Week 8:Little Miracles

Hola hola hola!  
This has been a super long, super exhausting week. We're walking miles and miles in the sun every day and spending a lot of our time just knocking doors. We've also been constantly speaking only Spanish on the streets which adds a nice mental-exhaustion frosting to the cake of tiredness. 
BUT even though around 6pm on Saturday we were sure we were going to melt to death on an obscure Spanish street, WE SURVIVED!!!

Beds are awesome and so is a piso with air conditioning. Study time is so great and gives me a boost every morning and today is P Day! So I'm ready to go out at 7pm tonight (which is when P day ends) and start all over again. 

And all the hard things being said, although this week was very exhausting, it was also amazing and we had a lot of success and saw a lot of miracles. 

The first miracle has been our new investigator, Victor. He's from Colombia and is a physical therapist. We got to teach him twice this week (lessons one and two) and both lessons went really well. The first lesson, my water (bottle) broke all over his floor. But the next one passed without any problems haha. Just having someone to teach who consistently answers their phone and is willing to plan the next lesson ahead of time is a miracle in and of itself. And he's really looking to find the truth so that's super cool. We're excited to teach him again on Wednesday.

The next miracle was a woman named Angie who we found knocking doors in a part of our area where not much work had been done. She was so nice and asked a lot of questions that we were able to answer, like what makes our church different than other Christian churches and what the book of Mormon is about. We basically taught a super condensed version of the first lesson on her doorstep. When we were talking about Joseph Smith looking for the truth, she said 'like me!' She told us she had to talk to her husband because he has his beliefs, but we gave her our number and are hoping she will call us. If not, we'll go stop by her house again another day. 

The third miracle of this week has been a menos activa named Giovanna. We stopped by and gave a quick spiritual thought about a week and a half ago, and invited her to church. We tried to see her again a few times this week but she was never there, but Sunday night we went by again and were able to teach both her and her husband. The whole family is members but all inactive. The first time we met with her she said she hadn't been to church in years, but she told us she attended the other ward with her sister this past Sunday! And she was sharing all these good memories of family scripture study and family home evening she'd had as a girl and said how she wanted to be a good example for her kids. She and her husband were super nice again and committed to read and pray and her husband gave the closing prayer! So that was super awesome. 

Now I have a really random question. Can lemons and limes grow on the same tree? We saw a tree that really looked like it had lemons and limes... Not just green lemons and yellow lemons but lemons and limes. So is that possible?? (email Holly at holly.walker@myldsmail.net with your answers)

A day in the life of a missionary :

7:30 wake up, exercise
8:00  breakfast, shower, etc
9:30 daily planning
10 personal study
11 companionship study
12 teaching investigators, tracting, visiting less actives, etc 
2 medio día- lunch
3- 12 weeks (the program for missionaries in training, has activities to do and things) 
3:30 back out! 
9:15 language study
10:15 prepare for bed, shower, write in journal, etc
11:30 lights out
Of course, the schedule isn't exactly like that every day, like on Tuesdays we have district meeting in the morning, and Thursdays we have weekly planning for three hours. Mondays, we have p day from 9am to 7pm and Sundays we have church from 10-1. We spend a lot of our time walking from place to place so we have had a lot of time to get to know each other. Hermana Johnson eats whole apples. Like the whole thing even the seeds! You learn a lot about a person. 

This week I ate mushrooms and an olive at Lorenzo and Inma's. Never had either of those before and didn't like them much I have to say, but now I've had them. Next week we're having rabbit...that will be an experience. Kind of scared. 

When we were going to the further - away part of the area this week, we walked through this crazy park full of roosters and chickens and ducks and swans and turtles and it was kind of wild.

Also remember last week when I said a bat was lost in Hermana Johnsons room? We finally found it a few days ago... Dead on her floor. So, we're still not sure where it was hiding, we thought we looked pretty thoroughly, but it's now been thrown out the window with the other bats. And WE FINALLY GOT A NEW VENT and it's clean and white and perfect and so the bat problem is finally all taken care of. 

Today for p day we went to fed ex because Hermana Johnson wanted to mail a package. Except... Turns out the bus gets you about an hour’s walk away from the fed ex place. So, it's about 3pm and we're at 17,861 steps (7.68 miles). So, we're pretty tired. But the package got mailed, and now we don't have to feel bad about eating ice cream tonight! That being said, I don't think I'll be sending any packages during the mission.

This week I was reading in the new testament a bit and I found a verse that I really liked. It's John 16:33, which is Jesus talking, and says "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." I really liked this verse because I had never noticed before the part that says "in the world ye shall have tribulation." it acknowledges that YES, in this life we're all going to have troubles. In the mission, I'll have good days and not so good days. But we can have peace and be of good cheer if we turn to Christ and stay close to him. 

Love you all, have an awesome week, 
Hermana Walker