Evergreen Avenue : Week 27: The Most Wonderful Family!!

Hello from South America!

So much happened this week. There were lots of ups and lots of downs.. Sunday was a really rough day yet super happy too! We had SO many investigators commit to come to church.. to where we had to ask members to do splits with us to pick up everyone! Sadly each trip we were told last minute that they had work, left, have to clean their house and cook, or wouldn’t come to the door… Haha we asked a little girl if her aunt was home and she said yes and we asked her to go get her and she came back and said, “My aunt says she is not home…” Hmmm haha! So it was rough. We spent money on taxi trips that were a waste and then were late to the church ourselves… BUT, there is a happy story too! The most wonderful family DID come to church!! But I need to start from the beginning…

Life in the mission....

One day we were walking, and walking and walking, appointments falling last minute and everyone we tried to be friends with quickly turned us away saying, “I’m Catholic! But I go to the Evangelico church Wednesday if you want to come..” “So..you’re not Catholic?” “No, I’m Catholic!” Wait what? So confused. So we were walking and walking on the yellow brick road and we saw THE CUTEST puppy in the entire world so of course we stopped and pet it! There was a little girl, her brother and Dad so we asked them about their puppy, its age, breed, if it was Catholic, Evangelico, or Buddhist, etc. After all the rejection earlier I was super scared to talk to them about religion but then realized that’s a little messed up because I’m a missionary and want to tell everyone about our message.. kind of why I am 3,000 miles away.. And if you don’t open your mouth you miss opportunities..

So many I can't even!

So we started talking about how we are missionaries and have a beautiful message to share. We talked for a while and then we asked if we could share more about the Gospel with their family one day. Honestly I was expecting (sadly) some show host showing up with a microphone saying, “DENIED!!!” Well, they said YES!! (Pause looking up with the Hallelujah music in the background.) We went to teach them the next day and the entire family including their mom, who is the nicest lady I have ever met, sat and listened to us. At the end of the lesson the dad asked, “When is your church?! We will go as a whole family!” Sunday we didn’t even have to worry about them being ready or getting there! They were all there at the church 10 minutes before, with button up shirts, girls wearing their hair in braids, all lookin sharp! The father excitedly showed us that he has kept the picture of Christ that we gave him in his shirt pocket all during the week, keeping it close to his heart. Their little girl had hers too. :)

Went all the way to california for a doctors appointment for them to just tell me I need more antibiotics so we decided to make the trip worthwhile during our lunch time and get ice cream

They LOVED church! After our frustrating morning we sat next to them in the church and everything was okay. The talks were all about eternal families and Gospel Principles was about the role of fathers, mothers, and children in the family so they really enjoyed it! After church they reminded US that we are coming Tuesday at 10:00am. I am so excited to share more about the gospel with this family.. I can’t stop thinking about them! I can’t wait to see them Tuesday. Pray for them!

The rest of the week was pretty calm… We had intercambios so I went to California (the name of the sister leaders’ area) for a day, we had a doctors appointment, we witnessed a robbery, preparing for a baptism for THIS WEEK!

Sorry this is a little short.. I’ll write more next week!