February 6th, 2017
It's been a
great week!
One day, we went
over to Hna Mxxx's house just to check up on her since she hadn't gone to
church the Sunday before, and as we were talking with her, her friend
Exxx stopped by. Exxx knows lots of members in our ward, and she's met with
missionaries before, and we've been trying to meet with her for the longest
time, but it never worked out, so it was so awesome that we happened to cross
paths! We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and it went really well! Exxx seems to really like our church, but she said that she never has gotten an
answer as to whether it's true or not. We invited her to read the Book of
Mormon, since she hadn't read it before. She also had a pretty difficult
concern: she raised her children Catholic, and her son told her that if she
were to change religions, then everything that she had taught him would be a
lie? That's rough...I've been trying to study about that concern this week and
just some thought I had were the following: Everyone needs to find the truth
for themselves, just like how I had to gain my own testimony instead of solely
going off of my parents' testimonies. And also, as people learn about the
gospel, it's not meant to completely throw away everything that they believed
previously, rather, it's to help them strengthen their faith that they already
have and become converted to the Lord and His teachings.
This week we
miraculously got two calls from two less-active members, and we set up return
appointments with them! It's just awesome because it always feels like we have
to bother people in order to get them to meet with them, but they reached
out to us! With one of these less-actives, Mxxx, we met with her
yesterday and showed her and her boyfriend the "Enduring Love" Mormon
message. We talked about eternal families and she knew that she needed to be
married to her boyfriend. We really want to help them be together forever!
Hno Rxxx has
been progressing beautifully! He has been reading the Book of Mormon more
often. Before, we would ask him if he had read, and he'd be like,
"No," and we'd be like "Why not?" and he'd be like,
"Estoy enfermo con flojeritis!" (I'm sick with lazy-itis!) Hahaha! He is our favorite.
Yesterday Hna
Maya and I went to see a less-active, Axxx. She is absolutely hilarious. She says she doesn't go to
church because she doesn't like being around people. But hopefully she gets the
hunger to come back soon.
We visited
another less-active who has definitely softened her heart since I first got
here, in that she has actually been letting us into her home and feeding us,
where when I first got here she would only talk on the porch of her house. But
at the same time it was frustrating to meet with her this week because she
really doesn't want any help from God at all, which I really don't get, because
she's in a sticky situation, but she won't even pray for help. She wants to do
everything herself. Humility is a pre-requisite to learning about the gospel!
It's crazy how
much people have been talking to us about marriage and family though. Hna Maya
and I haven't even been telling people how soon we are going home, but it comes
up in every conversation! Yesterday Mxxx was freaking us out with talk of
pregnancy and c-sections and what not. Gah!
A few weeks ago,
Elder Schultz got this video sent to him, and it's so funny! It's this 70's
band singing about Jesus. All the missionaries in Manteca sing this song now
hahaha.
Hermana Aburto
