Yeah. The Family History Center was closed again today. Life is crazy right now. Sister Ayala and I are going to de-stress ourselves and do a little shopping. But first: the miracles.
Biggest miracle in our area this week: we went over to see our less active Hermana Delgado. She's been coming to church regularly for the past few weeks, but we hadn't seen her in a few weeks because we couldn't fit her into her schedule. She joined the church about eight years ago and has four kids - one isn't a member, one is married in the temple, and her two youngest kids are not active but still live at home. Her husband isn't a member either and every time when we come over, we invite him to our lesson but he declines and just sits on the couch nearby and watches TV. But something happened Wednesday night. We had just come from our super awesome Zone Conference (my LAST Zone Conference) and we just went over to Hermana Delgado's house for dinner and a quick message. Her husband wasn't home from work yet when we got there, but he got home 15 minutes later. We started talking to him when he came in, but the last thing we expected is that he would come sit at the table with us. When he did that, Sister Ayala and I had no idea what to do! But the Lord totally prepared the way. He had always been kind of cold and he wasn't religious at all. But without provocation, he came straight out and told us his needs. He talked about how he had seen so many deaths and trials in his life and in those of his close family members and he said he didn't care about what was going to happen after this life because he already felt like he was living in hell here. It was amazing. We were able to bear testimony that families really can be together forever and that through the Atonement, we can be free of all our pain and find true and lasting peace and happiness. The Lord prepared it all - but we were there when all the plans fell together. As missionaries, we really are the Lord's hands here and as members, we can be them as well. We're super busy so we're going to ask the elders to come over and teach him, but I'm grateful for the Lord's timing to see the rewards of our patience.
I've failed at sharing all the VC miracles for most of my mission, but now that we're in the VC every night, we're seeing miracles every night and I'm remembering them better! We had this one guy named Adam that came in - he's a practicing Catholic but he was totally open and has the biggest heart ever and he wanted a Book of Mormon! We had another Spanish family in the area that asked us why our church is different, and the dad, Vicente, wants a Book of Mormon! And he lives in our ward boundaries - not in our area but we'll get to see him at church! We had a ton of Spanish families come up to see the lights and some of them live in our area! We're excited to contact them this week and teach them the Restoration! It's going to be the best! I'm so grateful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me to learn Spanish because I just love it! I love the people and the culture and the language and everything. I'm just hoping and praying that I'll finish my mission here in Oakland! I love this city and this ward - but mostly I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father and the Atonement and the gospel. Because they make it all possible :)
Have a great week everyone!
Hermana Hunsaker
