Day 441 (Week 62) - "Swimming" in a sink!

We are doing well. We are a little short on money this week because it is the end of the month, but the Lord has blessed us so much. We have not gone without food this week. Every time we feel hungry, some one gives us food. For example, an investigator invited us over for dinner tonight and earlier this week a lady we hardly knew said she was thinking about us and gave us a bag full of mangos. I have seen a lot of blessings this week.

This week was a really interesting week for me. It went by really fast.

Monday was normal. We didn't do anything exciting because we didn't have a lot of money. Tuesday we went to Santa Ana and visited 3 young men who are really sick. They are brothers and the 3 of them have a weird nerve problem that makes it hard for them, to walk and really do anything. One of them is in a wheelchair. We were afraid the first time we visited them because some member told them that if they get baptized the church will help them. We want the church to help them, but don't want that to be their motivation to get baptized. By the end of the visit, we were less worried. The member that was present said that he would bring the boys to church if they wanted to go and one of the boys named Walter piped up real fast and said he wanted to. In the nighttime, we went to visit a family of investigators, Morales Family. They had been progressing for a while and then all of the sudden the husband didn't want to get married or go to church or nothing. The wife can't progress without him. When we visited it was really uncomfortable and a little bit cold. After the lesson, we decided that we should let them go. It was really sad, because we had grown really close to the wife and the 2 kids. 

 

Wednesday we had a lot of visits. The most eventful one was in the night time when we visited an investigator named Edgar. I don't remember if I already told you about him, so here is a brief description. 25yr. man from Honduras. He lives here with his mom, 2 nephews and 14yr. girlfriend. she is from Spain and she is beautiful. She has listened to a couple of our visits. The first time we invited Edgar, he came to church. Also, the first time we invited Edgar, he accepted a date to be baptized. He is preparing to be baptized the 18 of July and he really wants it. Well, that night (Wednesday night), they asked for our advice. the girlfriend really wants to support Edgar and knows it is wrong to live with him out of marriage and they needed to make a decision that night if she should stay or go. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and the importance of thinking how our decisions will affect all of eternity and that we need to make wise decisions to get to the Celestial Kingdom. The lesson went really well and we were sure she would make the decision to go back with her family.

 

Thursday we visited an investigator named Brenda. She has a daughter named Lupita. I would be lying if I told you that they were not some of our favorites. Brenda is progressing so much and her daughter who is 6 really supports her too. She is always saying "mom, lets got to church" or "I am so excited for Sunday." Brenda has a problem in that her husband doesn't have plans to get married anytime soon. We took the queen Esther approach and told her that we need to pray a lot and that we will plan a fast together. At the end of the lesson Lupita wanted to pray. She prayed that her parents could get married so that her mom could get baptized and then she could get baptized and that one day her dad would listen to the missionaries and get baptized. I almost cried during that prayer. Brenda is prepared and wants to get baptized, we just need to keep working with the husband. Also. Brenda gave us skirts at the end of the visit. We were so surprised. It was so nice of her. 

 

Friday we dedicated 4 hours to finding new people. We need them. We ended up contacting a reference that member gave us. This investigator's named is Luis and he is an alcoholic. We visited him and it was obvious that he had been drinking earlier in the day. He smelled like alcohol. He didn't seem drunk, so we visited him. He told us that he wanted a change in his life(side note we were not alone with him, we had a member. That will be important for later on in the story). He said that he was really sick and that the doctors tell him that he only has 8 months left to live and he wants to make the right changes in his life. He cried a little and we told him that we would help him. All of the sudden he got up and went to another room and them whispered something to my companion who was sitting closest to him and then handed her a perfume and told her to put it in her bag. I was like that is weird. maybe it is a gift. After the lesson ended, my companion turned to me and told me that he said it was gift for his aunt and that he wanted us to take it to her. Oh I forgot my favorite part. When we asked him if he would say the closing prayer, he asked us "wait, don't you want to build an altar first? We can head on back and brake some chains and praise Jesus" We explained that we don't worship idols, so we didn't make the altar. Anyways, when we were leaving he told us that he would show us the way to his aunt's house. he didn't just explain it, no, he took us all the way there. When we were in front of the door, we realized what had just happened. He stole something from his own house to sell it for alcohol and used us to take it. What a scum. and how dumb were we. We called the member (who gave us the reference)  immediately after we were separated from Luis and asked for the number of the wife. We called her and explained what had happened and that we were willing to pay for the perfume, but she told us not to worry,  that it was not the first time that something like this has happened. We ended up visiting the wife the next day instead of Luis. Maybe he isn't ready for the change in his life yet, but we will keep trying and we will never take anything from him again!

Saturday we didn't have any super exciting visits. Sunday, Edgar, Brenda, Walter and his brother Gerardo, who is in the wheelchair came to church. It was good Sunday. In the evening, we visited Edgar and he told us that his girlfriend left for the house of her grandparents in the capital, but when she got there, no one was there. We are all really worried about her, because she is alone. Edgar will go get her if no one comes for her during this week. We made a new plan for him, so that he can get baptized, if she comes back. He will rent a small apartment and live alone and she will live with his mom. They will be boyfriend and girlfriend, but won't live together. Then in a year, he wants to go on a mission. He will come back and she will be 18. They will get married an live happily ever after.... That is the new plan and we all like it better. I just pray everything turns out well. 

 

Today we got around, ate fried chicken for lunch, because it is cheap here and then we sat in our pila and took a nap and now we are writing. Tonight Brenda invited us for dinner and we are going to have roasted marshmallows and flour tortillas and roasted hot dogs. She makes really good flour tortillas. We are excited.