Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - Week 50!

Hey Fam! First of all, Mom I can`t believe what happened to you!! You had to get staples in your head!? That`s so crazy! Does it hurt a lot?? It`s really weird because this week I`ve actually been thinking about the family and I felt like something bad was going to happen so I`ve been praying for everyone a lot. Maybe it`s just a coincidence. When do they take the staples out? I hope you heal quickly! Wow 50 weeks. So crazy. I can`t believe I`ll have a year this month. My time is slipping away. I feel like I`ve learned a lot though. This week has been super great and packed full of experiences. So it started off kinda interesting. On Thursday we visited one of our inactives Jorge that has come to church a couple times. He said he`s been praying to know what to do and had a dream that he should go back to the Catholic church and took that as revelation. We tried the best we could to help him understand that the dreams we have aren`t always revelations and to keep praying, but I think he`s made up his mind. Sounds like he never really had a testimony, but got baptized to please the missionaries. I hope he can receive a true answer still. On Friday we visited one of our investigators, Sonya with a member that lives close and knows her a little. She lost her daughter a couple years ago and still has a hard time getting over it. Another religion taught her when it happened that she could see her daughter again after this life and she wanted to take her life in that moment to be able to see her. It`s really sad. She`s better now, but she still feels alone. So we taught that we are never alone and the member with us gave her her number and told her to call her at any moment that she feels alone and she`ll come over to talk with her. It was a really great lession. When we left, we headed over to Nefeti and Jesus, other investigators. Well there was a couple there from another religion coming to preach just like us. I really really hate these circumstances. It`s very awkward. They aren`t going to change their beliefs and we aren`t either so basically we`re just going back and forth teaching doctrine and sharing scriptures in front of our investigators. They we`re trying to prove that Christ was the last prophet and that there can`t be another prophet ever again. So we explained about revelation and that God still talks to his children and loves us so we need guidance. It was uncomfortable, but I feel like we did the best we could. I hope our investigators understood what we taught. We invited them to pray about it. In reality, we`re the only church that invites people to pray to know the truth because we know that God will respond truthfully. On Saturday we were fasting (here we fast from lunch to lunch not dinner to dinner. It`s SO much easier). But anyways, we went the whole week with no one offering us food or a drink or anything, but of course this always happens. The one day we are fasting, everyone offers us stuff. We got offered soda, crackers, juice, more food that I don`t know how to explain what it is. Anyways, it was hard because the people don`t understand and I feel like they are offened, but the fast means so much more when you do have to give up stuff because you remember better what you`re fasting for. We visited a couple of the recent converts and invited them to bear their testimonies in Sunday. So on Sunday we had a ton of people in church. Claudia, and inactive and her daughters, Emily and Johan, a girl we met and invited to church on Saturday that`s friends with one of the recent converts, and Eva and her daughters. When we did the consecha a couple weeks ago, my companion and another missionary and our RS president contacted her house. She`s the one I said that works for the branch president in Tamboril. So we`ve been visiting her and her family and she came to church on Sunday for the first time. It was so incredible: She got up and bore her testimony!!! It was awesome!! Everyone was so impressed! Then our RS president got up and she was so happy to see the fruits of going out with the missionaries. She got to feel for the first time, what we get to feel when we see people progress. It was a great testimony builder for her. Eva participated in all the classes and asked to have one of the principles of the gospel books that we use to teach the investigator class so she can study it. We have really high hopes for her! On Monday we visited Emily and Johan. Emily has had doubts about getting baptized so we decided to read the interview questions to them so they know what they will be asked if they decide to get baptized and so we could know what doubts they have. They have doubts about the gospel being restored to the earth and Thomas S. Monson because they`ve never heard him speak. Not because they don`t believe in modern day prophets, they just don`t have enough information about him. So we`re going to have an activity in a members house to watch the Restoration movie. Hopefully that will help them. But they believe in everything else. It was Awilda`s birthday (the daughter of Wendy) that day too so we went over and celebrated with them. She turned 6. We brought a cake and soda and I gave her my last glow up ring that you sent me Mom. She LOVED it. And all the other girls asked if I would give them one for their birthdays. Haha. But I don`t think I`ll be here for any more of their birthdays. We`ve been reading the BOM with a lot of our investigators to help them gain a testimony of it and they all seem to be in the Isaiah chapters right now. It is super hard to explain, but God has helped me understand things I wouldn`t normally understand. We had a ward council yesterday. The church wants to help members provide for themselves so it will help a few to start their own buisnesses in their homes. A lot of members are excited about it. Today for pday we went to the church with the elders and our mission leader and another YSA guy in the branch and played volleyball! It was really fun (maybe because my team won) :) And we got permission to watch a movie so we attempted to watch Frozen on YouTube. We couldn`t find one of good quality and it skipped all the songs, but I really liked it! It was really cute! But that`s about it. Finally! Haha. Super busy week. Oh and thanks for all the letters you all wrote when you were at the reunion! I loved them! But I`m running out of time so I gotta go. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Woolf