Cómo les va? Casi sería más facil escribir este correo en español, pero no voy a hacerlo :)
Not kidding, every single day this week Hna Martinez and I sat down at our desk after getting home and were like what just happened. Every day there was some mind-blowing miracle that brought us to our knees in gratitude and awe. Wish I could tell ALL the details, but here are a few:
We all know that noches de hogar are golden, but this one was miraculous. We invited a couple investigators to a member´s house (Andres y Marucsi -- they help us out a ton in la obra misional)on Monday and about an hour before, I remembered Melisa! (inv. who could possibly be baptized this week) We hadn´t invited her and I felt like we should pass by even though it was last minute and she said yes and asked if she could invite like 5 friends. Umm, YES. Unfortunately all her friends decided to show up consecutively every 2 minutes after we had started the hymn and prayer and introductions so we kept having to stop and re-start, but WORTH IT because we had an awesome discussion on service with scriptures in the BOM and then watched teh clip from Meet the Mormons of the cute old pilot man. Melisa´s boyfriend (who we had never met) and his friend (both around age 21 and studying at the university nearby) had a ton of questions about Mormons and what we believe -- one Catholic and the other a less-active Evangelist. They said they´d be willing to have missionaries come visit them so we passed the reference to the Elders in Miraflores since they don´t live in our area. The next day we got a call from the Elders saying THANKS for the ref´s, they met them and had an awesome lesson and now they both have baptismal dates! WHAT. We were like crying happy. We feel like this will really help Melisa in her progress as well.
On Wednesday, we found ourselves walking through the blind-your-eyes sandy streets sweating at noon after all our plans had fallen through that morning. I had the thought -- actually the Spirit had the thought and planted it in my mind -- that we should do some daily contacting for investigators (this is a mission focus right now). So we found some shade (not as easy as it sounds :) and pulled out the phone to start making calls and sending texts. Hna Martinez was analyzing our list of recent contacts and a name stood out to her, Julianna, a woman who sells pollo near our house. She was a street contact. I sent her a message asking when we could visit her and said something along the lines of ¨Hermana, le prometemos que si usted escucha este mensaje, su familia será bendecida¨ We got an immediate reply and she said ¨Hermanas, I´ll wait for you today at 3 at my house. I´m going through a lot of problems right now and I know that you can help me.¨ We were shocked! We went that day and had a powerful lesson with her -- we asked inspired questions, listened to her, taught her the Restoration, and promised specific blessings. Her teenage children (Amarilis and Orlando, 14 and 12) came to church this week!!! We´re so excited -- they are truly investigators with verdadera intencion -- real intent.
And then there´s MARK. Mark is my favorite of them all. So we´re sitting at a member´s house 2 weeks ago scheduling an appt with them and one of the people who rent an apartment on the 2nd floor dropped in. When we asked Hna Santamaria who he was she said his name was Mark, he´s 26, from Mancora and studying Economics at the National and lives alone.
Hna Santamaria: ¨I gave him a book of mormon once.¨
Us: Hermana, en serio?! Bacán!
Hna Santamaria: No it´s because one day he was telling me that he has trouble sleeping so I gave him one and told him to read it and it´ll put him to sleep!
HAHAHA. Oh my goodness...
Long story short, Mark is probably my favorite investigator I´ve ever had. He´s SO intelligent, we honestly feel like dust in his presence. He understands everything we teach perfectly, he´s reading and praying, came to church, and we´re for sure setting a bap date next visit.
We were like overjoyed in church yesterday watching la JAS (ysa) fellowship him and accompany him to the classes, exchange numbers, etc.
We fasted on Saturday -- partly to help our investigators attend and have a good experience at church and partly just in gratitude. I don´t know what we did to deserve all the blessings we´re receiving....it´s really like 1% our own obedience and diligence and 99% a loving Heavenly Father who is showering down his tender mercies. Hna Martinez and I love to sing in English from our awesomely huge echo-ey room on the 4th floor and my fav hymn (Praise to the lord the almighty) was stuck in our heads this week:
¨Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy way and defend thee;Surely His goodness
And mercy shall ever attend thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with His love doth befriend thee.
Mandando mis saludos a todos!
Hermana Parks
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