Bring Them Heaven: Thy Guiding Hand

¡Hola todos! I hope you are all doing well!

Okay, so last Monday after P-day ended, we had some great experiences. We went to Los Nogales (un barrio en Jesus María), to talk to Cristina Lucero who had a baptismal date of the 28 of March. But she hadn´t come to church, so we needed to reset the date. We talked to her and she reset her own baptismal date for the 4 of April. She didn´t come to church yesterday, though, so she absolutely has to next week. (You have to attend twice before you can be baptized.) Then, on the way to another investigator’s house, we stopped and talked to an older (about 70’s) man working on his car outside. His name is Angel and he said that he would be baptized. In the contact! His baptismal date is the 18 of April. Then we went to the other investigator’s house and she accepted baptism too! Her name is Laura and she´ll be baptized on the 11 of April! One every week of April so far!!! Three fechas in and hour and a half! It was amazing!

The next day wasn´t so hot.

We had two appointments in the morning. One with Ilario, but he was working, so we went to our other appointment with Maurcelio. But, he was sleeping. When we came back, his cousin said that he´d left on his moto. He hadn´t left. We could see his house the whole time we were waiting. He just didn´t want to talk to us. Then we went to La Colonia (another section of Jesus María) trying to find the house of the member that was going to feed us lunch. We could not find it for the life of us. We were walking around La Colonia for two hours trying to find her house. We did learn something, though. That morning, we were both so tired that we didn´t exercise. We learned that no matter what, we need to exercise, we need to be as 100 percent obedient as we can be. Otherwise, the Lord´s going to have us exercise during the day. :)

On Wednesday, we had to go to Córdoba for our zone meeting. It was good, we just presented ourselves, talked about some goals and then the other districts had their district meeting. (We have ours on Sunday, so we sat in on a different one.) When we got back, we went to Los Nogales to talk to Laura, but she wasn´t there. It´s hard when your investigators don´t show up to their citas (appointments).

On Thursday we had to go to Córdoba again for interviews with Presidente Alliaud (which, by the way, is pronounced All-ee-ood). My interview was really good. I´ve been feeling frustrated because I can´t understand everything and because I can´t speak. There are times in a lesson when I have an idea of what I could say, but I don´t know if we´re actually talking about what I think we are, and I don´t know if I know all the words to express my idea or experience. It´s frustrating to not be able to communicate. I´ve only been here two weeks, and I can´t expect myself to be able to do everything yet, but it´s hard. Presidente Alliaud said that the first couple months of a mission are probably the hardest because it is an adjustment. He compared it to riding a bike. He said that in the MTC, they show you the bike, tell you all of the different parts, tell you what you´re going to have to do and they give you instructions (scriptures) to help you. But, when you get in the field, you actually have to ride the bike and you never have before. It´s hard, and you fall sometimes, but you just have to get back up and keep trying. That was really helpful. He also told me that my accent was pretty good and that I already sounded like a Córdobesa.

When we got back, we had lunch at a member’s house. We helped her prepare and cook it. It was really good, but I really need to learn how to eat slower! She gave me seconds (Seconds are always bigger than your first helping.) and I could not finish it. Neither could Hermana Romeril. We were eating at a snail’s pace. Finally, Hermana Aguirre said that she was stuffed. We were sooo relieved! We waddled out of that house. That night I had a break down with my companion telling her all of the things that are hard. She was great and listened to me. Then we took a paper and on one side wrote all of the things that were hard. On the other side, we wrote all of the blessings that come because of a mission. She asked me if I was willing to give up the blessings for the things that were hard. I said no. So, we burned our papers as a sort of burnt offering to the Lord. It really helped me. Even though every day is hard, and I can´t understand everything, I know that I can keep going.

On Friday, we borrowed the elder’s bikes and rode to Los Nogales. (These other barrios aren´t close. Jesus María is big. Like two Provos big.) We had a quick lesson with Angel, because he had to go. He had his little card in his shirt pocket. It was so cute! But, he smokes, so we´re going to have to work with that. Then we went to lunch in La Colonia. That day we rode about 12 miles and I haven´t ridden 12 miles by bike before. Let´s just say I´m a little sore. :) Then we had a lesson with Ilario. On the way to his house, a woman stopped us. She said that she and her friend had seen us walking by many times and she wanted to talk with us. We, of course, were thrilled. We set up an appointment! I love it when people wave us over. Ilario wasn´t there at his house again, but it was good we went by his house!

On Saturday, we walked to Los Nogales for an appointment, but she wasn´t there. We found out later that someone had died, so it makes sense. We don´t know the whole story there yet. Then we went to a member´s house to see if he could accompany us to a lesson. We went to a reference´s house and he, Miguel, said that he had been searching for the truth! It´s strange how sometimes we go to a place for one reason and that doesn´t work out, but there is another reason we went there, we just didn´t know it beforehand. That night we decided to go contact the woman who waved us over in the market last Monday. Her name is Alicia. She opened the door and we were able to talk to her a bit about her family history (since that´s what she´s interested in). We had a little lesson on how to begin teaching (from PMG) and the whole thing was in English!!! She was an English teacher and loves English! I was so happy!!! It was so refreshing to me to be able to share the Gospel in my own language. After the lesson, Hermana Romeril was so frustrated because she couldn´t speak. She´s forgotten a lot of English, especially about the Gospel. It was kind of funny to see that in that instance, our roles had switched.

Yesterday was great. I love Sundays! It´s just full of meetings. But, our investigator Hugo attended church!!! He wants to be baptized, he just has to get married first! It was great to see him come!!!

I´m doing well. The language is coming even though I get frustrated at times. I know that the Lord is with me and He is helping me. Honestly, I couldn´t do this alone. I´m not doing it alone. Thank you for your prayers and your love. I love you all and hope that you have a magnificent week!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson