Hi family! (6-23-14)
Holy cow. What a week this has been. Can I just
say that I am in love? This new area is amazing, and I feel so blessed to be
here! I love, love, love it. The ward is pretty strong (for a Spanish ward).
The bishop is really put together and super funny. And there are pretty much
pure Spanish speakers. Like it is hard to find the white people.
Seriously, we saw so many miracles every single
day this week. I just come home every night and ask myself if all these
miracles are possible! (I was asked how this area is different from my last –
my last area was in one of the wealthiest parts of our entire mission, so a big
majority of it was big houses full of English speakers, so it was much harder
to find people to teach simply because there was not a whole lot of Spanish
speakers. Also our last area was very large – for this mission - and this one
is tiny again. It's just on the other side of the street from L3, so it is very
similar to my first area).
So my new place is a duplex and we live next to
this cute elderly couple called the Curtis's. Our place is awesome haha it
reminds me of great grandma Carlson’s - definitely rocking the 80s (pretty sure
some things in those cupboards are from the 80s as well haha. Trying to throw things
away gradually and hoping that nobody cares.) So when we first got there, we
did some major cleaning and organizing, but now it's feeling pretty good.
Besides the fact that I have been taking sponge baths in the kitchen sink for
the past 4 days but hopefully that should all be fixed up today haha.
So I can't even remember what we did on Monday
and Tuesday, pretty much just taught and said goodbye to people. It's always
sad to say goodbye. Lupita started crying because she thought we were leaving because
we were mad at her. Broke my heart. I love that little family. I feel so
blessed to have been able to serve in Arboleda - to have been able to love and
serve those people and learn so many lessons while serving there.
So on Wednesday we got to our new area, and got
to work. The
investigator list was fairly small, so we set
out to meet them. There is one man, Manolo, who is supposed to get baptized on
Saturday that we met with. He seemed pretty solid to us the one time that we
met with him, and every has told us he is good to go. So we set up the time and
announced it in church and everything. But he didn't come to church and the
bishop says that he has done that repeatedly in the past, so hopefully we can
talk to him more this week and really figure out what's going on.
Then there is the Familia Ramirez. They are so
sweet. 2 teenage
daughters and an 8 year old boy. I already know
that this family is one of the reasons I am here. They started going to
Arboleda my first week there because some English members invited them there.
They came for several weeks, but recently had stopped coming. The sisters here tried
to invite them to L1 for the past 3 transfers with no success. So I had already
met them several times. So we met them and they said they got embarrassed to go
to Arboleda because they don't live in the boundaries, but were too nervous to
go to L1. But since they already knew us, and were reassured that it was our
first Sunday in the ward and we would be just as lost as they, they decided to
come this week!
And they did! Such a huge miracle! It is so
interesting to see how God has a perfect plan for everything. He always knows
where He needs us. This family is so sweet and is sincerely looking.
Our district leader set up a challenge to see
who could contact the most people, so that started off to be a big motivator to
us. So we have been trying extra hard to contact every single person that we see.
And we have seen so many miracles! We were able to teach several first lessons
this week set up even more return appointments, and find a good amount of new investigators.
Some of them seem to have real potential as well. I wish I could describe all
the miracles that we saw, but I just can't. It humbles me so much. I do not
deserve these blessings, but I am so grateful for them. I am trying so hard to
put myself out there for God and for these people. I want so badly to be a
tool in Heavenly Father's hands and help Him to
do His work. There is no greater feeling than to be used by Heavenly Father - I
want Him to know He can depend on me.
Hna Hurd and I have been working hard as well to
evaluate our teaching and improve it. We decided on 5 things we want to work on
while we teach. We call it our 5 S's: simple, short, sincere, Spirit, and
silent (moments of silence to feel the spirit and ponder). Our focus right now
is simple, so we have been practicing that in our studies.
Ok I will tell two little examples of the
miracles we saw and then I should probably wrap it up: 1. Jime. We walked into
this apartment complex looking to meet some members and Jime was the first
person we saw sitting outside so we talked to him. He invited us to sit down and
we got right into the Restoration. He loved it, and asked US when we would come
back to share more. We also invited him to church, and he said he would love to
come! (He didn't come, but next week!) It was just a really cool experience. 2.
Miguel. We knocked on his door looking for a different family. He opened the
door and said he was in a meeting and asked if we could come back later. We
told him we were just looking for a family, he once again told us they didn't
live here, but said he really wanted us to come back later. So we went back
last night, and it turns out he has a bunch of family that are members and investigated
for 6 months in Pheonix. They were studying D&C that time and didn't like
that it was all Joseph Smith and not the bible. He got really excited when we
told him we were studying the Old Testament at
church right now, and he said he was going to
come to church nextweek, wants to start meeting with us, and share it with his
new wife and her children (he said her children used to go to this church and would
definitely come back if their parents did).
God is so great. It amazes me every single day.
He tries us, and it is hard. But He fulfills every single promise that He makes
and blesses us with so much more than what our hardships are. The times of
trial are so essential for our growth and learning. I know He sees our potential
and has a plan to help us reach it. As we take steps of faith, He will lead us
and guide us. Never doubt Him or His love for you!
I love you all so much and am so grateful for
everything!
Con amor,
Hermana Haynes
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| I'm happy! |
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| Nothing better than handmade tortillas! |
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| Map of our area. |
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| Our new place. |
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