I've been bit by the family history bug. My main plan is to squeeze in some time for some research right now!
We found a few new investigators this week! Last Monday, we went to see a less active and they weren't home but their neighbor downstairs just happened to be getting home from work and just happened to speak Spanish and his wife just happened to be home and they just happened to want to learn and just happened to love to read and just happened to want to read the Book of Mormon and just happened to want to be baptized when they receive an answer that these things are true. Their schedule is super crazy so we only saw them the one time but we're seeing them again this week! Biggest lesson: the less actives have told me on numerous occasions that no one in the area speaks Spanish. They just didn't think about their downstairs neighbors. If you think you have no opportunities to share the gospel, you're wrong. There are people all around you that you can help. Also, another lesson learned: there are so many prepared people. Even if you think your neighbors aren't interested, you never know until you try talking to them and inviting them to learn. Just try it - miracles will happen.
We also found another investigator, Roque, who was SUPER excited to learn and wanted to come to church but his wife was super Catholic and didn't let us come back. She'll be ready someday. We have a lesson tonight with a lady named Marilu that we found on our potential investigators list from a couple of years ago. The missionaries taught her husband and her brother-in-law once and she wasn't home but they didn't have another appointment with them. But her name had just kept popping out at me for the past four transfers that I've been here, and we finally called her. She said she has faith in God and Jesus Christ but she really doesn't know anything about them. We told her that our purpose as missionaries is to help people learn more about them and she said, "When can you come over?" We're super stoked.
We had an FHE with the Rojas family and our old investigators Dunia and Hugo and their family came! And we have another one tonight to watch the Joseph Smith movie at the Visitors' Center! After weeks of trying to get them to the VC and church, and finally dropping them, they're coming! And they came to the ward Halloween party on Thursday!
Speaking of Halloween: we cleaned all night. I thought it would be great stress relief, but I got real sick of it real fast. But it's nice to have a clean apartment, and it made today's cleaning MUCH easier.
Another miracle: we've been trying to find perfect fellowshippers for the Ramirez family - contact with them has been really hard but we've stopped by multiple times. The oldest daughter is going to church with her aunt so that's throwing everything off. But the miracle is that we brought a member family just to meet them the other day. Only the two youngest kids were home but turns out that these two families already know each other from school! And Cathryn's best friend is Suzy, our bishop's daughter! So we're getting them out with us this week too. Prayer works miracles - the Lord knows these people so much better than we do because they are HIS children. He's taking care of them and lining everything up for their success. Even though we haven't had a lesson with them this week and we don't know how much more we can do to help them, the Lord is making up the difference. And He's using the members to do it :)
So.....that's the scoop. The Lord is always taking care of all of us: missionaries, members, investigators, all of His children. I've been learning about charity. The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. And the second is to love thy neighbor as thyself. If we love God first and put His will before everything else, and in turn we learn to love ourselves, that's the only way to learn how to love others. And according to President Uchtdorf, that's the point. That's the purpose of our time here: to learn to use the universal language of Christ's love. http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-young-women-meeting/2013/03/your-wonderful-journey-home?lang=eng
Have a great week! I love you all!
Hermana Hunsaker
