HOLA!
1. So did all the repairs on your house get done? How many days did you have to spend indoors this week because of the repairs?
NO! Ugh! The guy works soooo slow! But this week his boss came over and watched him so he worked a lot faster. He will come again one day this week and let's all fast and pray that he finishes! This will be day 5 and the floor isn't even that big! I could have done it faster than he does it! We spent 2 days in the house this week... from the morning until 4 pm.
2. Did the package with the umbrella get to you yet??? Have you had any flooding in your area?
Not yet... I did get four packages from you and Gramdma for Christmas, though, and I got the Crocs! I decided to take those out and wear them and WOW! There is quite a difference with dry feet, lol. But I think that the umbrella is coming this week. The office people told me that they had received at least one more package for me. In our area it hasn't flooded yet. Only a little bit of standing water in the streets but it's not that bad. But in Puerto in the downtown area it flooded waist deep... ew.
3. Did D get baptized this weekend? How is his Mom doing?
D did get baptized this week!!! WOOHOO! The water was dirty and he had to get dunked twice, but he was baptized and he was so excited. :) I played the piano. And it was just so great! They are so pilas! The white pants we had didn't fit him so he went out and found other ones all by himself. And the whole family came to church again on Sunday to support him and they started paying tithing! They aren't even members yet and are paying tithing already. They just need to get married... but we have to have patience with them I think and it will happen. She is ready, but her husband is the one waiting on the residency to the States, but he has talked with some people and they say it's no problem, he just has to do it.
4. How is O doing? Is he still in the hospital? Were you able to visit with him again?
Yeah. We went to visit him and he's still a little sick but he's at home and doing a lot better. He is really great and reads the pamphlets and has great questions but hasn't come to church which makes me nervous... so I hope that really soon he will be able to come.
5. How is P, your new investigator?
Great! This week we had 2 citas (appointments) with her that fell through. But she came looking for us in our English classes and stayed to learn and even brought a friend! She came to church on Sunday with her little brother. We happened to pass by where she lives on Saturday and had a lesson with her family. She's just so receptive and has come to the church three times this week-- two English classes and the Sunday meetings! And she already knows some of the members and jovenes (youth).
6. What did you do for P-Day this week?
Today we went to downtown Puerto (el Centro) and I bought a nativity set!!! I wanted to find one made out of Barro... it's like a typical material here... typical in the sense of like traditional stuff. I don't know how to describe it, lol. And we found one!!!! And we found a really, really good souvenir shop... I might need more money if I'm expected to bring home souvenirs for everyone.... by the way, the nativity was 25 dollars (500 lmps). And then we went and bought fabric because I'm going to have someone make me a good black skirt. I only have one black skirt now and it's the knit high low. The other one stretched out and the pencil skirts are just hard to wear and climb mountains in, so yeah... but they are going to make me a skirt for like 10 dollars. Then we went and ate at Pizza Hut. And now we are here... We cleaned and washed clothes and studied a bit in the morning.
7. What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your prayers?
We had the most investigators that I have ever had at church yesterday! We had 9!!!! I was sooo happy! And we are finding some new pilas people which is really, really good because we really, really need more people. I think that it's my fault because we haven't been good at talking to people and I should be the example... but I'm working on it.
8. How has someone else blessed your life this week?
Well, the hermanas (sisters) from the Relief Society went out to visit menos activos (less active members) yesterday so we went on divisions to do visits and I like that they are trying to reach out to the menos activos and it makes it easier for us when other hermanas can fellowship and love them.
9. How have you served someone else this week?
I made a birthday card for Brandon this week. I think I put up a picutre of it. It's like a transforming card and I have a video of it too and it's really cute.
10. How did it go playing the piano for church yesterday? What were the hymns? Do you want me to mail you the simplified hymn book?
No, don't send the simplified book. I need to learn the hymns anyways. It went alright. I make a lot of mistakes, but at least I play and here no one plays so it's better than nothing. We sang Joy to the World, There is a Green Hill Far Away, Lead Kindly Light, and I don't know what the other one is called
11. How is Hna A doing? This week was good because we had a baptism and lots of good things happened for us... so we really weren't out a whole lot with rejection or walking and walking and appointments falling through.
