First
of all, I LOVE the sisters that I live with. The spirit of the house
has changed so much for the better. We got along with Hermana Ozuna and
Veras and I care for them both but I can´t even begin to describe the
difference now. There always seemed to be a division in the past and now
it´s the 4 of us as a team. Hermana Veras and Allen also used to argue
all the time so it has been nice to have Hermana Aleman with us. She is
from Guatemala, an absolute saint and the perfect companion for Herman
Allen. It has also been refreshing to live in an obedient house. We all
get up on time and do exercise and study and the things that we should
be doing. Don´t get me wrong, I love the other sisters that I lived with
but I am also very grateful for the change and absolutely love my house
now. We all cook and talk and laugh together and have been instant
friends so far.
My
little daughter in the mission, Hermana Santana, is amazing. She´s been
here a week and already knows where everyone lives (that is a HUGE
accomplishment here), their names and situations, and appears to be a
missionary of months instead of days. She has such a great spirit and a
desire to serve the Lord. She is an incredibly hard worker and we make a
great team. We have been lucky to start off as almost instant friends
and spend the day talking in Spanglish. I am excited to watch her grow
into a seasoned missionary and have no doubt that she will be training
in the near future.
This
week was full of such wonderfully spiritual experiences and tender
mercies. I have found that when you take the time to really make sure
and plan and arrange everything ahead of time you can accomplish so
much. It has been refreshing to be the one in charge of the phone and
planning because I´m kind of an organization freak. It pays off though
because we had members with us in a lesson every single day this week.
One
was with Enrique and his family. Rosa had her baby about 2 weeks ago so
we haven´t taught them for a bit, just dropped by to help out when we
can. We have been trying to have this one specific family in the ward
come with us FOREVER. They finally were able to come with us and it
couldn´t have been more perfect. Just like Enrique and Rosa, they were
not married when Frank started investigating the gospel and Magdalena
wasn´t super interested at first. They were able to share their
conversion story and testify of the blessings they have received. They
will be going through the temple in December and the spirit was so
strong during the lesson.I was ecstatic. This might just be the thing
that gets them to really progress. It makes so much more sense when a
married couple invites someone to marriage than 2 young single girls.
We
also had a great lesson with a member last night with a less active.
This member understands missionary work. He visited this family because
he is their home teacher. He drops by several times a week and came up
to us on Sunday to tell us that he had set up an appointment for Tuesday
and was wondering if we could accompany him. He had given them a
reading assignment and had the lesson prepared. When we showed up last
night we taught together as a team and he invited them to church. It
makes it so much more natural when a member of the ward or friend
invites instead of 2 young girls with tags.
We
were also able to visit Altagracia and Mariella who have been
investigators for about 3 months now with a member and her daughter who
is a year older then Mariella. They invited Mariella to come play at
their house after church this Sunday and said they´d drop by to bring
them to an activity. Again...it makes so much more sense with a mother
and daughter to fellowship a mother and daughter then 2 young girls
without children. Are you catching a pattern here? In conference they
said there are 80,000 missionaries. That´s amazing! But there´s 15
million members. It makes so much more sense for 15 million to invite
others to share in the Plan of Happiness than 80,000.
Motherhood
is going pretty well and I am learning a lot. I personally don´t like
to contact. I feel like it is a waste of time. For every 20 houses that
you knock, 10 will let you in, 5 will accept a return appointment, 1
might progress and get baptized...but chances are they will inactivate
because they don´t have a strong support in the church. That´s just my
opinion. So we try and use other ways to find people as much as possible
and ask references everywhere we go. Nevertheless, Hermana Santana
asked if we could contact on Saturday and I told her that would be fine.
We contacted for a about 3 hours, shared 3 messages with a Catholic
preacher, Evangelical preacher, and a 92 year old woman and then my cute
daughter turned to me and said, "I understand why you say this isn´t
effective. Can we get to work now?" I laughed a little bit and we headed
to an Jean and Florence´s house.
We had a member come with
us to visit them but when we got there they firmly told us to leave and
that the weren´t interested. The member walked away a little defeated
and remarked that it´s hard to be a missionary. We just laughed and said
that it happens so often everyday that you just shrug it off and move
to the next appointment. Guys, the Lord knows what He´s doing. We were
walking and felt like we should visit Clariluz and her family. We
changed direction and when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to
find Gregori there. We have been trying to have a lesson about the
temple with them for weeks now but he is never home. We had one of the
most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission and talked about eternal
marriage with this family. They said they would like to be sealed as a
family and we will be working with them to reach this goal. I don´t
think I´ve ever wanted to see something more. I have such a love for
this cute family and it has been such a privilege to watch them come
back to church.
The
church is true and the Lord is in control. He knows and loves us. Let
your friends and family know that. Help them come to this great
knowledge that you all have. I love you all! Think of me sweating when
you´re putting on your coats.
Hermana Ewell
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