Day 161 (Week 22)-   "Hello my name is Inigo Montoya..."

So, I did get the video and I almost cried a little. I try not to think of the family too much, but lately something weird has been happening with me.  I keep having dreams about when I come home. Every night for the last week and a half I have had a dream about coming home. The first few started out with nobody wanted me home then they keep getting better everyone is more and more excited for my homecoming with each dream. Last night I dreamed that I got home and when I entered the church building on Sunday, Jaycee Woodward saw me and came running screaming  "TEACHER!!!!!!!"  I don't know why I am having these dreams usually my thoughts are really focused during the day.

Which reminds me, I have been teaching my companion some English. This is what I taught her : " How many fingers do you have on your right hand?" (reply with "five, why?! ") "Because my father was killed by a man who has six fingers on his right hand. One day I will find this man and say, hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." We are preparing to you use this at a zone activity to break the awkward ice of getting to know gringos.

 

So, I told you that right now is the rainy season here. We had some pretty big rain storms this last week especially last night.  There was a ton of rain, lightning and thunder. The funny thing about the rain here is that one day it will pour buckets of rain and the next day the sun will be out and not a trace of the rain, not even a puddle.  The land even looks rain deprived. 

 

We had a hard week with lessons and members. We had a ton of cancellations (that is the nice way for saying they just plain out didn't show up). Sometimes it is frustrating working with people.  They have their agency and freedom to choose. Sometimes I think it would be easier to baptize a tiger or even an elephant. We had to drop 2 of our investigators this week. This was the saddest thing that has happened to me yet on my mission. I prefer being sick from my parasite (which was miserable) over dropping an investigator that knows the truth and just isn't progressing. It is really hard when you know that you are working so hard for these people and they aren't doing anything. 

We had a first this week. we went to contact a reference that we received, someone named Marta. It was raining really hard so she felt bad and let us in. We tried to talked to her, but her brother wouldn't leave us alone, so we let him talk, he is probably about 50 years old and super Evangelico. He kept telling us over and over that the bible is the word of God and there is no other book. And when we would ask him questions he wouldn't give us straight answer always returning back to the bible oh and how Jesus is the only way we can be saved nobody else. I told him we believe in the bible and Jesus is the center of our message, and then he cut me off and started talking again about his church and beliefs in the bible and Jesus. Finally it got the point where I knew I wasn't feeling the spirit and he wasn't listening, so I prayed for the spirit and I cut him off expressing that he needed to give me a chance to talk. I told him I am not from here, my family is really far away, I don't know the language very well, I don't know many people here and I walking around everywhere. This is a hard thing to do, but I am here because we have the truth. If you give us a chance and listen with your ears and your heart, you will know it is true you will find things you never heard before and you will know just as I know with ever fiber of my being and all my heart that this is true. We have been called by a prophet in the day to be here  ..... he cuts me off, "liar" he says the bible says there is no prophet. I told him I know you don't believe in what we are saying but it is your choice to listen or not. This is the truth and you cannot change that. Thank you for your time we need to go to another visit. He was silent and we could tell he was little frustrated, so he left. His sister said we could come back the next Sunday so we plan to return. After wards we were talking about this experience and Hna. Rebolledo and I agreed that this experience was definitely something we needed. I wanted to argue so bad, but I think if I had given in and "bible-bashed" we wouldn't have another visit with the sister (Marta).
 

Nothing else exciting happened this week. But next week, Hna. Rebolledo and I get to give talks in the ward in which we are serving right now. I am really nervous, so I hope you will pray for me. 
 

I love you all and am happy to know all is going well for you all.  I love you all and am praying for you daily.
 

Love. Hermana Hansen

PS. the pictures are from after being in the rain for 5 minutes (note I am soaking wet) and the other is from a parade for dia de Independencia.