WEEK 28
What a week. First off, Hna
Silva and I were blown away with how many menos activos we found. Seriously,
we contacted like 6 or more in one single day! It´s crazy to think that
there are in reality a little over 600 member here in this ward but only 200
mas o menos that are active. One group will be in church one week and
another the other. We usually get an average of 100 members that come
every week. BUT... this week... guess what? our asistencia was…!? 140!!! No lie. My heart was so full. Plus it was
fast and testimony meeting. We had tons of less actives come!! 18 to be
exact. Pelusa Vasquez, this cute 21 year old who we have recently been
visiting and she was like pumped to come back. Then we had Flia Pavón
come again. Bishop announced, I believe, 5 or 6 of the young men in our
ward who are preparing for missions. Made me cry because three in
particular I have been praying for and we have been visiting/talking to them about
the mission. One of them, Miguel Britos, got baptized within the last
year. He bore his testimony, along with
Alejandro Rivarola, and Luis Zabala. The entire familia Almirón got up
and bore their testimonies. They are such a solid family and it was so
awesome.
They (flia almirón) gave us
sombreros cuz, HOLY cow, the sun is coming out. I have never sweated like
this in my life. You seriously are wet 24/7 - bleh. And it´s not just
sticky wet it´s like dripping! haha - but hey it rained twice this week so
it cooled down. Wednesday it poured like no other and we were walking
home from a service project that we were doing with our zone near our area.
Everything was dripping. We came home quickly changed and left the
house again with rain jackets, boots, and umbrellas to find the sun had come
out. I wanted to get a picture of the streets but didn´t get a chance to
cuz it was pouring too hard. They were literally like rivers and running
super fast.
Oh
exciting news... saw my first ZAPO!!! Frog - I haven´t looked it up in the dictionary yet, but
there are Zapos and Ranas. The big ones are called Zapos. It was in the
street when we were contacting one night. Bigger than my hand with cool
spots all over. They make the weirdest sounds here. It´s hilarious, a lot
more than just ¨ribbut¨. They cry and chirp like crickets. Super rraro.
Okay
so we taught lesson 2 (Plan of Salvation) a lot this week. Two lessons in
particular I wanted to tell you guys about. First, we had a lesson with
familia Almirón and Flia Duarte (Kristhian, our new member :), and Celia).
Man, I am telling you guys the spirit just took it away. Celia was
so attentive and willing to listen. When Hno and Hna Almirón started
talking about the temple, Celia had THE biggest smile on her face. They
told her about baptisms, which was PERFECT because they just happened to have gone to
the temple the other day and do family names so hno Almirón was crying and
bearing his testimony. So powerful. Then they mentioned being sealed for time and all
eternity. Celia and Kristhian both wore the biggest smiles like ¨please
let´s go right now¨ and this energy of joy just filled the room. We sang
¨Soy un Hijo de Dios¨ (I am a Child of God) to finish. It was so powerful.
Second, remember familia Reyes ? well, we went back, and
every time sweet Ramona (the mom) was happier and happier. We taught
her about the plan of salvation and she said a peace and joy just filled her
heart as we asked her what this new conocimiento meant to her. It was so
sweet! An answer de Dios, hello! Plus she said she has been praying
and one neat part is that she has been thinking about our message lately and
she says when she prays for help or thinks of us we happen to pass by.
Seriously, the Lords hand is in this work; it is his work, right? :)
I love being a part of it, every minute of every day. Worrying
about the salvation of others (what really matters in life) instead of having
to worry about school, friends, the mundane things.
I
am reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish all the way through (finishing it).
The goal was before my birthday but now I am changing it to Christmas :) It was
little too daunting (20 pages a day or 10 hojas) loco... so I am shooting
for Christmas but seriously I have already noticed an increase in my
understanding of Spanish and speaking. Oh and wanted to say how much I
love this ward. They really have become like my family and I wish I
could serve my whole mission here in Loma. It has been an absolute blast.
We have lots of goals, activities, and altas expectativas for the ward
especially to increase our asistencía.
I love you all so much. xoxo
Con Cariño,
Hermana Owen
"We become what we want to be, by consistently being what we want to become."
-Richard G. Scott