Everyone told me that October to December really cooled down and I might even want a sweater or be able to sleep without a fan at night. They lied. This week has been one of the hottest on my mission. It still doesn´t quite near what we felt in July and August because around 6 it cools down a bit but from 3 to 6 it is stifling hot. And for those of you that know me that means that it is REALLY hot. In a way though it´s a blessing. Here when it´s hot or rainy, nobody leaves their house (it´s kind of funny because it´s ALWAYS hot or rainy and so people just kind of never ever leave their house). Everyone here is worried about me burning my skin or us getting wet and so they let us in. The only down side to people never leaving their houses is that they never want to come to church but we´ll get to that in a minute.
Hermana Santana is awesome. I have been blessed with a wonderful daughter in the mission who is willing to work really hard. And so that´s what we do. Some days are better than others but every night when we literally fall into bed we can tell the Lord that we did absolutely everything that we could during the day. That we gave our very best. And that´s what counts.
Turns out one of the members in our ward works with Marcos and so him and his wife came with us this week to teach the family. We talked about the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, endure to the end) and the spirit was so wonderfully strong. The members bore their testimony of when they were extended a baptismal invitation and how they felt. Then Hermana Santana extended an invitation. They told us that it was still too soon (we´ve been teaching them for 4 months now) and that they didn´t feel ready to get married because they don´t know each other very well still (they have 2 kids together and have lived together for 12 years). I´m running out of ideas with this family. They are a great bunch but just don´t really want to progress. The spirit was so strong in that lesson and so we´re going to just back off for a little bit of time and see if they maybe start to miss feeling that spirit in their home. I hope it works.
One day this week we had every single appointment for the day call and cancel on us by 315. That left us with about 6 hours and zero plans. We decided to look for some less actives using the ward directory. The problem is that addresses basically don´t exist here and the directory was ancient. A lot of the addresses were things like "ask sister so and so" or "the purple house next to colmado ureña" or the city with no number or the address with no city. Practically no one has phones here either so that eliminated another way to find people. We sat down and found a street that had something like 15 less actives. This street is super long. And so we started walking. We walked for an hour and a half with no luck and decided to try and see if some investigators were home in that area. No luck. So we kept walking looking for less actives from the list. It started to rain. We kept walking. We had an appt with Jean and Florence who hadn´t canceled scheduled for 730. So we headed to their house. They told us they were too busy cooking and then proceeded to argue with the member with us about Joseph Smith. My heart sank as I realized that we won´t be able to continue teaching this family for whom I had such high hopes. They have blown off our visits for the last 3 weeks and don´t want to progress. I care about them but I felt the spirit let me know that now is not the time and I need to let go. Unfortunately. So we kept walking. Finally at 8 we were able to find one of our investigators at home. He is a new investigator named Filemon and it was a great lesson. He has come to church a few times and has a lot of questions and doubts which means that he is actually looking for truth and I like that about him. The spirit really led the lesson as we testified that we are just there to help him learn and find the things he is searching for and that we are never there to convince him. As we returned to the house after walking non stop for over 5 hours we were exhausted. My cute little companion said "We sure worked hard today! Thank you for being an example of not stopping." And somehow that made it all worth it. There is nothing more rewarding than kneeling down at night and telling the Lord "I did my best. It was hard and I´m tired but I did my best."
That seems to have become the theme of this week. Alex hasn´t come to church in a month and so my fear of baptizing a less active came true. We continue to visit him and he has such a wonderful testimony but is just choosing not to live with right now. We visited 12 less actives this week and had 6 or so committed to come to church and no one did. Aminadia told us that she really likes coming to church but needs a lot more time to decide about baptism so we postponed her date. And yet with all of the sometimes frustrating things it makes it all worth it when you can tell the Lord that you are trying your best. That you are working as hard as possible and then put the rest in His hands. I know that He knows what He is doing.
Don´t worry. I realize this email may sound a little sad. I love my mission! When we get sad in the street my comp and I sing hymns or crack jokes. We find a lot of joy in the work. We were able to go paintballing this morning and that was super fun! So even though we may not be seeing a ton of progress in our investigators I am still loving every second of being here and there is always a reason to smile.
We had one really funny experience on Sunday. We say hi to everyone we pass as we are walking in the street as a way to be friendly and try to meet people. One guy stopped us on Sunday and told me that he wanted to hear a little about the church. I thought "how cool! The Lord really does put the people ready for the gospel in our path!" We were about a block away from the church and so we offered to give him a tour. He agreed and we began walking there. As we were in the chapel I explained what we do there and about the sacrament. When I finished he asked me, "Do you walk by here?" I was a little taken aback by such a random question and asked him to repeat it to make sure I hadn´t heard wrong. Then he said "I want to walk where you walk." My heart dropped. He didn´t want to investigate the church... I guess my face must have shown something because he turned to Hermana Santana and told her to explain to me in English what he was saying haha. Luckily there was a member sitting outside and we invited him to finish the tour with us. Then as we were leaving he asked me if I was going to be on church on Sunday and for our number. We explained that we are missionaries and teach about Christ and nothing else. It was so completely awkward. We said goodbye and made a point to walk in the opposite direction of him. We turned the next street corner to see him walking toward us. We were a little creeped out and so we literally ran to the nearest members house and then stayed there for a good 20 minutes. We had a good laugh about it and now "I want to walk where you walk" has been added to the list of awkward pickup lines that I have heard here in the mission. I would love to say that it doesn´t happen very often but it does. At least we get a really good laugh out of it.
Well everyone, Heavenly Father loves us. Take time to smile and laugh! This life is absolutely amazing and I know that He wants us to find joy in the journey. Everything is about your attitude. When you realize that He loves you and has a plan for you then even the hardest of days can be bright. Hope you all are doing well at home. Find a way to give your best this week. Whatever that means for you. Work so that when you fall into bed at night you can tell Him that you did your very best. And be happy. Because that´s what this gospel/life is all about.
Love you all!
Hermana Ewell
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