Hola familia!!
So this week was super amazing! I´ll get to why in a second but to answer your questions; I love my new area! I guess it´s like a poor area but not really. It´s weird. We´ll enter houses that from the outside look super run down, the wooden fence out front is all rotted, it´s like all dirt, and you walk in and it´s not well lit and the furniture has seen better days and all that but then they have like flat screen tv's and tablets and smart phones. Really I think it´s more an issue of laziness than poverty.
The food is still good, mountains of mashed potatoes and pasta every day. But I really do miss eating healthy. Oh well, mashed potatoes isn´t even something I can complain about so it´s all good.
I really like our house too. We live by ourselves in this like condo that´s two stories and we have an actual kitchen and a washer! So we get to do our own laundry which is actually really nice.
I´m not playing the piano right now but maybe in the future!
Ok, so why this week was so amazing! My companion goes home in 3 weeks now so we put a goal to have 3 bautismos together before she leaves. This is a high goal because one of the requirements for bautismo is that they assist at the church for at least 3 times. Also we opened this area so we both came in blind, having to find all of the old investigadores and new ones too. Last Sunday all the people that told us they would come to church didn´t come which means we have to sì o sì have people come to church the next 3 weeks. So this past week we invited everyone we taught to be baptized and to come to church. We were actually able to put baptismal dates with 6 different people which was awesome! But it all came down to Sunday. So we fasted and did what any good sister missionaries know how to do. We baked snickerdoodle cookies and made cute invitations to church and took them to all our investigadores with dates on Saturday. One of the new ones we found, Veronica, told us that she would come, sì o sì, even if her husband didn´t want to come. Also a mom and daughter said they would come with a friend who´s a member. I love when the members help us out!!!!! So we were like ok so for sure we´ll have these 3. So we go Sunday morning to Veronica's to walk with her to church. And she´s not home. Her husband told us she went to the faria which is like the swap meet thing. WHAT?? So since it was right down the street, we went to the faria to see if we could find her. Wow I really hope that didn´t sound creepy or anything.... Anyway we didn´t find her and ended up having to go to church ourselves. So we were like ok it´s fine, we have Pamela and Tiare! that´s really good. And then come to find out one of our other investigadores came too! She didn´t even get cookies and she came! We weren´t even thinking of her because when we invited her she already told us she was busy. But she came!! Oh my gosh. We had 3 investigadores at church! It was seriously a milagro! Who needs cookies when we have the Lord?? Also yesterday we didn´t have any fixed lessons so we were just contacting and passing by people hoping they would let us in but of course either no one was home or they were super ocupado. So it was like almost 8pm and we´re like ok we need to have a lesson so we just stopped and said a little prayer that we would find someone that we could teach and share the gospel. Then as we kept walking we felt like we should stop and contact this one house. She was a hard catholic and wanted nothing to do with us. So we were like ok and kept walking. Then this lady came walking down the sidewalk and so we stopped and contacted her. Turns out she has a smoking addiction and has been wanting to stop for years but never as been able to. But she really wants to quit because she knows the smoking is separating her from God. It´s was awesome! Not that she has this addiction but that we could share about the word of wisdom and how Christ not only died for our sins but for our struggles and addictions and every bad thing we deal with in life. That because Christ overcame death we can overcome the things in life that hold us down. She was super moved and told us that she was with a friend and ended up walking with the friend all the way down to the corner for no reason and so now had to walk back and now she understood why she had to walk back so she could meet us... And we were like that´s so crazy because we just said a prayer and then went and stopped at this house and if we hadn´t stopped at the house we´d probably have missed her. It was like one of those things where you´re like woah, there REALLY is someone listening on the other side of our prayers. I swear Heavenly Father was probably looking down on us chuckling. From all the amazing experiences I´ve had from prayer on my mission, one thing I've come to believe is that one of the things He must enjoy most about being God is answering our prayers in the most natural but unexpected, yet perfect ways. It´s so amazing how in control of everything He is. Ah man I love it!! So we have another lesson with her this week so we´ll see what happens.
I realized that today is my 6 month mark! Can you guys believe that?? I seriously feel like I´ve been gone for like 3 weeks maybe? My first thought when I realized this was wow I haven´t worn flip flops/sandals in 6 months. I didn´t think that was possible for me, but I guess really all things are possible with the Lord haha. And then I thought that means I have to do everything I´ve done only 2 more times and then I´m done. That just about made me cry so I´m never going to think that again. I love being a missionary so much!!! I love everything about it! I love bearing my testimony of Christ to random people on the street. I love sharing scriptures with people and listening to people pray asking if the Book of Mormon is true. I love waking up everyday with so much energy to go work. I love collapsing every night after my prayer with not one ounce of energy left in my body. I´m SO HAPPY:. ALL. THE. TIME. It actually weirds me out how happy I am. But whatever, I´m a missionary. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I couldn´t do this and experience all this without you guys and I just want you to know how absolutely grateful I am for everything!!!! There´s no words to express my gratitude. But I just love you guys so much with every ounce of my heart. Just thank you. Thank you.
