But. I do love church music. I found some awesome stuff pre-mission and I love listening to it every day. Music is one of the best thigns that has ever happened to me. I am so grateful I`m not deaf.
Anyway, here`s my week in one giant list of rambling words.
1. One night we went to look for a reference in the boonies of our sector. The family we were looking for wasn't there, but their neighbors were. The mom chatted with us for a second, but had no desire to hear our message. Then suddenly the dad drove up in his motorcycle and everyone all scattered off in different directions. Except we were still awkwardly standing there holding the umbrella they had lent us to keep the rain off. So we just walked inside and stood there forever while everyone just buzzed around ignoring us. I got bored and made a giant rock tower and thought about how goofy looking the chickens were.
Then suddenly the family grabbed this huge fishing net and opened this door to a nature-y secret garden wonderland. They said they were leaving to go fishing. We were just in the middle of this giant city and they were going fishing. That´s normal. Ayway they told us we could stay and wait for the neighbors to come back if we wanted. Instead we decided to follow them into the secret garden towards the river. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We waltzed through the rain and the kids threw sticks at each other. The dad fished while we talked to the mom about her life and religion and tried to win her over so we could teach this cute family. The dad finally caught a tiny fish and tossed it up towards us. Except we had nothing to put it in so I held that squirming creature in my hands and watched it gasping for air. I felt kind of sorry for it. It would be a miserable way to die. So. Fishing in the middle of this giant city. No big deal. It was fun, and the family said we could come back another day to share our message with them. Brilliant.
2. The other day my companion and I were out wandering around the centro from appointment to appointment. Suddenly it started to rain. Normal for Cuenca. Except then all of a sudden the drops were the size of baseballs pounding down on my head. Also it started hailing and I had no umbrella. I was soaked in approximately 30 seconds. I should have known to pack a wool sweatsuit and 12 coats here.
3. I am in love with rice. But I am also in love with the days that families give us food without rice. The familia Arteaga made us the most delectable lasagna ever this week. Okay, maybe it wasn`t as good as my Mill Hollow lasagna specialty, but it hit the spot for sure. Bleh. I miss cooking.
4. We`ve been teaching this sweet old woman named Aurelia. She has oodles of health problems, which inhibits her from even leaving the house. So sad. We taught her the word of wisdom this week and she said she could agree with everything except for coffee. I was super frustrated because I know that if she would just quit drinking coffee the Lord would bless her with health and strength. But her perspective is so limited. She can`t see the blessings God has in store for her. It made me realize how I need to broaden my view and realize that God has a perfect plan for all of us, and that as we do our part to prepare ourselves to return to His presence we`ll be blessed beyond our wildest dreams.
5. This week we were supposed to have 2 baptisms - an 11 year old named Evely and Javier Chuñir´s 14 year old brother, Pablo. Except Pablo got called into work last minute on Sunday so he lost his baptismal date. You`re required to have 2 attendances at church before you can get baptized, and Pablo has only come once. I was super bummed. He wants to get baptized so bad, but now he has to wait another week. Suckfest.
6. On the plus side...Javier came to church and passed the sacrament! We called him the night before to let him know about it and he was all stressed out because he didnt have a white shirt and tie. But we found clothes for him and he looked like a missionary. I felt like a proud mother watching him pass the sacrament. Ha. He was super nervous, but did a great job.
7. Someone in this cafe is smoking and it`s giving me the biggest headache ever.
8. The other night we searched and searched for people to teach. All of our set appointments fell through. None of our converts were home. All of our references had given us wrong addresses or weren`t home. We contacted like crazy. People gave us awesome excuses like they were busy (watching tv?!) or that they already had enough of God in their lives. Also this man sent 5 giant barking dogs after us. I won`t lie...I was frustrated. We spent the entire day working hard with no results.
But then that night we finally found a convert at home. We watched a movie about being an example in small ways to share the gospel with others. Some other lady walked in during the movie and sat down and started watching it with us. After the movie finished she told us she was Mayra´s mom. Mayra is a 14 year old girl we`ve been teaching for a while, but her mom has always refused to talk to the missionaries or give her daughter permission to get baptized. So we finally got to talk to her! I think it will take more work to gain her trust and help her realize that by letting her daughter get baptized she´s giving her the gift of salvation. But it`s a start. It was a light at the end of the tunnel of a very dark day.
9. We decided that by serving people we will more easily gain their trust and help them feel Heavenly Father´s love for them. So the other day we contacted this Chola Cuencana (no, not that kind of Chola, Nancy) who was cleaning vegetables to sell at the market. We sat down and helped her clean the dirt off of green onions and talked to her about her family and religion and bore our testimonies of the church. Even though we didn`t get to teach her a whole lesson, hopefully she still realized how much God loves her. How lucky are we to get to be angels in other people´s lives and help them find the joy of the gospel? I can`t believe God trusts someone as imperfect as me to do His work. Yeesh. It`s a heavy load sometimes.
10. The church is true. Completely, blissfully true.
Oh and ps...my dream of kissing an Ecuadorian llama came true today. Plus we went to a way rad museum here that had tons of Ecuadorian culture and history. Bah. I was in heaven.
1 comment:
Llama!!!!
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