Week 7: Happy 4th!

 The Good

I had a couple of really cool experiences this past week that I know I'll remember forever. The first was with a lady named Carmen Pacheco. The missionaries have been visiting with her and had a really good relationship with her. Well we have not been able to visit her as much and she seemed less than enthusiastic when we called her. Elder Medina said he thinks it is because we haven't passed by and she thinks that we don't care about her, so we decided to go without asking her first. Before knocking on the door, Elder Ruiz prayed that we would make a connection with her. During the lesson Carmen started singing a little children's song that she knew and I started singing one that my Abuelito sings and she smiled and laughed. Then later, we were talking about arroz con leche (which is basically Hispanic rice pudding but better) and there is a song that my mom used to sing about arroz con leche and I started singing it and she knew it too. These were just small things but they were answers to Elder Ruiz's prayer for sure. We have met with her 2 more times since then. 

One thing that I have loved about this week is that we finally got to do service. I have been wanting to do service the whole mission and then this week all of a sudden we had service every day except Wednesday and it was awesome. If you are a missionary, do as much service as plausible because it is a wonderful way to gain trust of the members or be seen in a positive way in the community. The Savior served those He taught, and so will I. 

We also got to walk around a park here when they were shooting fireworks on Saturday which my co.panions didn't want to do because we all thought it wouldn't really be effective. Well a lot of people said hi to us and we actually gave away a Book of Mormon to someone that said she has been wanting one but missionaries in the past have never given her one (which is very very weird because we spend our whole days looking for people that will accept one and teach them about it). I am pretty sure she was drunk at the time, but we will see what happens. 

I have one last super cool experience to share this week. So there is a man in our branch that has been inactive for 36 years and the first time I heard about him my first week, I felt some weird connection without even meeting him. Fast forward 3 weeks and I am telling my mom about him and his wife, who is Bolivian, and my mom starts realizing something. Long story short, this man was an Elder in Bolivia and lived in my mom's house about 40 years ago. He was in awe when I told him and she showed me pictures of my family he had taken. It was the craziest "coincidence", but really it is divine design. Everyone please pray for him that he will have the desire to come to church. 

The Bad

So we have been visiting (or attempting to visit) a man and his mother since I got here. We have never gotten past his door although Elder Medina told us that they taught him a couple times. We never gave up on them though because they have a love for God and the Bible, and just were weary of us because they didn't know of the peace and love that the Book of Mormon brings into people's lives. This past week we passed by again and a bit after saying bye to him and again not being let in, we get a message from him that said they didn't want us to come back because they are Christian and don't see a need. It was really sad for us, but hopefully the Lord will continue to prepare their hearts and a couple years down the road they will be ready to receive the fullness of the gospel. 

The Beautiful

Beautiful for this week has to be the rain. Yes it does actually rain here. I was surprised too. But it rained Friday night and Saturday night each time for about 15 minutes at the most, but what was beautiful about it is that the rain cooled the temperature down to about 80 which down here feels amazing! Friday and Saturday felt like a nice October day in Kentucky. The days were absolutely beautiful. 

The Funny 

We had a dinner this past week and during the dinner, we started talking about languages. Elder Medina said he doesn't like English because the pronunciation is hard for him. Then the lady that we were having dinner with said that she doesn't like English Grammar because it is all so backwards. I almost laughed because in that moment I had flashbacks to Spanish 1 freshman year when all the kids in my class were ordering their sentences every which way and complaining about how Spanish is so backwards. Perspective is whack. 

The Spiritual

One day during the week, the three of us were just talking about random things and relaxing a bit before going to bed. After a couple seconds of silence, Elder Ruiz says, "Man I miss Jesus." At first I was like what? Then I thought about it and realized that it is true. We truly lived with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. When we feel a longing to be with Jesus, we actually want to be with Him again so we just are missing Him in this life. And what's more, I know that He misses us too. That is why made a way for us to live with Him again in eternal happiness. I am so grateful for His plan and the opportunity that I have to strive every day to live with God again. 

I hope you all are doing well. I hope you all stayed safe and had a blast this past weekend.  I'd love to hear from you. I pray for you all and if you find some time in your week, send me a little update! Love you all!

The Pictures 

We finally remembered to take a picture as a district

 I don't even know...We just have fun.

 Elder Taylor, an Elder in my district, had me try this cactus fruit. Don't remember what it was called. 

The sky in Arizona is surprisingly cloudy and beautiful