Secrets Are Secrets Because They're Hidden In Plain Sight

HOLA HOLA!!!!

Espero que todos estén bien y que tuvieran una muy buena semana!!! (I hope everyone is well and they had a very good week)

Wow, ok. Miracles happen. This week, we witnessed a miracle!

On Monday, after I wrote home, we went to go visit a girl who had been coming to church with her sister who is a member, but this girl isn´t. We hadn´t seen her before, but there she was. So we went to the lesson and it was going great! She was feeling the Spirit and understanding and accepting so we extended the baptismal invitation. We invited her to be baptized on the 28 of June. She accepted! Throughout this week, we taught her and prepared her for her baptism. She´d had the lessons when she was little with her family, she just didn´t get baptized. Finally, yesterday, Karen entered the waters of baptism! It was amazing!!! Beautiful! She already has a strong testimony and is finding answers from the Book of Mormon. It was amazing! Last week I was feeling down because we weren´t seeing "the fruits of our labor," but this week the Lord blessed us with a baptism!!!

Bueno, la otra parte de la semana . . . :) (Well, the other part of the week . . .)

On Tuesday we visited Jorge in the morning. We found out that he smokes. :( We´re going to help him quit though! :) Then we had lunch with the family S---------. Guess what? I got to play the violin for them! It felt so good to play again. I couldn´t play a whole lot because I didn´t have my music, but it felt really great! Then we made a contact with an old investigator. He is 15 years old and is really excited about the gospel. Then we had lunch with Dora. She´s so sweet! We had milanesa con puree (mashed potatoes). We ate so much. I felt so sick afterward but we couldn´t say no to her. She doesn´t have much and wants to give what she has. It would have been too offensive to say no.

On Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning and then we went to another side of Jesús María for lunch. We couldn´t confirm the lunch beforehand and so they didn´t think we were coming. So, we didn´t have lunch. Instead, we stopped in a kiosk on the way to our cita. In the kiosk, we started talking to the woman who worked there. She and her husband went to the Open House of the Córdoba Temple. They loved it and want to know more! Tender mercies. That night, we had a cita (appointment) with Karen, but she didn´t show. We waited for a while and she never came. We were really worried that we´d scared her off with the baptismal invitation. It turns out that she just got home from work really late that night.

On Thursday, we had weekly planning and after lunch visited the Vázquez (members for a long time, not the recent converts). I love them! From there we went contacting, but it wasn´t very successful. That night, we had a cita with Karen and we went through the baptismal questions. She already knows a lot. We didn´t get through all the questions that night, but we left the list with her so that she could ponder and have questions ready for us the next day.

Friday morning, right after studies we booked it to Vasquéz (recent converts) because we had recieved a text from the elders late the night before telling us that Mauricio got into an accident on his motorcycle. He broke his right leg, his left wrist and three fingers. He´s alright, though, and on the mend. We were really worried. After lunch, we visited Jorge in the hospital. He had his appendix taken out. He couldn´t talk much when we went, but we´re are hoping that he heals soon. After that, we contacted a reference and she told us, "Come in, come in. I´ve been waiting for you." It was great! She had to run to a doctor´s appointment, so we didn´t get to teach much, but we´re excited to teach her.

That night, we ran out of all our plans. We had no more people to go visit. So,we said a prayer right there in the street. We took two steps and Hermana Linares said that we had to go back. There was a house, pushed back from the street with only one light outside. She asked me if I thought anyone lived there and I said that we were going to find out. We went, and in this house, found a family. They appeared extremely Catholic, but they are old investigators. It was a miracle for us! After that, we had our last cita with Karen before her baptismal interview. We finished the baptismal questions and she was ready!

Saturday morning we helped the elders clean the baptismal font and everything. Then we went to lunch with the Castillo family. At the end, I shared a scripture on prayer and how we need to pray, in the name of the Son. And, if it be just, believing that we will recieve, it will be made known unto us. I talked about how the believing part can be hard sometimes. Sometimes we pray because we know it´s what we should do. But, our heart really isn´t in it. After that, the daughter shared a very sacred experience from her mission and her dad shared a personal experience too. The Spirit was so strong there. I am so thankful for the testimonies of the people here in Jesús María. It was amazing!

That night, Karen had her interview.

Sunday. Baptism of Karen. We got to church, and Karen wasn´t there. We got really worried. We got a member with a car to take us to her house. When we got there, she was just getting done getting dressed. We all hopped in the car and went to the church. After church, we had the baptisms. (The elders had a baptism as well.) It was beautiful! Karen was so happy afterward! The rest of the day we had meetings after meetings. It was good though. :)

Today, Hermana Linares made Peruvian food for the district. It was delicious!!!

Anyway, it was a great week! I hope you all are doing well as well!!!

I love you all so much!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

When You Can't See the Light at the End of the Tunnel, Turn to the Light of the World

¡¡¡¡HOLA QUERIDOS!!!!!

