Hi Family!
I am so glad this week is over,
not because it was particularly bad or anything, but because the first
week of every transfer is always awkward, stressful, and challenging. Monday was
busy with cleaning, organizing, rearranging, and helping Hermana Stepp get
settled in. We had to say goodbye to Hermana Burgos, who got transfered to
Oviedo in the north, and that was really sad. She's incredible and was there for
me last transfer when I needed cheering up.
Hermana Stepp is very sweet.
Every morning she makes my bed for me while I'm in the bathroom brushing
my teeth, and on days when I don't have time, she surprises me with an omlet.
We've been out the exact same time, except I have more time in the field. She
visawaited in the Idaho Pocatello Mission until she came here in March which is
cool because she knows some of the elders from my MTC
district!
The highlights from Tuesday are seeing Mari and José, two new
investigators, and Hermana Stepp finding me. While we were sitting on the temple
steps waiting for an appointment to show up, someone came up from behind me and
covered my eyes. I turned around and it was Mari from Leganés! I was so happy to
see her and she said Evelyn talks about me all the time. Mari has a calling and
José had just had his interview to receive the Melchizedec (not sure if that's
how you spell it, I've been spelling it in Spanish for awhile...) priesthood.
It's so awesome to hear how well their family is progressing. Later that evening
we had a lesson with Marco and Iván. I had called Marco's home phone to remind
him about the lesson, but Iván answered so I just invited him to come as well!
They both showed up and we had a really good lesson.
At some point during the day we were contacting in the metro.
We were in the same metro car, but in different spots so that we could be more
efficient contacting, but I told Hermana Stepp that we were going to get off in
Estrella. Well the Estrella stop came up and I got off, but I noticed as I was
walking out, that she wasn't getting off too. I watched the metro go by and
didn't see her anywhere! I've made it 9 months without being separated from my
companion so I was a little nervous. I went up the stairs and out of the metro
station and just hoped and prayed that she'd somehow find me. Not even ten
minutes later I saw her coming out of the station. The Spirit had led her back
to me :)
Wednesday I hit 9 months! It should be my halfway mark, but
since I'm only serving 17 months and 1 week, my halfway mark was last month. I
come home 8 months from tomorrow. During personal study, Hermana Hansen and
Hermana Smith came in with French toast and sang ''Feliz Cumplemes'' to us.
They're pretty dang cute. The rest of the day was good. We had a lesson with
Oscar and then did some contacting in the park. My favorite African David bought
us some strawberry popsicles for our cumplemes and then we ended the night at
the chapel for an activity.
Thursday I woke up sick (I've never been as sick as I have
these last 9 months I've been on my mission), but Hermana Smith drugged me up
and took care of me. After studies, weekly planning, and mediodia, we had a
lesson with Hortensia. And it went greeeeaaaaat because she told us that things
with her daughter are improving! She said her daughter bought her a pair of
shoes, wrote her a sweet poem, and has been helping out around the house. It's
amazing what multiple people praying for one purpose can do. After Hortensia, we
had a lesson with Marco and then he ended up coming to Noche de Hogar. Hermana
Stepp gave the spiritual thought, and then we taught them all how to play
hangman. It was pretty fun. After the Noche de Hogar, Elder Pizarro and Elder
Castaldi gave me a blessing. I'm so grateful to be serve with elders who are
worthy of and honor their priesthood.
Friday morning we had a lesson with Eloy. We stressed the importance of faith as a
principle of action and that faith leads us to make changes, sacrifices, and
goals that bring us closer to God. We recommitted him to being baptized on July
6th and he knows that if he wants to make that happen, he needs to start making
church on Sundays a priority. That afternoon we had a lesson with Antony. He's
20, so we brought along Arturo and Bianca who are his age and who knew him
before when the elders were teaching him. We were going to watch a movie, but
his laptop wouldn't accept the DVD, so we each shared with him our favorite
scripture and testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The other
appointments we had that day failed us, but at 8 we went to meet this girl
Raysa. Her dad had been taught by the elders like 6 months ago, but she'd never
listened very much. It was awesome meeting her and we're seeing her again on
Tuesday.
Saturday morning we had English class. We taught them some
tongue twisters. My favorite was when we did ''fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy
wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy was he'' because this guy
Carlos turned it into a rap and it was hilaaaarious. Then I picked up my package
from the B8 hermanas! I love mail sooooooo much. And I just considered that my 9
month package. It was a very nice surprise. Thank you! We got a call from Sergio
and he goes, ''Hey hermanas, what time is your lesson with Eliesque?'' I told
him it was at 5 and he said, ''Okay, I'll meet you at the church at 5 then. See
you later!'' Sergio is the man. I told him a week ago that we had a lesson with
this dude, and then he just called and said he wanted to come! I love that guy.
Eliesque ended up failing us, but it was super nice of Sergio to offer to
come!
Yesterday was good. Oscar and Eloy both came to church! The
ward has been 150% better about talking to our investigators when we bring them
to church and I'm really happy about it. I took a bomb nap during mediodia and
then we had a lesson with Vic. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and then
she brought up baptism. I told her that her
Heavenly Father has a ton of blessings prepared for her, and a lot of those will
only come from being baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ. We invited her
to pray about it because really it's between her and God and we don't want to
make her do anything. Hermana Stepp made a good point that it's our
responsibility as missionaries to make sure she knows the truth and help her
understand it and that the way she'll know what's the right thing for her to do
is to pray. We only see her once a week so I'm hoping after a week of praying
about it, she'll feel more sure of what she needs to do.
I'm happy. I love being a missionary. I like it so much. It
is the hardest thing I've ever done and I've felt
frustrated/discouraged/sad/angry/homesick and like I wanted to give up and
times, but I wouldn't trade the last 9 months for anything.
Love,
Hermana Munden
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