Hello everyone!!!!
We've had another great week here in Texas (still can't believe I wound up in Texas....). I love it here. We are right on the border of Mexico so most of the people we meet came from Mexico. It's awesome. Everyone has cool stories and an awesome culture.
What we get a new president tomorrow??? I'm out of the loop. When people bring up politics I just say "Don't worry, my uncle is a congressman so we will be fine." Haha....I think I just confuse people more than anything when I say that, but it makes me smile. #shoutouttoraul
Life in El Paso is awesome. It's not too hot right now because we are getting closer to winter, and the food is really great. I really love it here...the only thing I really miss is music. Every week we do service at a food bank where they play normal music, so that's a tender mercy. Oh and they also play music at our apartment gym! Side note- we have to split the gym time with the elders but for some reason they get 4 of the 6 days and we only get 2. The feminist in me gets really ticked off about that....the normal person in me doesn't really care....and the Christian in me says "They steal one of your gym days, give them two of your days." I guess I'm not a real missionary yet cause I think the feminist in me is still winning.
This week started out pretty rough...we had a tragedy with one of the people we teach and it really shook us up. But no worries we are back on track! We focused on weeding out our investigators who aren't progressing and finding new people to teach. It was really hard to say goodbye to people, but once we did the Lord blessed us with SIX NEW PEOPLE! And they are all totally prepared and ready. My favorite finding experience this week was when Hermana Thompson and I were praying to find someone who was prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel. We felt prompted to go to a specific street. We parked the car and got out and just stood there. We looked at each other with blank faces...."which house?"..."I don't know".... none of the houses were right. So we started walking and walked right into a man walking his dog. He was so excited to meet us and invited us back to meet his wife and son the next day! We met with them last night and we couldn't get through the first two points in lesson 1 because the whole time the wife and husband were, for lack of a better word, rejoicing that servants of the Lord were in their house. Seriously these people kept cutting us off and freaking about our work as missionaries. They kept yelling at their 17 year old son (poor kid) that we are his examples and he needs to be better. The mom kept telling us to tell him not to drink or do drugs. Then she asked us our ages. She said to her son "you will marry one of them or someone like them." This poor kid has no agency! HAH! It was so awesome...they seriously are so prepared. They have faith in the Bible so we explained that our church is the same Church of Christ from the Bible with the same authority of Jesus Christ on the earth today. That sealed the deal! Our member present invited them to church and other activities and they happily accepted.
We knocked on some awesome doors this week. Every person we talked to came out their houses happy and relieved to see us. We had a guy invite us back because "he really needs to talk to people like Jesus" and another guy invite us back because he knows that "God has more for him". Actually, that same guy was my favorite contact this week. He told us that he reads the Bible and feels that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost have to be different people. YES! And that God is merciful, so why would he send people to infierno (hell). YES! And that God doesn't want him to sleep around and drink because we can't just 'accept Jesus' and then keep sinning. YES YES YES. His favorite parts of the Bible are the teachings of Jesus. We showed him the Book of Mormon and explained that Christ visited the people in America, too. He said he can't wait to read it! Seriously this 20 year old kid was so excited to get his own copy of the Book of Mormon and read about Jesus Christ. How cool is that?
I know that the Lord is preparing people to receive the Gospel. It is amazing to see His hand leading us to people every day!
I also had some embarrassing moments...shocking I know. The worst was one night we were trying to find a former investigator. We got to the house and the street was really dark but the door of the house was wide open and there were lights and noise blaring from the house. We figured out that the were watching the Cubs play...sounded like a real party. Hermana T and I stood on the sidewalk for a minute contemplating what we should do. Finally...classic me....I say "Let's go!". I started marching up to the door with way too much enthusiasm, hrn. T way behind me by now, and I literally step into the house and knock on the wide open door. Basically it was just a few 20 something mexicanas sitting around with beers in their hands watching the game. So I say (way to loud and excited) "HOLA! COMO ESTA LA JUNTA?!" They all looked at me so confused. Saying nothing. Just me...crazy white girl inside the house of a bunch of drunk mexicanas...My companion quickly said something to them and they weren't interested so we walked out. Hermana Thompson asked me, "Hermana, what was that word you said?"
Me, "la junta!"
Hrn T. "That means MEETING.....I think you just walked into someones house and shouted 'Hey how's the meeting?'"
Me (dying laughing) "ohhh I meant JUGO!"
Hrn. T. "That means juice....did you mean juego (sport)."
Me "yep"
Anyway....sorry if nobody gets how funny that was. Just trust me....it was a highlight.
Basically this week has been amazing. I have come to love the gospel more and more each day. I especially am growing my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is SO powerful. All of the answers to our spiritual and temporal questions are found in that book. The words are literally from God sent to us. I want to invite everyone who hasn't read it, or who has read it but hasn't prayed about it sincerely to give it a try. All we are asked to do is to try it for ourselves, and if we do read and pray with a sincere heart then God will show us all the things that we must do.
Love you all so much!!! Thanks for keeping me updated on everything back in Idaho. So fun to hear about all of the horse back riding adventures etc. Someone give my horse a hug for me!
Hermana Johsnon
