May 31, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigos


This week has been a rollercoaster of a week to say the least. Ready to get up close and personal and all spiritual with Hermana Harbison?, well here you go:

So when I teach our investigators (our teachers acting like investigators from their missions) I used to teach with E. Jacobsen, because I am still a solo Sister. So this Monday we were teaching our hard investigator Mario, he's hard in the sense that he has a hard heart and tends to argue with us on whatever we say. So we decided we wanted to crack him, get to know his past and why he is so argumentative. Well we did, he told us that he needed money to pay rent, he wants to go to school but he can't afford it and all these other things in his life right now. Then I explained to him that through the gospel miracles and blessing could happened and he flat out told me that miracles could not happen to him. And I started to cry because I just felt so bad for him that he didn't think that God loved him and could help him through the gospel and through faith. Yes I said I cried in the middle of a practice lesson here at the MTC. My companion (a 19 year old guy) looks at me with an expression of whoa you are really crying. Then our investigator went on and explained his past, parents leaving him and his sibilings and then moving from foster home to foster home and praying all the time and not getting the answer he wanted. Well we went on to explain to him about how people suffer but God has a plan for us. We read him some scriptures and challenged him to pray to know if he has a loving Heavenly Father with the actions found in Moroni 10:4. Well we finished and I was just so pumped because he was so much more receptive and willing after that. BUT THEN, the next day my teaching companion left to go down to the Peru MTC (he doesn't need a visa because he's only in Peru a few weeks and then goes to Ecuador). So since I didn't have a comp to teach with, I couldn't teach my investigator anymore, but instead had to teach with the other companionship in our distict. And this is how it's going to be until I leave. This was hard because I got so far with Mario in my lessons and just loved him and wanted to help him so much that it was hard to lose him and start over fresh with a "different" Mario. So then I had to teach this "new version" of Mario and get to know where these other Elders were in the sense of what they have taught him and what they want to teach him. That is a whole other story that I don't have time to type in my 30 minute email time.

Well there's my story of my investigator this week. Pretty long, but a great experience and good practice for out in the field when I might get so far with an investigator and then have to leave to go to another area. And learning how to work in a trio has been a challenge too but we're getting the hang of it!

Another story for you all: So this week Elder Rasband of the 70 came for devotional and had visitors he introduced to us before he started. He said they are going to be the Mission President (family) of the Peru Lima South Mission. He then had all of us who are going there stand up (I only saw 2 others). I was so excited that after devo we went down and talked to the family and they were so excited too! It was great and they seem like a nice family and will be getting there about a month after I will be out in the field, or so.

Thanks for reading this long story and I know that we can be blessed if we have faith and rely on Him when needed. Hope life in the real world has been treating you all great, love hearing from you all!