Hola hola hola!
I know I'm a missionary, so the highlight of my week is supposed
to be something super deep and spiritual, BUT one of the highlights of the week
was definitely district meeting on Tuesday. In our district there are 2 elders
and 4 hermanas. One of the elders just started his training this transfer, and
hermana Pinkney just started her training this transfer too, so we have some
pretty young missionaries in our district. There is also a senior missionary
couple (people can go on a mission with their husband/wife once their kids are
grown up) who serve on the military base. It sounds like they don't normally
come to district meeting, but we invited them since 4 of the 6 missionaries in
the district are new this transfer, and the invitation was the best decision
ever because they brought us FOOD! But not just any food, AMERICAN FOOD! Like,
some salad thing, and scones, and chili, and brownies. Happiest day ever.
One of our investigators is named Isabel. She's older and has come
to church several times, but her husband had kidney problems and needed a
kidney replacement. We're PRETTY sure that if he gets better, she wants to join
the church--at least, that's the word that's been passed down the missionary
line, so you can never be sure how accurate it is. ANYWAY, we decided to pray
that her husband would have a healthy kidney. Then we were visiting them a few
days later, and the phone rang WHILE WE WERE THERE saying that they had a
kidney ready for her husband and he needed to go to the hospital ASAP. He was
only waiting on the kidney list (is that what it's called?) for a few weeks!
Last we've heard, he's at home recovering from his surgery. So we're excited to
see how things go for Isabel.
At the beginning of this week, we knocked on the door of someone
who just had a pin in our map, named Marisa--it didn't have any date, or
anything about her, just her name (probably the missionaries knocked on her
door and she told them to come back another day and gave them her name). When
we knocked on her door, it was pretty late--like 8:30 or 9--but not TOO late,
especially for Spain. She opened the door and told us it was too late and to
come back another day. A lot of the time people say things like that, and it
kind of means they're not interested. Well the next day we were walking down
the street and said hi to her (without recognizing her), and then she stopped
us and was like, "you were at my house yesterday!" She really WAS
interested in having us come over, and we set a cita for the next day. She's really
nice and the cita went well. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'll
read it! So hopefully we can meet with her again this week too.
This week we have been contacting EVERYONE. There aren't many
people on the streets here. So we're stopping almost everyone we pass. And it
is awesome!
On Friday, there was a baptism of an 8-year-old boy in the
American branch. The family lives pretty far from the church so they asked if
we could come early and fill up the baptismal font. We had to clean out the
font because it was super gross, and then we did our studies at the church
while we waited for it to fill up. The baptism was really sweet, and afterwards
there was--of course--MORE AMERICAN FOOD! Honestly, the food is probably the
best part of being in an American branch haha.
Part of our area is a little beach town called Rota, and we went
there to work on Saturday. We talked to some people on the street and tried to
visit some members, but no one was around. That night, we played fútbol with
the street children again--it was less cold than last week, which was
good.
Sunday was a super super busy day. We had the American branch in
the morning, and Hermana Bockova, Hermana Pinkney, and I all spoke (it was
super weird speaking in English. Hermana Bockova definitely won the Favorite
Talk award, because the entire ward loved her cute Czech accent). Then in the
Spanish ward, they had their primary program. Hermana Matsu led the music and I
played piano. And in Relief Society (the 3rd-hour Sunday School class),
Hermana Matsu and I taught the lesson! Needless to say,
after church, we decided that as missionaries we are definitely needed here.
On
Sunday night we had to go to San Fernando for another choir practice. The
concert is next Sunday, so after that we should start having actual
proselytizing time on Sunday! Also, on Sunday someone gave us a box of
12 candy canes (we're going to share them with our district) and someone else
gave us a box of Apple Jacks cereal. I didn't even like Apple Jacks before, but
just because it's American we're really excited about it haha. On the downside,
apparently American cereal boxes are taller than Spanish cereal boxes--makes
sense, Americans are taller than Spaniards--so the box doesn't fit in our
cupboard.
I was reading this week in the Book of Mormon (like always), and I
kept noticing a pattern: miracles follow faith. There was a quote from Joseph
Smith that I read that put this very simply: "Miracles are the fruits of
faith." As we increase our faith, we will increase the miracles and
blessings in our life. I would like to add that as we simply look for miracles
and the Lord's hand in our life, we will be able to see it more. I would
encourage all of you to increase your faith that God really DOES answer
prayers, and then to look for those answers to prayers and blessings in your
life-- you will see so many!
Love, Hermana Walker
Here are some pictures of our piso
Our colorful kitchen
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