Hola mi familia favorita!
So I opened up my email account and had like 40 emails! I seriously thought someone died or something but then I remembered I have a birthday coming up this week. Am I the only one who thinks 20 sounds disgustingly old?? Anyway, I want to say thank you MUCHAS to todo that me wrote!! I feel all your love and it´s so warm!! Also I received your package mom!! Thank you! The chocolate covered acai are a dream! It´s funny but when I ate them it took me right back to home and watching Honey Boo Boo and Say Yes to the Dress and Vampire Diaries! Good memories.
Also the fires in my beloved San Diego are crazy!!! Those photos you sent me are scary!!! Was anyone in the ward/we know affected??? My love and prayers are being sent for the people in San Diego. Fires are terrible. The memories of when I went to Valpo are still strong in my mind and it breaks my heart to think that that´s happening in my home now too. FUERZA!!! Remember there´s a plan and sometimes bad things happen so BETTER things can come of them. Look for the love in the ashes. It´s there.
On a more brighter note, this week has been the GREATEST WEEK of my mission so far!!!!! I think it might be an early birthday gift from God. The scripture Mat. 7:11 comes to mind that if you being bad know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does our father which is in the heavens will give good gifts to those that ask? (that´s the english translation of the spanish version but you get the picture). So if that´s the case Heavenly Father is the best gift giver EVA!
Ok so first. You know my contacts and how I need that like plunger thing to take them out since they´re hard lenses? So this plunger thing is like SUPER important, like my sight depends on it right? So yeah. I lost it. I have no clue where it is. Luckily I realized I had lost it before I put my contacts in (gift 1 from the Lord). I put my contacts in the same place every night so it couldn´t have been far. I scowered (sp?) the spot. I prayed. I searched. I prayed some more. I also decided to start a fast because that´s how important this thing is and I wasn´t finding it. I couldn´t find it that night so I went to bed with full faith I would have a dream or something that would tell me where it is and I'd find it in the morning. So I had a dream alright but it was way weird and had nothing to do with my contacts. My compañera and I spent some good time in the morning searching for this darn plunger. I'm searching and then checking in my contact pouch like every 5 minutes with the hope that Heavenly Father would make my plunger tool thing magically appear there. It was empty everytime. Praying, searching. It´s gone. I´m praying, fasting, I don´t know what more I can do, and I'm not finding it. As much as I hate to say this I started to get a little worried, not just that I wasn´t finding it, but that I wasn´t getting an answer. I know that I was probably being a little impatient too but part of me kind of hoped that as a missionary I could get like a front of the line pass for prayer responses. Nothing. So now I´m worried, what if I don´t get an answer. I promise people everyday that if they pray they´ll get a response. Is that an empty promise? So I had a few different thoughts swarming in my mind that morning.. We got permission to go to an optometrist to see if they would have something. I mean I can´t be the only person here who wears hard contacts right? Ha. The first place told me that no type of tool exists. The second knew but we´d have to go to Viña. As we were calling the place for Viña we ran into Nelson who´s a kid in our stake. We´re always running into people from the church so it wasn´t anything weird. He asks what we´re doing and we tell him and he´s like oh I wear lenses too and I know another optometrist you can try. He takes us to this little place that´s kind of hidden and I ask the optometrist there if he has something for me. He totally knows what I´m talking about, but they don´t make them anymore. AWESOME! But then he tells me you don´t need one of those, let me show you how to take them out without it. I was still a little unsure of his method but that night with faith I put in my contacts and in the morning I used his method and guess what? IT WORKED!!!!!! hahaha IT WORKED!! I got my answer! (gift 2)I just about started bawling.It was such a strong recomfirmation to all that I am doing.(gift 3) The spanish, the long days, the prayers. This is real. Answers come. And maybe they don´t come how we want. Heavenly Father in all his wisdom knew that I didn´t need my plunger thing, I needed a solution. And that´s exactly what happened. And the way the answer came was so natural. Running into Nelson was nothing crazy or weird, the fact that he wears contacts isn´t uncommon, yet it all came together. The hand of God in our lives is like that. It´s not silent but if you don´t have your spiritual lenses in you might not ever see it. I still have to shake my head when I think about how it all happened. TOO COOL!
Then yesterday my compañera and yo spoke in sacrament. My topic was hastening the work of the Lord. I feel really good about how it all went.(gift 4) I had people asking for copies of my notes so that´s always such a compliment. Anyway we had a family there that are investigators. They´re really good friends with the family of the bishop and have been assisting for a few weeks and are awesome!! But they haven´t really been interested in receiving the missionary lessons yet. Anyway during the story that I closed my talk with I felt the spirit really strongly at one point and got emotional. (That´s no surprise, I´m such a weeper). Afterward the dad of the family talked with the bishop and was like I felt something really strong during Hna. Evans' talk. I think I want to be baptized. What???????????? (gift 5). When the bishop told me this I just wanted to collapse. I just started crying. We met with them last night and taught them the plan of salvation. They´re going to pray as a family and let us know their answer on Wednesday. But again he told me that it was during my talk where he felt something really strong. And he thanked me for my testimony. I still am in disbelief at all this. I feel so humbled that the Lord would use me as an instrument like that. We´ve been praying to find a family for the past 3 months! Answers do come!!!! And the other way cool thing was that as I was giving my talk which was in spanish of course, it didn't really feel like spanish. It just felt natural. The words flowed and I was thinking about what I was saying not about translating every word. (gift 6 from the Lord). Anyway please keep the familia gallardo in your prayers these next few days! They truly are some of God´s elect.
I love being a missionary, I love seeing the gospel change people´s lives, and I love the vision the gospel of Jesus Christo gives all of us. This is a gospel of family, of answers, of LOVE. When it all comes down to it, fires and lost contact accessories, God loves us.
I love you all and hope you have a good week my sweet family!!
Con todo el amor en mi corazón,
Hermana Evans
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