Hola mi familia!
This was an eventful week! I'll just start off by saying sorry I haven't really had much time to answer all your emails and questions! But hey gotta do whatcha gotta do. :) this has been a week of tender mercies and Tornados! (Well almost tornados) Monday and Tuesday were pretty rainy so it was not surprise when mid-Tuesday we got a text message from the office telling us to head inside for tornado watch, well that was super convenient because we were on walk week, my companion has a broken foot, and we were not at all close to the apartment. But despite the tornado warning and the stress or walking back a few miles home we had a great lesson with one of our investigators, who accepted a baptismal date! She is working on quitting smoking and wants to "find her own church" after the lesson with her we started walbling (I walked she hobbled) home. Then is started to get hot and I hear that's a tell tell sign of an oncoming tornado is "the calm before the storm" and heat. After about half a mile her leg started to hurt and we were just praying to make it home before the storm and the rain hit, because having a wet boot is nasty! Not two minutes later a lady pulled over and offered us a ride! We gratefully accepted. Not one minute after we got into our apartment it started to pour down rain... Buckets and buckets! I have a video I'll send, but you can't really tell. What a miracle! Really helped remind me of how blessed we are, did Heavenly Father have to wait until we got into the apartment to let it rain? He could have just let is started raining while we were in the car, but He waited for us to "get home" so there was no doubt about it that our prayer was being answered exactly. Now neither of us will forget that experience and our testimonies of prayer are that much more strengthened.
Then we had Blitz on Thursday and Friday, but we had specialized as well. I love the meetings that we have, we get learn more and they help give us instruction on how to be the most effective we can. The ride situation was a huge mess and it ended up being us two, the Monticello Elders and the Spanish STL's! It turned out to be a really fun road trip! We ended up getting lost and started to head toward Little Rock instead of Monticello from Hot Springs where the specialized training was. But just after about a half hour of going north instead of south(wouldn't really have been a problem if there were mountains here), we were back on the road! Good thing we don't plan appointments on meeting days because ain't nobody knows what's going to happen, especially when there are a bunch of missionaries piled into a van, not really sure the directions with no GPS.It turned out to be really fun especially since we stared to do some riddles and we got pretty excited as we figure them out before the smarty-pants elders, they took quite a while to get them... Hehe..
After the STL's left we realized that our phone was missing... Uh oh! So it's been interesting getting ahold of district leader and President Wakolo until we get it mailed back to us. But overall good blitz! Since Hermana Ponce is an STL now I was more excited to do blitz! I realized that from the beginning of my mission to now, I really have changed in lots of ways that weren't clear to me before I got to be back with my trainer for a day. It's crazy this mission life, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I love seeing Gods hands in people's lives is humbling. We really are nothing here on earth, sometimes our significance to the world seems microscopic, but the significance that each of us are in the heart of our God is beyond belief. Because of him in our lives we are something, and one day we will stand before him and plead our case to have Him see what we did for His plan. Did we make it harder at times? Did we help it? How are we going to respond? Would we make excuses for ourselves? Hermana Hunt (a member in Horn Lake) was one of the best member missionaries I know, when was bold and she told us that the reason she was that way is because when she stands before God and He asked us why we didn't take the opportunity to change ourselves, or help someone, or teach an intimidating person, she said that "I was scared" just isn't a valid excuse. God is the only one we should fear. The more I think about that, I realize how dumb society is. I will forever be grateful for this 18 months I get to escape society and have a clear mind to focus my efforts on something eternally important. Thank you Hermana Hunt for helping me understand that fear is not a fruit of Godliness, and I am also learning that never is Awkward.. Satan is the one who makes us feel that way. Telling myself that "I'm awkward" is like saying "I'm just a liar" it shows that I am giving up and just accepting myself as a sinner. But I want to be a "Saint; or a Sinner who keeps trying."
Thanks for all the love and support and everybody have a yummy THANKSgiving and be grateful for the Atonement that has to power to better us daily.
Love,
