1-09-2012

Hola a todo!

How is everyone? Well this week was an interesting one.. definitely the saddest of my mission so far.  But first...

Updates!:

• hit my six month mark. WEIRD.
• transfers this week... ahhh only time will tell!
• interviews with President=awesome.  He had some great advice I´m gonna share in a little bit
• last week for p-day we got to go to centro. I bought a harmonica. yes, I am really going to learn the harmonica. 
• awesome story for the week:  you know you have a convert and not a baptism when you tell your recent convert (Miguel) that he should bare his testimony in Sacrament Meeting and he says ´well I think we would need 10 Sundays to do that because that´s how long it would take to bare mine!´  He is so great.  It´s a really good feeling knowing that someone really was changed and not just baptized.

So this week I have a story.  One of our investigators Ramona was supposed to get married and baptized this last week.  Everything was looking good and like it was really going to happen this time (she has been trying to get baptized for like 3 months but her marido is realllly up and down about getting married and they have had a lot of family problems).  So we go to her house on Monday and she just starts crying when we ask her how she is.  She was bawling, and telling us a million words a minute what was going on.  Sadly, my companion and I didn´t understand a thing because she was crying so hard... so we were just hugging her and mouthing to each other ´I have no idea what´s going on!´... we left completely confused.  So we planned on going back the next day, hoping to find out what happened.  We went back again, only this time it was worse.  She was sobbing, completely bawling, and we were too.  We had no idea what was going on... but we could feel her pain.  It was the saddest week of my mission so far.  Her house felt so dark... not like the evil kind of dark, but just sad and painful and dark.  We all sat there and cried for probably an hour.  In the middle of it her daughter came out and started crying too, and then she took all of her stuff and left with her aunt.  It was the weirdest feeling in the world.  Both my comp and I were sitting there bawling our eyes out while thinking at the same time ´I have no idea what is going on.  Why is Ramona crying?  Why is Lorena moving out? What´s going on??´.  Bueno... after about an hour, things calmed down and we talked and finally understood what happened.  I guess Lorena broke a house rule and lied to everyone about it and then Lucas (Ramona´s marido) found out and freaked out at her and told her he never wants to see her again in the house and all of this really bad stuff.  So Lorena was mad at him (she really hates him) and she moved out to go live with her aunt.  So Ramona and Lucas were deciding whether they should get married or separate, and now everything is just in this weird state.  Lorena is out of the house, and her other son Bryan has been with his dad for 2 weeks, and her other son is staying with his grandma, so she´s just home alone all day, lonely and sad and worried about her family and what´s going to happen.  What struck me the most was when we were talking to her that night and I am absolutely in awe at the faith this woman has.  At the end she just said ´I have to keep going, I have to keep going strong, the Lord will help me´ ... she was telling us how all she wants, her only desire and her biggest dream, is that she just has her family unified and in the gospel.  All she wants is for them to get married and all of them to get baptized and be good members of the church.  She has the biggest testimony and the most faith of anyone I have ever met.  She is incredible and the biggest example to us.  It was super sad... the whole next day my companion and I just felt crappy.  All we could think about was Ramona and we were worrying about her all day, which really stumped our work for that day because we couldn´t focus on anything else.  Not to mention the huge headaches we had from crying the night before, haha.  Anyway... It was really a sad week because of that.  I know things will work out for her eventually because she has the most righteous desires anyone could have, but it´s so hard to see her in so much pain with so much worry for her family.  Please pray for her!!

Bueno... that´s pretty much it for this week.  I have been studying a lot lately about agency, self-control, the atonement, decisions, and change, and it has been super awesome seeing how the spirit teaches me.  The best days are when I learn something new and realize that all of my studies tie in to each other in all of this complicated different ways.  Man, the gospel is so awesome :).  When I get it all put together I will share what I have been learning about... right now it´s all up in a big unorganized mess, haha.  But for a thought for the week... in my interview with President Heyman this week he talked about success and how can we know if we are having success in the mission. He said you ask yourself this question ´Am I a better disciple of Christ now than I was when I started?´.  I really like that, and it definitely applies to life too.  That is our main goal in life... to become like him.  So we should always be asking ourselves, ´Am I a better disciple of Christ now than I was one month ago? Or a couple months ago? Or a year ago?´... if we are always working on progressing, the Lord is pleased with us. :)

As my dad always says... Make it a great week!! It really is up to you!

--Hermanita Hunt

 

OH YEAH! Shout-out to Haley for her MISSION CALL! Congrats my little hay-hay I am sooo excited for you!! You are going to be the best missionary Cali has seen!  And shout-out to Jenna for her ENGAGEMENT!  Holy moly sista... your life is always exciting! I´m excited for you and wish you the best! :) You better send me pictures!  LOVE YOU BOTH!