It has been quite the week! As always it feels more like 3 days than 7 but here we are again. This week we were able to have 2 ward activities and help out with them. The first was an activity for couples and we were supposed to be the servers and I was going to sing love songs for everyone. Dominicans are NEVER on time for ANYTHING. This activity was supposed to start at 7. We went and helped set up and then waited...and waited...and at 9 people started to show up. We stayed until 9:30 to help get things started and then needed to leave. I was able to sing a couple of love songs for everyone that I had translated from English into Spanish and it was a good start. But it never ceases to amaze me just how late people can be for something.
The other activity was a mission activity that the 6 of us missionaries had planned in the ward. On Wednesday night we had ward council and I was elected as the lucky missionary to give a "boche con amor" or basically a loving lecture. So I talked to the leaders of the ward about the importance of sharing the gospel with others and allowing them to have the Savior in their life. We shared our goals as missionaries and said once more that we can´t accomplish anything without their help. As leaders we needed them to share the love of the Savior and welcome others home. I felt a little direct but afterwards the other missionaries assured me that it was well balanced. After this...we´ve had a lot more support from the ward. Our activity on Saturday had almost 50 people there! With members and investigators and the bishop and relief society president even came. We had a message about family to open and Elder Grover and I sang Love is Spoken Here. It was really pretty. Then we played games with the members and our investigators. We did 3 legged races and fruit basket and many more. It was so much fun! Quite the success.
Some other adventures this week...we defrosted our refrigerator yesterday. We have so many power surges here that things will melt and then refreeze in places where they shouldn´t be and we had a TON of ice to get rid of. So my companion simply emptied the fridge and left it open and turned off. Naturally after a few hours our house was covered in water from the fridge. But that´s how the Dominicans do stuff. Everything is tile so we just swept all the water out the door down the stairs of our apartment building. There was enough water to spread around to every room and mop as well. I found it super entertaining and this explanation can´t even begin to do it justice. It was just so Dominican.
We also had a large protest outside our apartment yesterday morning. We stepped out on the patio to see what was happening because we had heard a ton of people yelling outside during study. All of the ruta drivers were throwing things and yelling and the 4 lane street was completely blocked by cars with TONS of people. My companion explained that this happens when gas prices go up and the drivers simply refuse to drive. The police were there with guns and stuff. We didn´t stay out long so I´m not really sure what ended up happening. But we stayed in the house until things had died down and we felt good leaving.
Alex continues to be the golden investigator. We stopped by his house a few days ago with the restoration video because now we´re just kind of reviewing things and seeing if he has any questions before baptism. We watched the restoration and then he asked if we had any other videos to watch about Joseph Smith. The disc we had has a lot of them because it´s a church history thing. We stayed for another 45 minutes watching videos about church history and answering his questions and then he asked if it would be alright if he borrowed the disc to keep studying on his own! If only everyone were this prepared by the Lord. It is so refreshing to see someone actually excited about the message that we have.
The majority of our appointments are the exact opposite of Alex. We taught one girl the first vision and before we could explain the restoration she promptly agreed that no churches were correct. haha. That was a little awkward situation. We had a visit with people that told us that the only reason we believed in this was because of our parents and that there is no way we can change the views of another person so we should just stop trying. We visited another guy who has been reading the Book of Mormon and he asked us for scientific proof of the book. Hermana Ozuna replied ¿If you had proof would you even believe that this book is inspired scripture? and he told us no. In every situation we just took the opportunity to bear our testimony and in every instance the spirit came to the room and they could not argue more. These were some moments very special to me that even in the midst of this opposition and people that probably will not accept this message right now, that we could have the spirit there with us and if nothing else have my own testimony strengthened as I shared it. In the lesson with the Book of Mormon the testimony I bore was so strong and eloquent that I know that some of the words were not my own. Afterward he simply said, that was powerful. And then we finished with a prayer. If I have learned anything on this mission it is that the spirit really does guide us and my Father in Heaven really is walking every step of my mission with me like I was promised.
This week we were able to have a special zone conference. Basically it was because we are trailing in numbers behind everyone else but they handled it really well and instead of giving us a lecture about things we talked about the Savior for 2 hours and why we are doing what we are doing. I sang I Stand All Amazed and the spirit was really strong. After this, our goal as a companionship has been to share the message of the atonement again with every single one of our investigators. The spirit has been so much stronger and I have been really grateful for the opportunity to remember once more why I am here. Why this work is important. The Savior really does love each and every one of us. He knows us. His arms are always open. I am so grateful and humbled to be a representative of Him. I testify to you all that He is real. He lives and because He lives we can too. No matter what we´ve done, where we´ve been, we can turn and come to Him. Always. He understands all pain, suffering, joy, grief, excitement, and any other thing we will ever feel in this life.
I love my mission! The church is true! The Savior loves each and every one of you and you are NEVER outside of His grasp.
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