Wow, the weeks are flying by so fast! This week was good.

On Tuesday we tried contacting some antiguo investigadores. It´s a really good excuse to contact the people who live around them if they´re not there. We found some new potential investigators and then we had lunch with the S--------- family. They are awesome! Both of the parents served missions. Actually, they met in the mission. But they are always so willing to help us. Then we had a cita with the mother of a less active member. We talked to her for a while, and then the daughter came (the member) and we talked to her. Then the granddaughter came home and we talked to her. The granddaughter isn´t a member either. We were in the house for about an hour and a half,  just talking with different members of the family.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting in the morning and then we visited the P------- family. Only one person was home, Daniela, so we talked to her for a bit. She isn´t a member, but now, it seems, that she is interested in the church. We are excited to start teaching her! Then we went and taught Jorge. We taught the Plan of Salvation. We were scared about teaching it because we have to teach really simply. But, we did it and he understood!! We used lots of examples so that he could imagine it all. We were so happy!!! That evening, we visited the V------ family. We showed some Mormon Messages and Haydeé (the mom), wants to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!

Thursday we had weekly planning and in the afternoon, we took Emanuel with us to go contacting. We contacted one of his friends and we are going to start teaching him. The rest of the afternoon, we had no success. It was hard. It´s hard to be out in the field with no success, let alone with a member. We want them to see the best part of the work.

Friday was spectacular. We got a call late on Thursday night telling us that we were going to have interviews with Presidente Alliaud the next day. So, Friday morning we headed out to Córdoba. We were in a church there, but there was no heat. (Keep in mind that it´s winter here...) We were freezing! When it was my turn for my interview, we were in a nice, heated room. (Por lo menos.) The interview was fantastic! I love interviews with Presidente!!! He is amazing. He had just the right words to say and scriptures to share. It was great! When we got back to Jesús María, it was really late. We visited P------- and then had to go back to the pension. It was worth it though!

Saturday, there was an activity in the church for Father´s Day. But, there weren´t very many people. We had to leave to go to our lunch appointment (there were lots of people after we left...) with the V------ family. They´re great! Then we did some contacting. In the evening, all of our plans fell through, so we walked to a member´s house and asked them if they could drive us to the other side of town. (It´s about an hour´s walk.) So, we visited Jorge and he was very excited to go to church the next day.

Sunday, we went to pick up Jorge and he couldn´t come. He was sick. We were devastated.  We had no investigators in the church. Hna Linares had a huge headache, so bad that it made her sick. I made her rest for a while and then we visited Hna M---------. Hna M--------- hasn´t been in the church for a couple of weeks so we were worried. Pero, todo bien. She has a newborn and he´s been sick, so she couldn´t come to church with her sick baby and her five other kids (her husband isn´t a member either).

It was a good week. It´s hard, though, when you feel like you´re working hard and you´re not seeing the fruits of your labor. But, with time, they´ll grow. I know that. :) As my cousin always told me: Patience is a virtue, Virtue is a grace. Put them both together and you´ll get a smile on your face. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Father´s Day yesterday!!! I love you all!! Have a fantastic week!

Perseverar hasta el fin

¡Hola! ¿Cómo andan?

OK, so I don´t have my journal with me or my planner so we´ll see how it goes recounting this week. Sorry! So, it´s not going to be exactly in order.

This week, we found out that the grandmother of the V------ family passed away on Sunday night. We went over there on Wednesday to try and comfort them, but they were having a really hard time. Valeria said she didn´t know if she could do the whole ¨church thing.¨ We visited them again yesterday and Valeria said that she is not coming back to church. She said that she wants to focus on school right now. Also, Adelmo told us that he isn´t going to come back, either. He said that he only got baptized because he felt forced and he did it for his wife. That was a knife to me. I feel like I may have condemned Valeria and Adelmo. But I realized that they knew the truth when they got baptized. If they felt it and wanted to be baptized, it was their choice. I hope so. I hope that one day they´ll come back.

We also have been visiting Jorge (He´s blind, I think I´ve talked about him before.) He really wants to get baptized! He came to church yesterday and we were so thrilled!!! He has a baptismal date for the 4th of July!!! That´s right, we´re going to pary in Argentina that day too!!!

This week we visited the family F----- a few times. They are a less active family. It was really good. It was the mom´s birthday this week and we made her a card. They´ve been coming back to church, so that´s really good.

This week, we had zone meeting. On Wednesday, we went to the terminal to ride in a bus to Córdoba, but there were no buses. Not one. There was a revolt of sorts and all the buses in the providence of Córdoba stopped running. So we had to postpone until Friday. The meeting was really good and inspiring. We talked about giving one step more.

Today, we had P-day in Córdoba. We played soccer, Frisbee, cards and made tacos. Thanks to Elder Valadez (from Mexico). It was a really fun day!

