Adventures in Mesa: Working Hard To Expect And Facilitate Daily Miracles

Buenos tardes Familia! (7-7-14 Email)

Hi! This week went by so fast, didn't it? It is crazy. But at the same time last Monday seems like a lifetime ago. We had a super good week this week. We are keeping busy and it feels great. Falling more and more in love with this area/ward every day. I really feel so blessed to be able to serve here!

So Monday we had a ward Noche de Hogar and Hna Hurd and I were in charge of teaching it. The Familia Ramirez came, so we were super happy about that! Our ward has a focus each month and last month was the Book of Mormon, so that was our lesson topic. This month is fasting, so we are having a 30 day fast, where at least one person from the ward is going to be fasting every day of the month (but I am pretty sure hardly anyone signed up... There was almost no one there yesterday because of the holiday weekend).

Then Tuesday we went around trying to contact the potential Elders list, but found that most of them have moved and changed their phone numbers, so we have to go through the ward records and clean them out a bit. Thursday we had exchanges, and that went good. I went to Pueblo with Hna Coy, and Hna Hurd stayed here with Hna Cude.

We had a pretty normal day in Pueblo, besides the huge dust storm we got caught in! It was crazy, but awesome. There was so much wind and dust everywhere, it made it hard to see. And when you got out of the car the dust would just fill your mouth and eyes. So we had to go find shelter because it isn't the smartest idea to drive in it.

Our, "We're going to die in a dust storm faces."We had 2 Young Womes with us and their mom called all worried saying the air was contaminated haha so we had to take care of them.

But here in L1, the sisters had a day full of miracles. They had several appointments, and were able to get 5 member present lessons in that one day! (And they taught a lesson to Manolo outside in the middle of the storm, with two members haha, such troopers!) But this week Monsoon season is starting, so it is getting a bit humid.

Our Fourth of July was pretty lame... haha but that's okay. We had weekly planning, and then had an appointment in the afternoon, but they weren't home. Then after dinner President Jenkins said we could only go out if we had set appointments, but we didn't have any. So after dinner we picked up some frozen custard, then we finished planning and organizing our week/members until 9pm, then we watched The Testaments on our tiny little DVD player and ate our frozen custard haha. But I fell asleep. So that was our celebration haha. Gotta love missionary life.

Ok so investigators! Vanessa is awesome. We had 2 appointments with her this week, and she came to church! So our first return appointment with her, we followed up on if she had read from the Book of Mormon, and she had read the chapter multiple times, written notes, and highlighted. The Spirit was there so strong in that lesson, you could cut it with a knife. We talked about prayer and the spirit and how to find out spiritual truths. Her testimony in Christ is definitely growing. Then our second appointment with her went good as well. We taught the Restoration to her. She had read again, and really likes what she reads, says it makes sense. She liked the Restoration as

well, but she isn't sure what to think about it. We talked about how it all depends on The Book of Mormon. She says she thinks the Book of Mormon is true because it makes sense, but she says when she reads the Koran it also makes sense to her, so she doesn't know what to think. She agreed to be baptized on the 26th of July though if she receives an answer. We had brought a sister from our ward who just got back from her mission about 2 weeks ago, and she took Victoria to church. But about 3/4s through sacrament meeting, both of them left and went to the Singles ward. We are thinking about transferring Victoria to the singles ward missionaries, but aren't sure what to do because we are also teaching her mom, Gloria. Gloria doesn't seem quite as interested, but is there in every lesson, and has read a chapter from the Book of Mormon, but didn't come to church. So we need to pray and figure it out. It would break my heart to have to stop teaching her though!

We taught Amin twice this week as well. He's a talker, and is a deep thinker, so it is hard to get a lot in with him, but he seems sincerely interested. We just got to get him quiet long enough to let us teach him haha. But when we gave him a Book of Mormon, he said to us holding the book, "This is not a game to me. This is a responsibility. If I don't read this I will lose your respect, etc." I am excited to teach him more.

Then we got a referral from the Visitors Center for a young guy named Jacob. We have had 2 lessons with him this week, and both went well (I was on exchanges for the first one). He is just a quiet, simple, happy guy and likes learning about God. He agreed to be baptized at the first lesson, but is going to be going/moving(?) to Seattle soon, so we couldn't set a date. But he came to church on Sunday! The last two hours were a little awkward though because in Sunday school people started asking about if young girls who get abortions if they will go to hell, etc. (Let’s just say gospel principles was cancelled this

week...) and then during priesthood they talked all about consecrating people with oil... Sooo who knows what he is thinking about church haha. Oh goodness, hopefully he still felt the spirit.

Familia Ramirez didn't come to church, and cancelled their appointment, so that bummed me out a bit. But we stopped by after church and helped them cook and stuff, and set up a few appointments for the week. We are going to do a thing where every day we text them a scripture that they will all read on their own, and then when they eat dinner together they are going to talk about what they learned about it.

Well, that was more or less my week this week. God is blessing us so much, and we honestly do not deserve it. I cannot begin to say all the people we meet, blessings we see, people who help us, lessons we have, progress we see. It makes me want to work that much harder and do that much more because God is being so great to us. I sincerely love the people here. Sometimes they let you down, but it doesn't matter. I just try to imagine the love that God has for each of them, and the love that He has for me. He is so patient, isn't He? I know that He listens to our prayers, and that He leads and guides us every day. It is so reassuring to know that I don't have to rely on my own skills and abilities, but that I can rely on Him and the Holy Ghost. I don't have to worry because as I try my best, He multiplies my efforts. Faith really does work miracles. We are working hard to expect and facilitate daily miracles, and trying to do our best to serve God and our fellow brothers and sisters. I just feel so happy, especially when I know that I can truly make a difference in someone's day or life. I was thinking about that this week - that's the kind of life that I want to have, or the type of person I want to be - someone that can just give and make other's lives better. So that's the goal!

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes

(PS do you remember the two crazy teenage boys that are obsessed with wrestling that came to the Pastorela with us? well I got FB messages from both of them this week inviting me to their baptism! Miracles really do happen haha!)