome!! but then she tells us.... her mom didn't really
know she was signing her permission slip for baptism... and doesn't like
the idea and doesn't really want her to be baptized.... my heart
dropped!!! we are going to see what we can do to help change her moms
mind, but really the spirit needs to change her heart. it's really sad,
because she's kind of an alcoholic, and sleeps until 2:00 everyday and
it's super sad for karen. my faith kind of hit rock bottom.... i
haven't seen anyone be baptized.. i haven't been able to help anyone
really progress... and karen is special.. i was suppose to find her.. so
WHY is this happening?? and then i realized that my motto for my
mission is "Always keep the faith" without faith we really have
nothing!!! and every miracle that has ever happened since the world
began, has happened because of someones faith! so that's that.. i REFUSE
to lose my faith. i'm going to do everything i can to see miriam and
Karen baptized before i leave.. and after i've done all i can with a
glad heart, not doubting anything.. i´ll stand still with the utmost
assurance that gods arm will be revealed. (D&C 123 last verse) i'm
so grateful for the opportunity i have to be a missionary. i've learned
so much and my faith has grown even more. i've learned to recognize how
much we really need the savior in our lives. and how serving others
really brings you the most joy!!! i love this work, i love this gospel,
and i love my savior! ALWAYS KEEP THE FAITH!!
Love, Hermana McDougal
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