Ok, so why this week was so amazing! My companion goes home in 3 weeks now so we put a goal to have 3 bautismos together before she leaves. This is a high goal because one of the requirements for bautismo is that they assist at the church for at least 3 times. Also we opened this area so we both came in blind, having to find all of the old investigadores and new ones too. Last Sunday all the people that told us they would come to church didn´t come which means we have to sì o sì have people come to church the next 3 weeks. So this past week we invited everyone we taught to be baptized and to come to church. We were actually able to put baptismal dates with 6 different people which was awesome! But it all came down to Sunday. So we fasted and did what any good sister missionaries know how to do. We baked snickerdoodle cookies and made cute invitations to church and took them to all our investigadores with dates on Saturday. One of the new ones we found, Veronica, told us that she would come, sì o sì, even if her husband didn´t want to come. Also a mom and daughter said they would come with a friend who´s a member. I love when the members help us out!!!!! So we were like ok so for sure we´ll have these 3. So we go Sunday morning to Veronica's to walk with her to church. And she´s not home. Her husband told us she went to the faria which is like the swap meet thing. WHAT?? So since it was right down the street, we went to the faria to see if we could find her. Wow I really hope that didn´t sound creepy or anything.... Anyway we didn´t find her and ended up having to go to church ourselves. So we were like ok it´s fine, we have Pamela and Tiare! that´s really good. And then come to find out one of our other investigadores came too! She didn´t even get cookies and she came! We weren´t even thinking of her because when we invited her she already told us she was busy. But she came!! Oh my gosh. We had 3 investigadores at church! It was seriously a milagro! Who needs cookies when we have the Lord?? Also yesterday we didn´t have any fixed lessons so we were just contacting and passing by people hoping they would let us in but of course either no one was home or they were super ocupado. So it was like almost 8pm and we´re like ok we need to have a lesson so we just stopped and said a little prayer that we would find someone that we could teach and share the gospel. Then as we kept walking we felt like we should stop and contact this one house. She was a hard catholic and wanted nothing to do with us. So we were like ok and kept walking. Then this lady came walking down the sidewalk and so we stopped and contacted her. Turns out she has a smoking addiction and has been wanting to stop for years but never as been able to. But she really wants to quit because she knows the smoking is separating her from God. It´s was awesome! Not that she has this addiction but that we could share about the word of wisdom and how Christ not only died for our sins but for our struggles and addictions and every bad thing we deal with in life. That because Christ overcame death we can overcome the things in life that hold us down. She was super moved and told us that she was with a friend and ended up walking with the friend all the way down to the corner for no reason and so now had to walk back and now she understood why she had to walk back so she could meet us... And we were like that´s so crazy because we just said a prayer and then went and stopped at this house and if we hadn´t stopped at the house we´d probably have missed her. It was like one of those things where you´re like woah, there REALLY is someone listening on the other side of our prayers. I swear Heavenly Father was probably looking down on us chuckling. From all the amazing experiences I´ve had from prayer on my mission, one thing I've come to believe is that one of the things He must enjoy most about being God is answering our prayers in the most natural but unexpected, yet perfect ways. It´s so amazing how in control of everything He is. Ah man I love it!! So we have another lesson with her this week so we´ll see what happens.
I realized that today is my 6 month mark! Can you guys believe that?? I seriously feel like I´ve been gone for like 3 weeks maybe? My first thought when I realized this was wow I haven´t worn flip flops/sandals in 6 months. I didn´t think that was possible for me, but I guess really all things are possible with the Lord haha. And then I thought that means I have to do everything I´ve done only 2 more times and then I´m done. That just about made me cry so I´m never going to think that again. I love being a missionary so much!!! I love everything about it! I love bearing my testimony of Christ to random people on the street. I love sharing scriptures with people and listening to people pray asking if the Book of Mormon is true. I love waking up everyday with so much energy to go work. I love collapsing every night after my prayer with not one ounce of energy left in my body. I´m SO HAPPY:. ALL. THE. TIME. It actually weirds me out how happy I am. But whatever, I´m a missionary. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I couldn´t do this and experience all this without you guys and I just want you to know how absolutely grateful I am for everything!!!! There´s no words to express my gratitude. But I just love you guys so much with every ounce of my heart. Just thank you. Thank you.
I hope you guys have an awesome week and surf a lot!
con todo el amor y gratitud en mi corazón,
Hna. Evans