12. What was the best thing that happened this week?
We had a really, really awesome experience. We had passed a house in a colonia Cieneguita a bunch of times and usually there are 2 senoras sitting outside. I have said to my companion 2 times that I wanted to contact that house. So occasionally we had walked by and they weren't there. Or they were there and we crossed the street to talk to them and other people walked up and talked to them instead. But this week only one lady was outside and I told my companion that I wanted to talk to her por fin (finally)! So we went over there and started talking to her and she was really nice. And then Hna A noticed that she had a pass-along card. So Hna A asked her about the picture of Christ that she had. So she told us that her husband had brought it to her 10 minutes earlier from the beach (they live like 2 minutes walking to the beach). She really liked it because it was of Christ. We had been to that same beach the day before (P-Day) as a bunch of missionaries. And one elder built a sandcastle and put the passalong card on top and left it there. I imagine that he didn't think anything of it. Well, this lady's husband found it and brought it to her right before we walked by. So it turns out that she thought the card was from a funeral or somthing and that the elders' names were of the people who died and the card is in English but it was funny. And she remembered things that she had seen from our church on the TV and things like that and shes was just super receptive. Unfortunately a relative fell sick in her family and she had to travel and so we are going to try and find her this week. But it was so amazing how the Lord worked to bring that passalong card to her and then guide us to her. Really there was a moment that we had to find her. We couldn't have talked to her the week before or even half an hour before. It just showed us that the Lord has His time for all things. I hope we can visit her again. But it really validated everything that we are doing and showed us that this is the Lord's work.
13. What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?
This week was pretty funny in general. Last Monday we got home at 8:30 pm and we were both really hungry for baleadas but we couldn't leave the house. So we were debating calling the elders since they owed me money so they could bring us baleadas... while we were thinking about this the other set of elders walked by our house taking their laundry to an hermana in the ward. So I got really excited and started calling to them. ELDERS! ELDERS! And my companion was saying "llameles" which is like, "call them". But I thought she was telling me to like call them as in continue to yell and scream louder. I didn't see the phone in her hand as it was dark. So I continued to yell after them and they were walking away! NO NO! ELDERS! So then they heard me and came running, hahaha, and were all concerned. "What, what happened?" and I just died laughing. It was really funny because nothing had happened and we just wanted baleadas. But I think you had to be there... in the end they went and bought us really yummy baleadas.
14. What was the spiritual highlight of your week?
Last week we had left the challenge with a few of the inactives we visit to say a prayer with a candy in their mouth like a Jolly Rancher or a mint, and say the prayer until the candy melts. And we went to verify this challenge with them and 2 of them told us that they really felt something. They felt the Spirit really strongly and were so grateful that we had asked them to do that. It was just so great so see that really they had had a spiritual experience. As they described what they felt, we were able to feel the Holy Ghost assuring us that we are doing good work here and that even if we don't have a lot of baptisms, we are helping people to develop and strengthen their relationships with God.
15. What did you learn from your personal study this week?
No answer....
16. Do you know that I love you and I miss you?
Si!
17. What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?
This week I tried atol. It's a drink that's really thick and served hot and it's made form corn. It essentially tastes like cornbread or sweet corn but in a drink. It wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good at first, but there is only so much corn that I can drink... but I finally tried it!
18. What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?
I don't know...
19. Do you still think Hna A will have changes? When are changes?
I honestly have no idea if she will have changes. But they are on the day before Thanksgiving... the 25th or something like that.
20. Have you thought about teaching English classes there in your new area?
We already are. We teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. A lady in the ward is certified to teach but she is only there half the time so sometimes we have to improvise lessons. But yeah, we have a good turnout too, 15ish!
I cant believe how fast the time has passed... WOW.
Love you all!
Hermana Gisseman
The birthday card I made
At D's baptism
Cold!
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