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic week!!! I love you all!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

P.S. Here are the pictures I promised! Disfrútenlas!

An Open Heart

Hey y´all!!!

So, I´m sorry, I don´t have much time to write today nor much to write this week about investigators. We worked really hard this week and found 20 new investigators again! But, we have to see how they all progress.

What I do want to talk about this week is my companion.

So, the week started out and I just wanted to cry every day because I missed Hermana Romeril so much. I just wanted her back. I didn´t feel that Hermana Linares understood me or that I understood her. During the day, I would try to ask her questions, but I didn´t feel that she was very receptive or forthcoming with her answers. I felt discouraged and alone.

On Sunday, we had interviews with our district leader (Elder Barrett).

I told him how I was feeling and he tried to help. That night, Hermana Linares started telling me about her family, her life, who she is. Completely opened up. I was amazed!

In the middle of all that, Hermana Romeril called me. I was so happy to talk to her! I miss her! She told me about her life now as a Sister Training Leader and she asked about how I was doing. It was great! I felt bad, however, because Hermana Linares was just opening up. After the call, I could feel that she had closed back up again. But, luckily, she was straightforward with me.

She told me that she felt that she was trying to do her part, she was trying to open up, but she felt that I had a barrier. I had limits. I wasn´t going to let her in, let her get to know me. She said that she had done the same thing this week, closed off, and she didn´t want to do it anymore.

Wow, she was right. I had made a barrier, put up limits. I assumed that she wouldn´t understand me nor me her. I didn´t really try, and I didn´t open up. I wasn´t being me.

I apologized profusely and we stayed up late talking, getting to know each other. I felt, and still feel, terrible for having done that. I know better than that.

An open heart is the only thing that can lead to a friendship.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you what I learned this week.

Thank you all for your prayers and your love. I love you so much and hope that you have a fantastic week!!!!!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson

New Beginnings

¡Hola! ¿Cómo andan? Espero que todo esté bien.

Bueno, this week was really good. And really sad. But, I´ll get to
that in a bit.

On Tuesday, we had correlación misional and then had lunch with a
member. We had a sort of chili dish and there were beans! I haven´t
had beans for forever! That afternoon, after studies, we taught the V------ family the Plan
of Salvacion. It was good we did, because they believed in
reincarnation. But we explained that we don´t come back to earth in a
different body. When we are resurrected, we are reunited with our own
body that we had on earth. Then we visited the A----- family. They´re great! They felt bad
though, because we hadn´t visited them for a while. A----- and V------
are family. The moms are sisters. Angulo always saw us passing to
visit Vasquéz and not them. We´re going to do better. Then we visted Dora. She is the sweetest!

On Wednesday, I was sick to my stomach. I think I had eaten something
bad the day before. We don´t know what, though. We had district meeting and then I rested for some of the day.
We taught V------ some commandments and then I had to rest again. I´m doing good now though. It was just a one day thing. :)

Thursday we did some contacts and found some new investigators! After lunch, we had weekly planning. Our last weekly planning together. We had a lot of lasts this week. It was sad. In the afternoon, we visted V------ to make sure they were ready for their interviews the next day. Then we went over to A----- and helped
the daughter, Agostina, with her math homework. I missed math. It was fun!

On Friday, we did all our studies in the morning and went to lunch with the A------ family with the elders too. It was good! We got special permission to have it all together. Then we had the baptismal interviews. They all passed!!! That evening we went to A----- again for more math homework.

Saturday. 3 baptisms!!!! That morning, we helped Guillermo (who still needs to be baptized) with English. Then, our lunch appointment came and picked us up. It was really nice of them because they live so far away.Then, we got everything ready for the baptism. Haydeé, Adelmo and Valeria were baptized by Mauricio! Also, another
girl was baptized. María José, who was the elders' investigator! It was wonderful to see Mauricio baptize his family!

Saturday night we got the transfer call. Hermana Romeril left to Nueva Córdoba and is a Sister Training Leader. I am still in Jesús María with my new companion, Hermana Linares. She´s from Peru. She is about half the size as me and has a lot of energy. She has been here for 6 months. I´ll be honest, I´m terrified. Spanish 100 % of the time. I don´t know how this is going to work. Also, I have to direct the area. I miss Hermana Romeril. But, I know that this is going to be a good transfer. We´re going to make it a good transfer.

Sunday, everyone wanted to say goodbye to Hermana Romeril. Everyone loves her here. They have a right to. She´s pretty great. We spent the day saying goodbye and packing her stuff.

This morning we traveled to Córdoba where we said goodbye. She was a great trainer. Wonderful, really. I miss her.

Anyway, that´s my week! I hope that you are all doing well!!!!! Have a
fantastic week!!!

Love from,
Hermana Micaela Wilson

P.S. Sorry I don´t have a picture of me and my companion yet. Next
week, I promise!!