Can You Believe Christmas is in 10 days !!!!!!!
This week Hermana Escobar and I worked on being better at
planning. In the past it’s been hard because we make plans to see people and
then they are never home. So this week we decided to make really good plans and
back up plans and back up for our back up. Then after planning we would say a
prayer and we would pray for each of the people individually and the specific
miracle we wanted to happen in regards to that person. The next day it was
amazing to see the miracles we asked for the night before come together. We
didn’t always get the exact thing we prayed for but often we were surprised at
the simplicity of the miracle, like someone just being home and listening to
the message we had planned for them.
I have learned a lot this week about having faith that miracles
do happen, and that a miracle isn’t only someone being raised from the dead. One
miracle was that Hermana Escobar and I stopped to answer the phone and I looked
down the street and there was a man looking at us and waving. He came closer
and Hermana Escobar told me he was a new convert that didn’t come to church
because of some health problems, he is kind of old. As we talked to him we
realized how much he needed our attention and love. We arranged for a member of
the ward to take him to church Sunday. It was a miracle to me as I watched him
walk in to church with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face.
Another miracle this week was finding some amazing new investigators.
One is an old woman Justina who is actually not new but someone we met with the
first day we were here and decided to stop seeing because her and her
daughter-in-law had heard all the lessons but still weren’t progressing and they
had started accepting lessons from a Jehovah Witness woman. They are kind of intense
and we just didn’t feel good going. Anyway, after one of our amazing planning sessions
we thought about her and decided to go the next day. When we got to her house
we both thought ummm maybe we shouldn’t go, but we said a prayer and decided to
go anyway. We showed her EL ES LA DADIVA (I feel dumb, I spelled that wrong
last week-it’s because the way I spelled it is how I always say it and Hermana
Escobar has to correct me, but it doesn’t matter because no one here knows what
that means. We always have to say dadiva significa regalo.) Anyway we showed
the video and she loved it and we had a good lesson and we invited her to be baptized
and she started talking about how she knows that her baptism before wasn’t good
and she needs to again but she never said a for sure yes but.... we went and
picked her up Sunday and she came to church!!!! It was great because we haven’t
had an investigator at church since my first Sunday. She was so into Relief Society,
she kept answering questions and things..... and also we heard a member talking
to her and she asked if she understands Spanish and she said not really, so we
think that may have been the problem in the past. She didn’t know what we were
saying!!! So we are going to take a member with us the next time we visit her
and we are going to get her committed to a date. She was smiling so big the
whole ride home and I could tell she felt The Spirit. PS: we got the president
of Roma to take us to get her in his CAR. I haven’t been in a car in forever. It
was so fun, but I found myself feeling frustrated because if we could have even
bikes we could get around so much faster. It takes us like 40 min to walk to
her house and in a car it was like 10 min.
Ugh and this week we started focusing on different
neighborhoods. We go to a different area each day and we keep finding more and
more that is a part of our area. It’s crazy how big our area is. We went to Pendty
again and we found out there is a place past it called Placido that is ours
too! So many people to teach. It’s just hard because we take so much time
getting there we don’t get to teach as much. The day we went there we only
taught two lessons and the rest of the time we were contacting and walking so
that’s why this week I just keep wanting a bike. haha But Hermana Escobar doesn’t
want to ask the president because she says she doesn’t know how to ride one.
haha I love her so much.
Oh, that’s the other thing. Last week I felt so bad because
I had a million emails and her family didn’t even write her, only her trainer’s
mom. So I was thinking maybe some of you could write her something short this
week. Just say hi. Her email is sonia.escobar at myldsmail.net.... I know she
would love it.
So anyway, this week was just another week in good old hot Paraguay.
It’s really hot now that we are into December. It also rained this week a lot
which is almost worse because after it rains it gets really hot, but for the 30
min of rain, it’s perfect.
I love the structure of the schedule of mission life. I was
thinking about it last night, I have never been so motivated in my life. I love
knowing exactly what I need to be doing when. I never feel like I am wasting
time. It’s great.
The only other major thing this week was that I was asked to
speak Sunday on our last week in the Roma 1 chapel. It was really hard for me
10 of solo me speaking Spanish. I mostly read what Hermana Escobar helped me
prepare. The amazing thing was my reading is getting so much better and my pronunciation.
After the talk lots of people said they loved my message which made me feel
good that they could even understand my message. It was about how you don’t
need to have a missionary tag to bring others to the gospel. haha One girl told
me the first week when you bore your testimony was terrible. I didn’t know what
you said at all, but today I could understand it all. I think that was a compliment
but it kind of hurt my feelings at the same time. haha They are really blunt
here some things people say to me a lot “You have gained a lot of weight
since you got here. You are getting kind of fat. Don’t you guys walk a lot?” Well,
maybe don’t feed me so much, ahah their portions here are so crazy. The members
feed us a lot which is awesome since they don’t really eat dinner here you just
have to stuff yourself at lunch and wait for breakfast. “Why are you so
sweaty??” umm because it’s hot!! “What’s that red thing on your face???” A zit.
I know I’m really sweaty, so I keep breaking out. haha I love them, though. They
ask those things because they are truly worried about your well-being. ha
Anyway, can you believe how close Christmas is!!! I am
really stoked. We got an email today saying we can call from Sunday to Christmas,
any day we want. We get 40 min and it’s skype. I don’t really know how the
skype works. I hope Hermana Escobar does... so I need to know what day is best
and what time for you .I was thinking I can call mom for 20 and dad for 20. I
don’t know which day is best for you. We don’t email next Monday. We just get
on to see what you said and then we call. So I need to know what time. That’s
really the most important part. I don’t know the time difference, so can you
figure that out?? I need mom and dad to talk and figure it all out because it
is stressing me out thinking about it. I don’t get computers and I don’t know
how it’s all going to go, so we just have to hope it all works out ok!!!
I love you all so much and can’t wait to see your
faces.
oxox
Hermana Ball
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