Don't you think "Funes" is a really ugly name? Its a great area, but the name Funes is just really weird. Ok off topic, this week was great! Hermana Reyes and Hermana Wilkinson are STILL in our pench, which is so much fun, but our pench is teeeeeeny and we literally have no space, we run out of food constantly, and lose stuff too (but i have always been quite the loser). But they are so fun. It has just been a blast with them. And Hermana Kastigar is hilarious. we are always laughing and having a great time, and she is a rocking missionary. I hope for next transfer we can both stay together here, because I've been doing a lot of changing every transfers and i would like to just have things stay traquilo for a while.
Ok I have a pretty funny story. One morning this week we were walking to make some contacts, and we say this little boy and what looked like his grandpa walking and the little boy was throwing around a ball. In Funes on the sides of the roads are these huge ditches about 5 feet deep, and they have a lot of garbage sometimes in them. Really I don't know why there are huge ditches here. But the little boy accidentally threw his ball and it landed in the ditch. I realized this would be a great opportunity for me to help the boy out and do some service, because we are always on the look out to serve people as we are walking by. I ran over and said "don't worry ill get it for you" and the old man said "you're going to fall...." but i said "its OK! that's why I'm tall!" and i looked in the ditch where the ball was. it looked a little muddy, so i say a little thing of paper in the middle, and leaped to land on the paper. well...when i landed on the paper i sunk all the way to my knees in thick, squishy mud. I had NO idea it was a mud hole! I was stuck in the mud in this ditch, and the man walked away and left me in the ditch! I threw out the ball and then Hermana Kastigar had to try to help me out of this ditch, which took me a bit to get out of, and the mud was disgusting. it was black and sludgy and smelled literally like poop. I think it was poop. I made it out absolutely covered in thick black sludge, and the little boy threw the ball AT us, got mud on Hermana Kastigar, and then the ball fell back in the ditch. I said "OK. lets just go. I'm not getting the dumb ball again" and we left. So much for trying to do service haha. Luckily a little kiosk let me wash off a little. No good need goes unpunished haha.
So there is one other story i have, this was a neat experience with the spirit. We went to go teach this one lady, and we taught her the plan of salvation. At the end of the lesson she had a lot of great questions about why we don't baptize little children and about people who don't hear about the gospel in this life. But after we were explaining she started interrupting us and saying she believes in the same thing (which she doesn't, she is Catholic). She started saying that her baptism was exactly the same and our churches were basically the same. We asked if she knew the Book of Mormon was true, and she said "it has a lot of truths, and its really good, and anything that's good is of Christ" which is true, but she was beating around the bush basically saying that she hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon (which is fundamental). She worked in a kiosk so there were a lot of interruptions in the lesson too, and when she would leave Kastigar and i would say "what do we do???" because my patience was getting very thin with her. Side note, this morning i was praying for which Christlike attribute to focus on more, and i asked for more patience. Which i found that this day my patience was tested a lot--why does that always seem to happen? Anyways, she came back and i just prayed with all my heart to have the spirit tell me what to do. I said "Ok. We need to go, but before we go, you are going to say a prayer, and in your prayer you are going to say "i want to know if the Book of Mormon is true" and then you can say whatever else you want" I put the book in her hands and she said "do i have to pray right now? I'm really tired and annoyed and i don't want to pray" and i said "so are we. pray" haha I didn't mean to be so blunt, but my patience was thin. I bowed my head and waited, and then she finally prayed. She gave a very sincere prayer, and sure enough, she asked if it was true. I could feel the spirit so strongly and I knew in my heart it really is sacred scripture, and after her prayer we dwelled in the sensation of the spirit. Hermana Kastigar said "how do you feel right now?" and then the response of our investigator absolutely shocked us: "I smoke." she began to tell us how she started, how long she had been smoking, how much she smokes, and how she really really wants to stop. I asked her "when would you want to stop for good?" and she said "tomorrow." We told her how much we loved her and made a plan to help her stop. I don't know why but i had the weird feeling to give her my bracelet, and i did and told her when she wants to light up a cigarette, just look at the bracelet and think about our lesson. She got teary eyed, and promised to read and pray more for strength. I'm so grateful for the help of the spirit in that lesson, because it went from being terrible, to now she is really working hard to progress to improve her life. It was an amazing experience.
I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and how it has helped me make the best decisions i could make. It has helped guide and direct me to happiness. I know when we all try to come closer to Christ, inevitably our decisions are better. think that is a beautiful promise.
Hermana Collins
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