Hola all!
We got to teach gospel principles on Sunday with about 17.9 seconds to prepare. Okay I’m being dramatic….it was about 23 seconds but still. It keeps you on your toes and shows the importance of daily preparation! I do love that:)
Yes, I agree, the church is set up to support the family. Miracles happen once we understand and act upon that concept. I love the church. A lot.
I am now serving the Sky Valley branch here in Monroe, Washington. It’s really nice here and I love it so far! The branch is awesome! Yesterday the branch mission leader gave us the branch mission plan -so good- and I am looking forward to serving here. There is actually family home evening as a branch every first Monday so that our investigators can come and meet the members (outside of church but I guess not really) which is something that I am looking forward to! We are assigned to give a short spiritual thought (emphasis on short…they were very thorough in making sure we got that haha) So I hope our investigators come!!
To answer your questions: we are staying very busy. We have our first exchange tomorrow (well I guess technically we switch tonight and it’s neat because we asked one of our investigators for a ride so we have at least an hour round trip to talk to her -and she can’t leave 😉 haha 🙂 So I’m super pumped for that. My companion is Hermana Martinez-Velez from Mexico City Mexico. Everything about her is awesome!! I really just love her a lot. It’s been a good week!! She goes home in December though. December 18th so I might be killing her off. (aka sending her home. I promise that I won’t actually kill her. We do get to work a lot in our own area so I am thankful for that. We serve six other companionships. (Three Spanish, three English) So that’s about one exchange every week and then one week we’ll have two. I’ve heard good things about exchanges -miracles always happen:)
I met a less active family earlier this week and we had a nice visit and invited them to church. And ya know what happened? The dad came!! Everyone was super excited to see him. I felt a good connection with this family so it was really cool:)
This week we were able to see a lot of miracles. I wanted to share three of them with you today 🙂 The first one, Hermana Martinez and I were tracting on a street close to our apartments. We ended up knocking on a door and a woman named Estefanie answered. She said that she had met with missionaries before but didn’t like that Mormons idolize Joseph Smith. While we were talking with her and trying to help her with her concerns, her sister, Gladys, came out and had this huge smile. As we talked with her we found out that she is a member and hasn’t been to church for a while. All of her family is Jehovah Witness and is currently studying with them as well. But she let us in and we talked -at least she seems open to us, so I am grateful for that. It was interesting because her records are not in the branch but the members and the Spanish elders knew about her but we had no idea. So to me, it was a miracle that we found her and were able to start building that relationship with her. Later we went back for service 🙂 For some reason I appreciated finding her in our efforts rather than being sent there. I’m not too sure why because I love referrals! I guess it just shows that the Lord never loses track of his children.
The second experience was super cool -we laughed so hard! We were in the Woods Creek area and Hermana Martinez and I went to a former’s home. When we walked up, there were a bunch of men in the drive way putting stuff into their truck. We talked to one of the teenagers, Jorge (he’s the former). Turns out they had just moved and “just happened” to be there packing up the last of their stuff. Since it wasn’t a good time we wished them luck, gave them our card and invited them to check out mormon.org. When we were back in the car Hermana Martinez wanted to follow them but we weren’t sure how long they would be there. (We try not to be too creepy haha) Anyway, we went to another potential and set up a return appointment with her. On our way home we get to the stop light and guess who was right in front of us?! A blue truck with two stickers of the Virgin Guadalupe. (Jorge’s truck) so from there we followed them home because that’s just how traffic played out and they now live on Blueberry Lane as well (which is by our apartment). So we were thinking we should tract those apartments soon 🙂
The third tender mercy was super neat because everything just seemed to line up perfectly. Okay. One night we were walking out of our apartment complex (it’s huge) and Hermana Martinez said we needed to find someone to teach that night. I looked up at one of the windows and saw a man drinking so I suggested that one. At least someone was home for sure 😉 So we knocked and turns out 7 men from Mexico live there. They’re here with visas to work for eight months and then go back home to their families for four months and then they come back. It’s crazy. That would be hard for me. Anyway, we started teaching them and I promised that the gospel would bring strength and spiritual stability to their lives. One of them seemed really interested because he’s looking for a change in his life. Well, we taught a little bit and then set up a return appointment so that we could bring one of the hermanas with us. When we got back we met one of the other guys that also lives there. (There are so many) and Hermana Martinez recognized him! He was a referral from the English speaking elders and they had only received a phone number. He was really interested but he didn’t want to give his address because he was embarrassed to have missionaries over with all the guys that he lives with to be there as well. But. He’s letting us go back! It’s so neat: finding the hispanic apartment the night before, him not being at work, us going back for the return appointment, him answering the door (because it really could have been any of the 7 guys that live there) and then her recognizing his name. -She was just so happy to find him and I am just so grateful for the Lord’s hand and guidance in what we do as missionaries.
These aren’t earth shattering experiences but they reminded me this week that the Lord is aware of each of his children and their situations. There is beauty all around us and it’s amazing how the Lord can work, down to the finest detail. I love Him and I am so grateful for this week. It makes me super excited for the week to come! We are striving for standards and we have our first exchange with the Sunnyside Spanish hermanas.
I sure do love you all:) I mean it! Hope you have another fantastic week.
Much love,
hermana bain
sisterbain 