sound like a walking joke? Should be, that´s about the story of my life right now. Not even joking though, in one day of contacting ( many an appointment fell through, boo) I met an a Muslim that spoke English, a Jew that wouldn´t let us give directions to a passerby, and an Athiest family that was very nice about me being from America. Lots of religious excitement. Oh! And two LDS missionaries (us). Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!
Okay, so individual story time. So, I´m with Hermana Cariola right? Essentially she rocks my socks. She´s very patient, and VERY helpful. She´s teaching me loads, especially how to teach and how to contact people on the street. We´ve talked with more people in her one week (street contacting obviously) then in my two previous transfers...probably doubled. But it´s not scary with her. And she´s helping me do it to. But don´t worry, it´s not all a one-sided learning experience. I´ve taught her very important American phrases. Like "Just kidding!" and "Well, look at that!" You know, the important ones. Actually, it´s more like I´ll slip them in to the conversation because they come so naturally and then she asks what they mean, do you know how hard it is to explain sarcasm? Just kidding - when you say something but you don´t really mean it. Most people use it when they´ve said something mildly negative but don´t want the person to get mad....maybe you shouldn´t use it. But then I think of all the times when it´s not with something negative, and then my head explodes, I forget how complicated English is. The fun part really was when she asked me to pray in English the other day. Haven´t done that in 5 months, and it was a lot harder than expected. Which is weird, because when I write e-mails, don´t really find myself lacking in the English area. Must be because I practice my prayers so much in Spanish.
So Muslim, so we´re on our way to an appointment. It´s not a set appointment so we´re contacting along the way. We´re walking and this gentleman walks up and says "Do you speak English?" since I do, I responded, "Si, oh, I mean, yes." So he asks me directions to a street here in Buenos Aires, since I don´t know where this street is, I look for it in our handy dandy map booklet thingy and my companion starts sharing our message in her broken English. I wish I could act this out for you because it´s awesome. But she´s sharing her testimony and Amir (that´s his name) starts asking her, do you know who is the father of Jesus? HC "Dios" A "Who´s the father of Dios" HC and me "Psh, I don´t know." Amir "Me neither, no one knows. Who´s the mother of Jesus?" HC "On earth, Mary" Amir "Exactly, you don´t know anything about your religion." HC "uh, okay, we would like to share our message, and we have another testament of Jesus Christ". Amir "Okay, how about this. Do you know the Qoran (sp?) I´ll bring you two of my books, and you bring me yours and I´ll read yours okay. And then we can talk." HC and me "uh....okay." Anyways, so we get this man´s number, and later he actually calls us for directions to the church. As in, he was actually planning on coming. He ended up not because he was sick in bed, but he kindly called us to tell us this and asked us to pass by sometime in the week. He´s going to get baptized.
After the Muslim man, we´re walking and we see this Jewish man talking with a woman very animatedly. We´re all fine and dandy leaving this man alone but HE waves US over. I just want to point that out because I think it is important. So we go over, and he´s talking to this woman who clearly does not want to be there about the necessity of baptism and how she´s going to Hell, and he´s speaking rapildly and not really listening....well, to anyone really. And so we share our bit, about how there are prophets again on the earth and we have a message to share that will bless families and change lives and then the man starts talking again. While he is talking a car pulls up and asks us directions to a certain street. We try to answer but the man literally steps in front of us to block our view and won´t allow us to answer! So we say the direction of the street anyways...because he can´t block sound. Leave them both with Pamphlets of the Restoration and just walk away. I feel bad for the girl.
We continue walking to the appointment and there´s a family waiting for someone. So we go up and talk, and I get to initiate this time so I do, and afterwards they ask "so, where are you from?" *whoosh of air as I release all my tension* "the united states!" "ah, we could tell. But we understood, don´t worry." Whew, relief. Unfortunately, turns out they are aethiest. Is that how you spell it? I can´t remember, my spelling is no longer what it used to be. So, they didn´t want to set a return appointment (darn). But they were very nice. That was an interesting day.
The miracle of the week was that we have this family of investigators that loved going to church last week. So we go to pick them up again this week and they are not home. I can´t find their number in the phone so we can´t call them. So we head to the bus stop and while we´re walking they call us! Hallelujah! They ask for directions and the cross roads and say they´ll meet us at the church. Brilliant! Now we have to get there. But we missed our normal bus (it came early!) so it´s 9:25 when the next bus comes. Did I mention church starts at 9:30? Oh yeah, and sacrament meeting is first. So, we´ve got about 1/3 of the ward on our bus, and I´m panicking because we cannot miss taking the sacrament. We make it right at the end of the sacrament hymn. We all "sneak" in (with about 20 of us it´s hard to sneak anything) and sit down in the back row. But the family is there, a lot of less active members that we had contacted that week were there. Beautiful. And it came to pass, that my week as senior companion came to an end. Me being senior companion because my senior companion doesn´t know the area, the investigators, the recent converts, or the streets. We´re pretty much a walking team. Because it´s her first time being senior companion. But it´s all good. But let me tell you how excited I was for this P-day. STOKED! I already took a nap. sorry, priorities. But I love you all tons. Thank you for your prayers, please, keep it up. I always need them, but I always feel them too.
Mom - about your question of hope, faith and knowledge. I think it´s a circle. I think it always starts with hope. Because you have to want something to be true before you are willing to try it out. The faith comes when you are willing to act on your desire. In many cases it requires an action - prayer, fasting, making the phone call, whatever it be, and the end result is a knowledge of some sort. Or at least an evidence. When we can see and/or recognize the blessings of our faith, that is a level of knowledge. It´s not certain because we don´t know the exact result of our faith. We don´t know for certain that every time we pray for something we will receive exactly what we asked for. And this is in part beacuse as mortals, we don´t truly understand what is best for us. That´s where the faith comes in, that our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and is going to give us what we need. Even if we don´t recognize it. But we gain knowledge that Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers and always keeps His promises. That´s what I think anyways. The faith and knowledge cycle a lot. Especially beacuse as mortals we have a tendency to forget our knowledge, or start to doubt what really we already know. Then we need to act with faith again. Silly mortals, always needing to be reassured are we.
Love you all,
Hermana Reed
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