January 9th,
2017
It was a really good week!
This week we contacted a referral given to us by our district
leader. It's a young couple named Exxx and Rxxx. We had a really good
lesson with them! They had a lot of good questions, and some of their beliefs
are really similar to ours. I could really feel the Spirit testifying through
both my companion and I. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they
accepted. I'm so excited to visit them again this week!
We didn't have people sign up to feed us dinner this week, so we
called some less-active/part-member families and scored dinner with them. Hna.
Maya was amused because when I called a less-active family I said, "No one
signed up to feed us, and...we're hungry!" I totally played the pity card
and it worked! They had us over for dinner that day, and they are a super nice
family, but they honestly kind of drive me crazy! They have these questions
about the Bible and Book of Mormon, which frankly, are really nit-picky and not
really important. They have felt the Spirit testify of the truth of the gospel,
but they overthink things too much. I truly testify that our faith is not
blind, that my faith is based both on feelings and logic. We're going to visit
them again this week, and hopefully our visit goes well.
I totally forgot to tell you this, but last week as we were riding
our bikes one night, someone drove past us and threw some pudding at Hna Maya.
I felt so bad, I wished that I had been the one to get covered in pudding. But
it was all good. Truthfully those kind of things don't bother us too much.
Recently we've been asked by members, "What is the hardest part about your
mission?" I don't think those types of experiences are hard, rather, the
most devastating is when the people you teach know that the gospel is true, but
don't want to accept it. I can take the rejection, the name-calling, and stuff
like that, but it's hard to see someone you care about, turn away from the
greatest source of peace and happiness.
We had stake conference this weekend. Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
of the Seventy came to speak. He was amazing! The Saturday evening
session was mostly about conversion, and a couple people shared their
conversion stories. At one point, Elder Clayton had all of the full-time
missionaries come up and sing "Called To Serve." That hymn brings
such a powerful spirit. President Palmer also spoke, and I really liked that he
said that the Savior sought to be friends with the people who needed friends,
not just with the people He wanted to be friends with. Elder Clayton mentioned
that we need to come to church to give comments that uplift other people and be
answers to someone's prayers. The way that I see those two principles is that,
the people that you meet in your life are meant to touch your life in some way,
and you're meant to touch their lives, so it's important to be friendly to
everyone you meet.
I also saw Brother Robinson from Tracy at stake conference, and he
said he had met you a few weeks ago when he went to Orem. That's super cool!
Have a great week.
Love,
Hermana Aburto
These are pictures from the MTC, and from when we first arrived to
the Oakland airport.
