Feb 18, 2013

NOTE: last week there was no letter.  Abby and her companion were invited to the mission home for a BBQ with the President of the mission and his wife. The BBQ was a celebration of reaching some goals.

Hi! This week was awesome!! It all started with EVERYONE rejecting us, hahah. I have never been rejected like I have been here in Caballito! (it´s not a sad missionary letter...keep reading!!)

It was hard the first few weeks but I´ve finally gotten used to it now! During the week one day we were waiting to meet up with a member and he was running late so we had about 10 minutes. Not enough time to go have an appointment so I looked at the nice big air conditioned church and thought ´´should we wait inside?´´ and then realized that its the mission...we don’t ever ´´WAIT¨´ we work!  So we decided to go to the park really close to the church and talk with someone. 

For the first time in my life the park was EMPTY! So we looked around for someone until we saw a girl about 14 years old carrying a really heavy bag. We left the park and found this girl and as we were approaching I said to my companion half joking half serious ´´this girls life is about to change eternally and she has no idea!´´  Well we invited her to church and helped her carry the bag. Turns out she lives right next door to the church. They share a fence. (how has she not been found yet??).  She said ´´yeah if we have time well go to church´´ not too promising. Our member came, and we left. That happened on Wednesday or Thursday. Honestly I had kind of forgotten about her until Saturday....

Every week in the Sunday page of my planner I write a list of all the people were expecting at church that Sunday, and for THE FIRST TIME in my mission there wasn’t a single person on the list (this was Saturday morning).  FROM THE WHOLE WEEK NOT ONE PERSON HAD COMMITED TO COME TO CHURCH.  And all of our investigators were not progressing so we had to drop them!  I KNEW that I COULDN¨T go to church with out investigators.  So before we left the house to go work Saturday morning I knelt down and said a prayer…One of the most sincere prayers of my whole mission. I begged Heavenly Father for 5 people at church (the standard of excellence in this mission) and for married families and men that are prepared.  Well, we went out and worked the whole day. And once again EVERYONE REJECTED US.

We have to be in the house at 9pm and at this point it was 8pm. We had 1 hour. Our member told us he was bored and that he is going home...(THATS HOW BAD IT WAS!) and we had already completed all of our plans. So I looked at my companion and she said ´´I KNOW, LETS GO TO THAT GIRL THE LIVES NEXT DOOR TO THE CHURCH´´. Well, we got there and a family answered the door. The dad was wearing a Michigan shirt, so instantly I fell in love with this family! (they had no idea what Michigan is).  We gave them books of Mormon invited them to church and shared a few principles of the restoration. They all committed to come to church. We went Sunday in the morning to get them and they were waiting for us, ready... and they all CAME to church. And on top of it all, with out us saying anything all the girls had skirts and the men wore collared shirts (that never happens). They participated in the classes, the mom and dad read like 8 chapters of the BOM on Saturday night and said they want to attend church every Sunday!

We had 6 at church and it was a MIRACLE. HOW BLESSED ARE WE?? I wish I had time to share all the awesome details of that story because this family is soooooo special, but I don´t. I learned a ton this week. I love the mission.
Well, love you guys!! xox