Hey everyone!!!
Did I mention lately that I love Araras???! Yep. I love it!!! =]
This week was gooooooood! Some tough times, but we have had some miracles as well!!
To start it off, some funny stories....
For those of you that know me best, you may recall that me and
grape flavored things DONT get along....I blame whatever grape flavored
medicine that my parents force-fed me as a child.... The amount of
times I´ve already had to drink grape soda and grape juice out here on
the mission is ridiculous. I think Heavenly Father likes to tease me
sometimes.....
One of the other things that I CANNOT stand is jello. Yep. Jello. I
just hate it. Sorry to offend anyone... I have no explanation, but I
really, really dont like jello.
This past week I was telling Sister Feistner about how much
I dislike jello.... We have a family in our ward that almost EVERYTIME
that the feed us, they give us jello for dessert.... First time that
Sister Pedersen and I ate there, she brought out a big round tray full
of cups of jello just for us two... ... YIKES. Then after we each took a
cup, she ran to the fridge, and grabbed two more to replace them!!!
NOOOOOO. I ate that cup of jello slower than anything I´ve ever eaten in
my life..... Afterwards, sister Pedersen was like "I never knew anyone
could eat jello that slow...." hahaha. After a few cups of jello each,
we were finally able to escape...
The next time we had lunch there, it happened AGAIN. Sister
Pedersen knew what was up this time, so she helped me out with the
jello.... When the Irmã that gave us lunch went into the kitchen, Sis.
P. traded her almost empty jello cup for my full one..... hahah. Yay for
awesome companions!!
BUT to the point of the story.... I had just told all of these
jello experiences to Sister Feistner this past week..... Monday, we had
lunch with a different member. After lunch, she brought out dessert...
And of course, it just happened to be GRAPE jello.....
I nearly died. Sister Feistner nearly died laughing...... We
couldnt even look at eachother while we ate it because we couldnt keep
straight faces...... IT was terrible. SO BAD. But she was so worried
about giving us a wonderful lunch that there was no way we were going to
say anything about me hating grape things.... or jello. So like a good
missionary, I ate it. And Sister Feistner ate two helpings for me.
Miracles of the week:
A couple weeks ago, we ran into a member and his fiancee walking by
the lake. Sister Feistner started to make a contact with them and as
she started to say "we are missionaries from the church of jesus
christ...." he interrupted her and finished the name of the church. We
were a little surprised, and figured they had just already heard about
the church and didnt want to hear any more... BUT turns out, he is a
member and his fiancee is an investigator that first met with
missionaries back in January. Her name is Gidelma and she started coming
to church to find out more because of her fiancee, and has been coming
to church off and on ever since. The sisters stopped working with her
because she got sick for a while, and then was impossible to get a hold
of.... Or was making herself hard to get ahold of because she was scared
of being pressured to get baptized...
Anyways. While we were talking with them by the lake, her member
fiancee joked about her getting baptized the coming Saturday.... WHAT??!
The following week, we called her, she told us that she WANTED TO BE
BAPTIZED and so we tried to arrange to meet with her all week long...
she never answered or returned our calls.
Sunday, they came to church again. So we talked with her and
arranged to meet with her FINALLY. Yesterday, we had our first lesson
with her. We were a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, but it
turned out to be WAYYY better than we could have hoped!!
As we talked with Gidelma, she told us her experiences meeting with
the other sisters and finding out about the church. The sisters had
taught her about the restoration and given her a book of mormon. They
challenged her to read it and pray and that she would receive an
answer.. that she would feel the Spirit. She said that she read it and
then prayed and felt NOTHING. And so she got frustrated.
She still read a lot, and was reading the gospel principles manual as well.
Quite a while later, she saw an add or something about the church
on tv... she decided to get out her book of mormon and read again. She
turned to the chapter that the sisters had marked for her and it was
talking all about baptism. She said that as she was reading, she felt
the Spirit so strong and just started crying. As she was reading she
knew it was all true and that she needed to be baptized. AMAZING.
By the time we met with Gidelma yesterday, she had read the ENTIRE
book of mormon and the ENTIRE gospel principles manual!! She had only
ever been taught the first lesson (about joseph smith, the restoration
and the book of mormon), but as we started to teach her all the other
lessons, she started to explain everything TO US. She already knew
everything!!! We taught all five lessons while we were sitting around
her kitchen table (well really, we asked her about things and she taught
us.... haha).
It was amazing. She is so prepared!!
She told us how she wants to get baptized and we are planning her
baptism for this Saturday!!! She made her fiancee-- Justiniano, leave
the room for us to talk about baptism. She said that she doesnt want him
to know yet because he will get sooooo excited. haha. She is going to
surprise him on Friday when she has her baptismal interview. Ahah. She
is soooo cute and soo excited about it all. It is absolutely wonderful.
I´m so excited for Saturday!!
About Michael...
We had marked baptism with Michael for this coming weekend..... We
marked it about a month ago, and have been working with him a LOT since.
He still doesnt feel prepared though. He feels like he has to be 100
percent with everything in order to be baptized... feels like he needs
to be perfect. We´ve been trying so hard to explain to him that he CANT
be perfect, but he still just doesnt feel ready.
We had a really good lesson with him last night. We had a member
who was baptized a couple years ago with us and he shared some of his
stories and experiences. We tried to help Michael with his doubts and
concerns... Basically, we explained that it comes down to him having the
faith to take this step, to be baptized. That through the repentance
that he is doing now, and baptism, he can have his sins washed away...
but he cant be perfect on his on! We read a couple scriptures with
him... one that I really like in particular is Alma7:15... I dont
remember how it is exactly in english, but it basically says to come,
dont be afraid and lay aside your sins and be baptized.... At the end, I
shared that scripture with him and invited him again to be baptized
this saturday. The spirit was so strong throughout the entire lesson, we
had born our testimonies to him and I felt like we had given it our
all.... As we waited for him to answer, I was SURE he was going to say
yes... But, in the end, he still said that it is too soon. AH.
Point being, with Michael, we have been working him a lot for a
long time now.... He has been doing everything... reading, praying and
changing his life. He has progressed so much!! And I know that he is
ready for baptism now. We have taught him everything and teaching him
has really pushed me to think and try to find experiences/scriptures to
share to help him specifically. Working with him has made me work so
hard to teach better every time. I feel like I have given my all in
teaching him.
But,even so, this decision is up to him. Anddddd that is hard for me to accept. hahah.
But, I still have hope that he will have a change of heart and that
Heavenly Father will help him feel prepared to be baptized. We are
going to meet with him again, and we challenged him to pray about
baptism this saturday but with real intent. I hope that he does and that
he can recognize the answer.
Hopefully this time next week I´ll be able to send you a picture of Michael dressed in white for his baptism!!! =]
Well, we are off to go experiment chicken feet at a members house
this afternoon....... Yikes. I´ll let you all know how that goes down.
love you all so much!!
have the best week!!!!!!!!
Sister Ward
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