Update from March 19, 2012
Always an adventure....
I would like to say that it is not luck of the Irish, it is blessings from Heavenly Father!! It has been such a good week and you think that an hour to write my family and my mission president would be enough, but I feel frequently I am a mad typing woman to fill my family in all on the adventures here so I will do my best and type like crazy!
Hermana and I have made good friends with a man who has to deliver water. That is also something new about the DR, everyone has to drink purified water so everyone purchases those big blue bottles of water that they have in offices. Anyhow we have made friends with an old man who has to deliver water and we see him everywhere! It is our favorite to run and catch him and just pick up bottles asking where they go. You get the most shocked looks when two girls are carrying in the bottles. He is the sweetest and this last time he tried to give us 5 pesos for juice, but of course we passed. Little things like this is, I love, actually I really just love it all. It's the joy anyone could find anywhere they are!
I haven't told you about Michelle yet and her bautismo is this weekend! She is an 11 year old girl who was pretty stinkin shy when we started teaching her, her grandparents are new members that were baptized back in October. She has certainly opened up with us! And I am happy for this weekend, she seems pretty excited even when she was scared out of her bee gee gees to stand up at church when they announced it. She is a sweetheart though and I am excited for her!!
James. . . he is quite the missionary!! He loves to share the gospel, one day we were talking with him and he said he told everyone at school about the church. I thought okay that is awesome he shared with a couple classmates or something. I asked him how many, [oh. .about twenty twenty five!{ Ah mi madre! He also told them they have to wear beautiful clothes because it is a beautiful church. I love it. Anyhow, we are now teaching one of his friends Charles who came to his bautismo and has visited church a couple of times. He is set on having his own answer though about the book of Mormon and Jospeh Smith though. When he told us this, we thought, perfect he will get it! He is Haitian and has only been here for three months, Haitians are amazing with languages so he knows quite a bit, but we still want him to understand everything. He has a book of Mormon in French and Spanish and then James will sit in during the lessons and translate for us at times when needed. During our third lesson he stops us when we are teaching him about the spírit world before resurrection, and says wait, when can I be baptized_ I have received an answer and I know the book of Mormon is true and that Jospeh Smith is a prophet. Those are beautiful words to hear and Hermana and I were already thinking of a baptism service so we set his fecha, date, for April 7th! James was so excited! He got up and left the room, Hna and I were a bit confused but he came back in and gracefully handed him the little píece of paper. We quickly realized it was the interview questions for the baptism that we had given him to practice spanish. I don{t know if this describes the moment well enough but it was hilarious. He said you can have these now! Everyone wants to come to my church.. His friend was quick to correct him and said its not your church its the church of Jesus Christ. They are all so great. I love to see the light that comes to people when they learn about the gospel, it truly is the good news!
Heres a funny. Hermana and I wake up every morning to exercise and usually just end up running down one of the calles,streets. She likes this cause then we can go at what pace we want and I don't mind. Well since we are right there in front of our house we usually just leave it unlocked. There is a door to our house, then a gate about four feet away. I threw the keys on the counter and made sure I left the door unlock as I closed it. I was then talking to Hermana and was distracted by the cockroach on the ground. Her and I were talking about how they all end up on their backs somehow, well I closed the gate, then heard the click of the padlock. Yes I closed the padlock on our gate, the padlock whose keys are past the door in on our counter. I am in shorts and t-shirt, dont have our phone, and I haven't brushed my teeth. Oh boy. We start trying to think of ideas. I think we could fit a small child through the bars that are next to our gate, I could fit my thigh through just not my body. Only problem is it is Saturday and the usual children in the street are all passed out asleep. We think of all the ideas and then decide to pray. I quickly remember that our keys are on the counter next to the window, so we only need to be able to slide something through the window and hook the keys! We headed to the abandoned chicken coop in our back yard, found some sticks and wire and started inventing! Our house has about a foot and a half between ours and the neighbors house so we spiderman the wall to get to the window. At this point our neighbor realizes our problem and starts looking for good materials too. It was tricky but after some efforts and his sweet plastic tube and hook we got our keys hooked and pulled through the window!!! Amazing!!! That was our morning exercise, but you can picture your Hermana with her funny faces as soon as I clicked the padlock and trying to find solutions. I love life's adventures.
Another fella that we are teaching, Micheal. He has such a good heart. He literally prays for everyone when he prays. He is reading and doing so well, but we just needed to get him to church. His passion is baseball and Sundays of course were his day to play. I decided to share with him my experience of basketball and the difference I noticed in my week when I did not play basketball on Sundays. It was simple, but I do have a strong testimony of keeping the Sabbath day. He came to church Sunday. I feel so blessed for Heavenly Father guiding me and greater yet to see the happiness in others.
The work, obra, is going really well here. I feel like Hermana and I are being super super blessed. At church we had seven investigators in sacrament and another lady made it for relief society. Hermana and I are super grateful and this is the best kind of busy I have been or will be! I love this work, the things I am learning, the people I am getting to love, and the blessing of Heavenly Father using my in His hands. We truly are His tools and He blesses us with each experience as an opportunity to grow, to learn something new, to choose to follow him better, to have greater gratitude. We each are very blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father!
