Hola Mis Queridos!
This week has been nothing short of crazy.
The last five days have been some of the hardest, longest, most exhausting days of my mission, with the least results.
When we arrived here in May Valley, we were given very little instruction as to the things that they wanted us to do. In fact, next to no instruction. We were handed an area book, and told, "go pray". And so we did. We knew going into it that we were going to have to knock a lot of doors.
The area here is completely opposite of Kent. The houses are all pretty big, and really spread out across the country. Very different than back-to-back apartments.
Tuesday got off to a late start because of transfers and the "What do we do with the visa waiters fiasco." But Wednesday we woke up determined to find someone to teach.
On our way home from the library last week, we saw ONE trailer park in our area, so we decided to start there.
Score, nearly all the houses were Spanish. We knocked nearly the whole park, and no one wanted to listen. We were walking back to the car, and saw a guy leaning up against a fence. I smiled and waved, but he just looked back down at his phone. "Let's go talk to him!" So we walked up, introduced ourselves, and just like everyone else he gave us the "How in the world do you know Spanish?" We got him talking, and after a few minutes of asking him questions, he opened up completely. He told us all about his life, how hard he's been working, his family. He told us that he's been thinking a lot lately about how he needs religion and more of God in his life, we introduced him to the Book of Mormon, and then invited him to be baptized, he was really excited about it, and told us he would read that night!
We knocked a few more doors, and then found another man named Victor, he told us that he's had a really rough couple years, when we told him who we are, he said "Oh, I need more God in my life." He then told us everything about his "rough" couple years. He lost everything a couple years ago, job, car, house, money, and then his best friend was stabbed. He told us he knew that God had brought him to the lowest of the low to teach him a lesson. We told him we know that God loves him, and has a plan, we talked about repentance, faith, and we sang to him. After we sang, he was completely silent, we asked how he felt, and he said "there aren't words to describe this. It's different than anything I've ever felt. I love this feeling. Thank you for giving me this."
Guillermo (the first man we found in the trailer park), read 2 Nephi 31 that night. Then the next day called us with AWESOME questions about baptism and the Holy Ghost. He works 3 jobs, and so appointments are nearly impossible, but we've been working with him over the phone, short stop-by appointments. He is learning so quickly, and is really absorbing everything. It took him 40 minutes to say his first prayer. He said he knew we were right that Satan was working hard to make him feel that he didn't know how to pray, but we worked with him, and it was an amazing prayer, the spirit was so strong. He is so prepared!
Every day I am more and more grateful for this gospel. The power that it has to change lives is like nothing I've ever seen. The truths, hope and LOVE that we have to offer people are messengers of Jesus Christ is so powerful. It would be so easy to become discouraged day in and day out, wading through torrential rain, finding next to no one to teach, but every day is such a blessing, and I know that there's a purpose behind everything.
We're still trying to figure out why exactly they wanted to open a Spanish seccion here. As the days go on we realize more and more how very small our teaching pool is. Sometimes people that seem so interested disappear off the map, and you can never find them again. I'd be lying if I told you that this week was super successful. It's been one of the hardest of my mission. We come home each night soaked, cold, exhausted, and our numbers are pretty pathetic.
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