So I didn't tell you last week, but
after we wrote you, I took Hna Corriveau to go to a Thrity Ice Cream. Her first
time. I took a video of her eating mint chocolate chip and she was speechless.
haha. Since we do divisions in Cuernavaca, President always makes jokes about
how we are getting close to Thrifty and so I always tell him that we are
waiting for him to take us again. But we were just craving it and went on our
own. I talked to President last night to tell him that we are doing divisions
in Cuernavaca this week and AGAIN we started talking about Thrifty. He told me,
"In my celestial kingdom, there will be mint chocolate chip ice cream for
everyone!" haha. I told him that I am borrowing his idea. He's literally
the best.
Ok, let me tell you about the worst
day ever. On Tuesday morning, my companion had the double dragon. The poor
thing looked like she wanted to die. I told her to sleep and she was able to
until the district meeting. We went basically so she could get a blessing. She
still felt bad after the meeting, so we went home and she slept for like an
hour and then we left to go work. We had a good lesson with a recent convert
and his family and then left to visit Francisco and Amada. When we got to their
house, they had some visitors from another church and I felt like they weren't
going to be too amable with us so I asked if they wanted us to come back and
Francisco was like, nooo, pasenle! So we went and started getting to know them.
It was a man and his wife and daughter. We introduced ourselves, talked a
little about what we believe and what we do as missionaries, the normal
"how to begin teaching" and it was good until I asked the man if he
had any questions about what we do as missionaries or about what we believe. He
said...MUCHOS. So I told him to ask us ONE question and he said, "What
type of fruit did Eve eat?" My companion literally blurted out, "That
doesn't matter!" and he was like...YES IT DOES! IT'S THE ORIGINAL SIN and
blah blah blah. I sat up a little straighter and asked him why he thinks it
matters and he started going off about how we have the original sin and a whole
bunch of stuff that I don't remember but that made me angry. I looked at him
and said, "We are not here to contend with you. Thank you for expressing
your question and what you believe, but we know that it doesn't matter what
type of fruit Eve ate and we do not have the original sin. We are children of
God who loves us and he wants us to be happy." We gave him the plan of
salvation folleto and told him that we were going to talk to Amada. After that,
he quieted down and we had our lesson.
THEN, we got in the taxi of the taxi
driver of the devil. We started out telling him about who we were and he also
asked a really dumb question about the Bible. How old was Adam when he died? We
said...900 something years old. And he corrected us and then started ripping us
to shreds telling us that we need to know more about the Bible before we preach
and yadda yadda. I was like so done at this point. I asked him if he was a TJ
and he wouldn't answer my question, and we basically just testified and stopped
talking. The whole rest of the way he kept making rude comments and once we
arrived at the destination, we thankfully got out of the taxi and got on the
bus headed to do divisions in another area. We just looked at each other and
said, "I think the Lord is testing our patience or something because today
has been...interesting."
Even though all that happened...we
had a really great rest of the week. I've discovered that the attitude is
everything. DUH....I've been told that my whole life, but here on the mission,
it is super important to just keep on going with a good attitude. We had great
divisions with Hna. Merejo, Hna. Lopez, and Hna. Canaan and it was fun to be
with them.
ALSO....we did divisions with
PRADERA this week and GUESS WHO I SAW?!?! The Pintor family! Well, not the
whole family, but Fabiola, Edgar, Eder and Fernando. It was literally the best
day of my life. We knocked on the door and I was hiding around the corner. I
popped my head around and Eder screamed. Then I walked in the house and Fabiola
literally screamed so loud and started waving her hands around and came running
at me to give me a hug. I started crying. I thought, I don't care if mean angry
TJ taxi drivers hate me and don't appreciate what I am doing, there are people
who do.
We also visited a sister that got baptized after I left but she was a
contact that I made! We taught her a few times and then the other sisters took
over when they came from Guerrero to live with us. She got baptized and she is
progressing so well! It was amazing to see the transformation. When I was
teaching her, she was in a hard situation with her family and work, now she is
taking the classes for the self reliance program they have started here and is
just glowing. She LOVES the gospel and the church and goes every week. I felt
so grateful to see that one of the seeds that I planted grew and that Alicia is
so much happier now!
