Yo! This is Hermana Springer and Hermana Pattillo coming to you live from Peru! Well half alive.. Henry the Rooster made sure to wake us up extra early this morning… If I had a gun Henry would already gotten his transfer call to the next life... But I’m a missionary. Can’t really go around killing roosters while also trying to teach people the 10 Commandments and how “Thou Shalt love thy neighbor…an thou shalt not kill…”
This week was insane. First thing I have to say is we sure do have an even greater appreciation for all that the APs do.. We worked together a lot this week as a team with our investigators! We had 2 marriages this Saturday so the entire week consisted of running back and forth finding documents, scheduling doctor’s appointments, and helping our investigators stay motivated and excited! So many weddings fall through because Satan always works his hardest on families coming together.. One of the hardest struggles has been teaching families who have that roadblock of just the marriage certificate between them and baptism. Nobody likes to get married here! We are not forcing them into marriage.. but we help explain the blessings that come with doing so, so that they can be baptized and then in the future be sealed in the Temple! We want to bring them home to the temple. The two families that were married are our miracle families.. They are incredible! There is no possible way to write in an email how much they mean to us. One of the families the missionaries have tried to teach would never set foot in a church.. The mother even would always say how the Church ruins families and that, “It’s better to have a single daughter forever than a married daughter.” Her daughter has now been married and baptized and the mother was married Saturday!
The change in their entire family has been remarkable. They
even come to church! And now they are working towards baptism! They just have
this wonderful light now.. you can see it. It just shows how when you put
Christ as the center of your home you are happier. And “A happy home is but an
earlier Heaven.”
I am so excited to watch them continually grow stronger as a
family.. This is just the beginning! I hope I can also always stay a part of
their lives.. Who knows maybe I will have to just come straight back to Peru
after I get hom to see some sealings in the Trujillo Temple! Y’all are invited.
Anyways, so that was what we were up to most of the week..
Playing wedding planner, missionary, APs (asistencias). We even felt like secret agents half the time too haha! There was one night where we HAD to get the legal documents and IDs of the people getting married THAT NIGHT and we never go into a certain area that late because it is dangerous (we just go to the other side of town during that time usually). So we had to get a taxi because it was too dangerous to be walking, and we told the taxi driver to wait, put our hoods up covering our face and hair and booked it to the house. Probably looked more like a drug deal.. But really we are just bringing people to the Celestial Kingdom!
When we got back to the taxi we saw that the taxi driver was outside his car pacing and was extremely worried about us hahaha.. The whole drive back we got a big long lecture how it is not safe and how he was worried.. We tried to explain to him maybe a billion times that we had permission. We also invited him to church.. He just thought we were crazy gringas.
Ok back to the wedding craziness. There are so many perks of sharing a ward with the President’s assistants. At one point one of the families couldn’t find their birth certificate and the assistants were able to find it and save the day! It was in another city in Peru.. Long story. We felt pretty cool running errands for them all week.. We loved the stress level!
When we got back to the taxi we saw that the taxi driver was outside his car pacing and was extremely worried about us hahaha.. The whole drive back we got a big long lecture how it is not safe and how he was worried.. We tried to explain to him maybe a billion times that we had permission. We also invited him to church.. He just thought we were crazy gringas.
Ok back to the wedding craziness. There are so many perks of sharing a ward with the President’s assistants. At one point one of the families couldn’t find their birth certificate and the assistants were able to find it and save the day! It was in another city in Peru.. Long story. We felt pretty cool running errands for them all week.. We loved the stress level!
Finally the hard work paid off and we had a wedding
Saturday! Woohoo! Yeah really it’s just signing a paper.. But you should have
seen their faces. They were so happy! It went from 3 to 7:30 because a lot of couples
got married as well.. There were so many missionaries! After it was all over we
drove back with the newlywed fam in a taxi.. After a while I realized how weird
it kind of was that we got in the car with
people just married because that’s not usually how it goes.. Just kind of
sat there thinking, “Well this is a very interesting situation!” (Quote from “It’s
a Wonderful Life” hahaha.) The first.. and last time that will ever happen..
Haha so weird. There was a huge party for them at the church after.. Peruvians
know how to party! We had to leave though.. no dancing.. one day hahaha. I’ll
have to show you all the Peruvian music they listen to here. It’s awesome.
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Blurry.. But they were so happy! |
I’ll end with our Sunday. Sunday we went to go pick up our
investigator L.! We got to her door and she told us she was extremely busy
with costumes (she is the most amazing seamstress I have ever met) because next
week is a Peruvian holiday so she had a lot of costumes to sew. We said, “Oh!
Do you need help?” She said no because we had church. We responded that we had
30 minutes and then she responded that she had to fold stuff.. We said we LOVED
to fold.. It continued like that with her telling us what needed to be done and
each time we responded with, “oh we love to sew.. We fold clothes all the
time.. My companion Hermana Pattillo LOVES to iron..” (Got a glare from
Pattillo for that one hehe.) She finally let us in and we helped her organize,
fold, iron, etc. Then she handed me a needle and thread and a jacket… I
realized she thought I was serious that I could sew. I ended up sewing a button
and then realized I sewed it in the wrong place. . Yeah my sewing days began
and ended in the 8th grade. I’ve accepted that I will never be a
crafty mom haha. I got out of sewing because then it was time to leave! She
came to church! T. also came and one other investigator named S.! It
was a great Sunday. T. is getting baptized this Saturday! Keep him in
your prayers!
Ok I have to add a funny story that happened Sunday because
Hermana Pattillo and I are still cracking up about it haha! Sunday night we
went over to the church to meet up with a member to come with us for a lesson
with our investigator. She was running a little late so we sat on the ground
and waited. I started singing the song, “Homeless.. Like the Christ Child was..”
all teasingly and we started laughing saying people probably thought we were
homeless. THEN this lady came up to us randomly with a very concerned face and
asked if we were indeed homeless.. We hurried and stood up realizing, “Shoot..
people REALLY do think that?!” We started explaining all excitedly that we were
missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We asked what
her name was and she said back to us that she had a place to stay for us. We explained
AGAIN that we were perfectly fine… She continued by asking if we needed food…
then a jacket. We told her no and that we were missionaries, have food, have a
place to stay, and would love to share a message with her. She nodded and said,
“I can write down a place for you to stay.” At this point Hermana Pattillo and
I were worried a little.. asking each other, “Yo, do I look homeless?” “No..
But here’s my brush, brush your hair!” We asked her if we could share a message
with her and she said yes so we asked for her address. Then she wrote down and
address and gave it to us…of a homeless shelter. So we tried to share our
testimonies but we are pretty sure she still thought we were homeless..
Obviously learned our lesson that you should never really sit as a missionary
haha.. Our friend came only a few minutes after we sat down.. But it still was
enough time to convince someone we were homeless.
This week I read the talk, “But If Not..” by Elder Dennis E.
Simmons! I loved reading it. Especially this week as I am away from Grandpa not
knowing what is going on. I know I got maybe a billion emails saying not to
worry… But he is my family so of course I will worry.. But I will also continue
to work hard to share the Gospel that he loves so much. This talk helped me
during the week to remember that I need to trust in the Lord and remember that
He is watching over my family.. He is THE greatest physician and comforter..
And even if things don’t turn out the way we hoped, “Faith is more than mental
assent, more than an acknowledgement that God lives. Faith is total trust in
Him.” I also thought of this quote I once saw that said that we should never be
afraid to trust the unknown future to a known
God.
I hope you guys have a great week! I love you!
“I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun, not because
I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.” –C.S. Lewis
Hermana Springer (Flaboomba)
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