to fully explain just exactly how I´m feeling right now. I´ve got about a billion emotions going on, one of which is that I don´t want the mission to end. Pretty much ever. Now, I know I really don´t have anything to worry about because I´m not even half way done with my mission, but I´m just starting to get really good at what I´m doing. And that´s usually when the Lord decides to tell me it´s time to change. Because as far as the record shows, when I get comfortable, He decides to push me a bit more. Not that I´m done learning here in Vicinte Lopez, but, I´ve pretty much shot up in the air my ability to do things. And I´ve just got this feeling...and since I´m a touchy feely express my emotions type of person, I felt the need to share that with you. Is anyone getting married in my family and just hasn´t told me about it? Because if that´s the change I want to know now! Tell all secrets to the missionaries, who are they going to tell? Well, you´ll at least have a week before I can tell anyone. hehe, I love secrets.
Anyways, this week has been crazy exciting. First off, we received 40 let´s say that again 40 references this week. As in, 40 people that we need to contact within 24 hours of receiving said references.....it didn´t actually happen. But we did try. What happened is this, so the CCM is in Buenos Aires, or atleast there is one here. And every Saturday the missionaries get the opportunity to go out and practice their contacting and teaching skills in real life. Which is great. So, the missionaries are taken to different areas, given limits (usually about a 6 block by 6 block area, ish) and then told to contact all day. And it´s literally all day, like 10 - 6. And all their contacts and lessons are referred to the missionaries in the area. Well, we´ve had the CCM missionaries in our area like 3 times now, so we´ve received a ton of references from them. Now it´s our job to go through all the references and see which ones actually have a desire to learn more. It´s actually kind of funny because a lot of the reports say "This person is way interested" or "Golden Investigator" and then we go to contact the person and they respond "I told those missionaries that I wanted nothing to do with your church!" Oh to be young and full of joyful faith. Hehe, mostly it just means these contacts are going to be way fun. ´We´ve already contacted a few, which makes for a mildly boring day. But we do have one family who is "animated" to listen. I look forward to our meeting next week.
Other news! We had a super fun week with one of our investigators Jean Pool. He is 16 years old and had a baptismal date for this weekend. He had his baptismal interview this Wednesday and I was so scared that he wasn´t going to show (I don´t know if I mentioned this before, but the previous weeks we had planned 3 interviews and none of them showed up, we made Elder Johnson late getting home pretty much all three times). So, we go to his house before, and he´s not there. So we´re running around, talking to all of his friends to ask where he is, when we get a phone call from Jean Pool. "Where are you at?!" "I´m at my house." "You are not! I was just there." "Well, I´m there now...." ...whatever. So we go back, he had been next door the whole time. Ugh. But we got there, and he told us that he almost didn´t go because of the rain. Seriously?? The rain? But we go to the church where Elder Johnson (district leader) is waiting for us, when I realize, there aren´t any men there to be with Elder Cortes (companion) during the interview, because for some unexplained reason, they are not having Young Men´s that night.
But what is important is that there is a soul to save. So, Jean Pool and Elder Johnson start the interview, about 10 minutes later, Elder Johnson comes out and says, we have a problem with question 4, and leaves to call the President. Question 4 asks if they´ve done a serious crime or participated in an abortion, so I´m sitting there thinking, oh crap, what did he do? Turns out he stole a soccer ball from his friend once, used it, then gave it back. This kid nearly gave me a heart attack. The good news is, he passed the interview! Score!
So, we´re getting ready for the baptism, he´s going to be baptized Saturday, at 6, we´re calling everyone. It´s been almost 4 months (?) since their last baptism, and we are all ready for everything. So we go to find Jean Pool (this is probably overly cautious but it´s also my first baptism as senior companion), and when we get there, first Jean Pool tells us he doesn´t want to get baptized because there´s a soccer game at 6. ugh. But then we get to the real problem, and he´s not feeling prepared, doubts, dudas, bleagh. We are there talking with him for 2 hours. And in the end, he didn´t get baptized. BUt we reset his baptismal date for next Saturday, and set appointments to talk to him everyday to help him feel more comfortable. We didn´t even make it to the church.
But the fun part comes Sunday morning. So, Jean Pool and his sister say they are going to go to church. We´ve asked our ward mission leader to go and pick him up and get him to go, but Ward mission leader shows up to church sin Jean Pool. What?? well, we have to take the sacrament, so we do, but after the meeting we ask one of the sisters to drive us over to Jean Pool, in church late is better then no church at all. So we get to his house, knock on the door, and he peeks out the window. "I can´t leave, I don´t have keys." Seriously??? He had left his keys in his dad´s car, his dad isn´t home anymore. I´m sitting there like, Satan! You are driving me crazy! But it´s good, we Jean Pool to pray that someone will come home with keys so he can go to church. After the prayer we get the idea to go to Raul (other investigator) that lives in the same house, and ask to borrow his keys. So we tell Jean Pool, okay, get ready, we´re going to be back in 5 minutes with the keys. We run/drive get the keys, and glory of glories Jean Pool AND his friend are ready when we get back. He ends up going to church, and I´m doing a happy dance.
The point of this story is that I am a changed missionary. No one can say that I´m not trying to do all that is within my power to help these people make the sacred covenants with their Father in Heaven. I´m doing my part. And Heavenly Father loves me. Because we found keys. Oh the simple tender mercies of the Lord.
Anyways, long story, but it´s a good one. I hope you all enjoyed this miraculous tale of adventures. The Life and Times of Hermana Reed. That´s my novel.
Thank you all for your prayers, I´m glad to hear you all are excelling in your lives as well.
Here´s a scripture that I really enjoyed this week. Think about it - Juan 4:13 pretty sure, it talks about how when we are working hard and align ourselves with the will of God, we don´t have to worry about the small stuff. Well, Jesucristo actually says that his food is doing the will of God. Essentially, it´s a little different in spanish. But, what are we doing to align ourselves with the will of God. I´ve done a lot of thinking this week about how much I´ve changed in the short time I´ve been on the mission. I have a long way to go, but I¨m changing, and in reality, I´m loving it. I love who I am, even when I´m scared to do it sometimes. God really knows what is best for us, the experiences that we need.
Love you!
Hermana Reed
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