Monday, May 30, 2016

Week Thirty-eight: Our 3rd Week in Chillogallo

Hola mi familia!

It hailed today! My companion and I were leaving the store after buying a few groceries with our hands filled with bags when hail started falling! What's weird is that it was really warm outside still. But hey, we got to run home in hail! I felt like someone was shooting down at us from above with a pellet gun. It was pretty sweet. It was like a movie. Good thing we had just come from playing some ultimate frisbee with our zone so we were in our running shoes. Fun times.

The people here always ask me about the weather in California, not really sure why, but I guess they're curious. They always ask if its hot or cold and I explain that we have four seasons of weather there. Then they always joke that here we can have the four seasons in one day, and it's true. You never really know what to wear here, so you just put on a ton of layers. At the beginning of my mission I thought I'd never use my big raincoat that we bought because I never really needed it in my old sectors. It has now become my best friend. It gets quite cold here. But it's great because when we´re knocking on doors and it´s pouring down rain the people have pity on us and let us in. That's happened quite a few times this week. And now they have a baptismal date. It's great! I love the rain!

We have seen so many miracles this week. The biggest one was once again with the Albán Family. They´re so awesome! So last week we visited them on Monday and Tuesday, and after that every time we tried visiting them they couldn't receive us, and we started getting pretty nervous. We weren't sure if they were going to come to church or not. It seemed like everything was preventing us to visit them and get them excited to come to church. So all we could do was pray. We kept praying for them the entire week and then come Sunday we called Jenni fifteen minutes before church started and she told us that they were already on their way! What a relief! When we saw them we got so excited! Then Emily told us that in the bus on their way to the church someone hit her back pretty hard (the buses are crazy here. it's like sardines) and she has had back problems before so she was in a TON of pain but she stuck it out through two hours of church. One of the hermanos gave her a blessing and the tears were streaming down her face. She is still hasn´t received the strongest answer that she wants about the church and her decision to be baptized but I know that she could feel of the priesthood power during that blessing. There's no denying it. I have gained such a strong testimony this week that we as missionaries experience things during the week to be able to help and understand our investigators when they´re experiencing the same types of challenges. I know that the church is true! I've felt it, I've seen it, I will never be able to deny it! 

I love being a missionary! Another miracle! Yesterday we were contacting and trying to find new people to teach and we felt like we had hit a dead end. We had a goal of finding 5 new people last week and at about 5PM yesterday we had only 3. My companion told me that we needed to pray. So we stopped knocking on doors and said a prayer. I thought it was interesting because my companion prayed that we would be able to find 5 people instead of praying for just the 2 that we lacked at the time. We finished the prayer and the second I opened my eyes we saw a family walking up. A family of 5! I was so amazed at the power of prayer. They received us with so much love and told us that we could stop by their house in an hour. So we kept contacting and found a really nice lady who received us right away and has a goal to be baptized on the 25th of next month! After that we returned to the house of the family and they still weren´t there but the grandma was there. We offered to share our message with her but she told us that she couldn't let us in because she didn´t know us. She was scared we were going to rob her or something....which isn't a normal reaction we get...haha. But I pulled out my card signed by the prophet that says I'm allowed to preach the gospel and testified to her that we were servants of the Lord here to share a message. It was a huge reminder to me of the importance of my calling as a missionary. I'll never forget that moment. Well, at the end of it all, she still didn't let us in haha, she was a little paranoid, but she said that we could come back when her daughter was there. It was a pretty interesting experience. 

Long story really short, I love this work and I love being a missionary! I can't believe the time goes by so quickly! I hope you are all doing fantastic! Remember that the power of God is on the earth today! And to know for sure all we have to do is accept the invitation of the Book of Mormon and read, ponder, and pray to ask God for an answer! I know He can and will answer your prayers! 

Les amo muchísimo!

Hermana Beutler

Some hail 

Some more hail

This is becoming a tradition.

No comments:

Post a Comment