I have to tell you about Taurino. He
is the old man with arthritis that loves his "güeritas" and he is
progressing really well. We taught him the restoration and he said, "So
I've found the true church?" And we were like...yup! And he said,
"Entonces, aqui me quedo!" which means...Well, here I will stay! He's
awesome. Then, the member who gave us the reference told us a HILARIOUS STORY.
I guess the Testigos de Jehova were visiting him but stopped visiting him a
while ago. They returned for some reason but Taurino wouldn't let them in his
house. (The member sells bread in the streets so he saw this all go down.) I
guess they were kind of yelling at him for something...I think he was refusing
to pay an offering and what did he do? He grabbed his Book of Mormon and a card
of Jesus that we hand out and just put it in their faces. They got so mad and
he just said, “I'm Mormon now.” And they left. It was the ultimate "talk
to the hand" moment ever. He is so cool.
Also, this whole week we have been
working with Katya to get her married! She kept putting it off and putting it
off. We told her that it might be better if she moved out. She told us one day
that she was going to move out but then the next day she said she was going to
get married. She said they had plans to go on Friday but they didn't end up
going. We were really sad and I will admit, I was lacking in faith that she
would actually do it. We kept praying hard and on Saturday we called her and
her phone was off, so we called her mother-in-law and guess what? She told us
that THEY GOT MARRIED and....so did her OTHER son who was living with Gris,
another investigator that has wanted to get baptized for a long time but she
just hasn't been able to because her husband didn't want to get married. THEY
GOT MARRIED, TOO!!! So Katya is going to get baptized this week and Gris will
get baptized in 2 weeks! I may or may not have screamed on the phone. haha. It
was the miracle that we have been praying for. I just felt so happy that we are
seeing the fruits of our work.
We have another investigator named
Fabian. I think I have mentioned him before but he has mental issues. We were a
little worried at first but our ward mission leader is always with us in the
lessons and we have talked to his family and they told us that he isn't
dangerous or aggressive. He goes to counseling and takes medications and he is
a good person. We have been teaching him for the last several weeks after
church and he comes EVERY Sunday. We hadn't put a fecha for his baptism because
we weren't really sure how fast or slow he would progress but yesterday he
said, "I've been thinking lately that I really need to be baptized."
We had given him 3 Nephi 11 to read. We were like...we have been thinking the
same, too! We put a date for his baptism. He is really sweet. He understands
what we teach him and is so nice. Sometimes it seems like he is zoning out but
when we ask questions, he remembers. He always says really good prayers, too.
We really like Fabian.
Also, on Sunday we had the best
surprise ever. Well, it wasn't really that big of a surprise but HNA. GARCIA
CAME TO SEE ME. And I got to meet her family! They are literally the nicest
people in the world. They came by on their way to visit an old area of Hna.
Garcia. I literally love her parents. I told them that I am going to move in
when I get home. hehe. I also got to meet her grandparents, and I have been
praying to serve in their ward my whole mission and I never got the chance, but
there is always hope for next change, right? Honestly, I am so grateful for the
people I have met on my mission.
Honestly, this has been a great
week. And not because it was happy and fun all the time, but because we made it
good. We looked for the good and we were able to see miracles. Every day I am
more and more grateful for the gospel. It is so true. When we study in the
morning, we always end up with the same conclusion...if people would just
listen to us, they would know how stinking true this church is! I am so
grateful for the gospel. SO SO SO grateful. The plan of salvation is perfect. I
love knowing that our Heavenly Father really loves us with such a perfect love
and that we have the chance to become like him. All that we do and learn in the
church is designed to help us reach our potential.
I know this church is true with all
my heart. I am so grateful to be a missionary during this time. I have been so
privileged to see the Lord's hand guiding us to his prepared children. Live the
gospel, people. Just live it and love it and do all that you can to build up
the Lord's kingdom. I promise you won't regret it!
I love you all. Thank you for being
the best family ever.
Love,
Hermana Durham
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