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| Family Home Evenings + maple soda + cupcakes=the happiest night probably of my life. This sweet family is the Ramirez family-they're in one of the English wards that meets in our building, but they used to attend the Spanish Ward. Their Bishop asked if we could visit them and we were best friends at first sight. Haha, I love loving people! |
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| She's working on her drawings and I'm headed straight for a nose job. Jaja #compies |
amazing. He is blessing us so abundantly. On Wednesday, Hermana Draper
and I were feeling just a little bit down. Not sure why, but there was
just that vibe in the air. We were driving through La Mancha, turned
into a random parking lot and just stopped. We looked at each other
like, "what are we supposed to do right now?" We prayed for guidance
and felt like we just needed to tract, to show God that we were
willing. In that moment, we saw out of the car window a cute young mom
walking her three girls home from the bus. We immediately felt we
needed to talk to her, so we quickly prayed and bolted out, just as
she turned the corner to her complex. We were pretty sure we saw which
door she turned into, but when we knocked.. The people within did not
answer. We were sad, pero bueno. We knocked a few doors, met some need
people and set up some appointments. NEXT DAY we come back for the
appointments and.. Neither of them are home. We decide to knock all
the rest of the doors, knowing that God sent us to this particular
building for a reason. The first door we knock opens and.. The LADY
greets us. Matilde is her name, and she lets us right in. We're just
awestruck as she listens intently and finally out of nowhere is just
like, yeah, I'm really struggling right now. And I've been praying a
lot to God for help and I want to come to your church. Okay, thank you
Heavenly Father. He leads us to those prepared to receive His gospel
message!
And again with the leading and guiding.. Wow! We were headed to an
appointment with an awesome member, when we stopped at the bottom of
the staircase to pray. Right as we were about to pray, this lady comes
down the stairs from a second floor apartment. We start to talk with
her and she basically just goes ham on us. She used to be a
Pentecostal pastor in Honduras, so.. Yeah. Haha, we're used to talking
with people that just want to teach us, so the member was like, "hey,
how about we set up an appointment, we'd love to teach you more
another time" but she just kept on talking.. And told us her super
heartbreaking life story. We had no clue why, but we just listened..
And loved her.. And hugged her. We invited her to be baptized, then we
prayed. After the prayer she was like, "hey, if someone comes for me,
I'll come to church tomorrow!" And we were like.. Okay! So we had her
neighbor, an investigator, bring her to church. She also brought her
two little granddaughters who are our new best friends and.. It was
the coolest thing ever! The testimony meeting was SO spiritual and
afterwards, she basically told us that she felt the spirit so so
strong, wants to study the Book of Mormon and basically wants to join
our church. It was such a miracle!
I COULDN'T HAVE IMAGINED a more wonderful last transfer. The windows
of heaven are open wide and Hermana Draper and I are so happy. The
wedding this weekend is a go and El and Le are just as
sweet as ever. I learn so much from them every second. Le still
doesn't feel prepared to be baptized, but he loves church and just
gets the goofiest smile on his face when we talk about forever
families or how beautiful it will be when he can baptize cute C
at 8 and give blessings to his family. It was really so neat, he was
just telling us about his experience in meeting the missionaries back
in August. He said that he had never ever said yes to someone who
asked if he had time to learn about God. He wouldn't open the door or
his heart. But, when the missionaries approached him, he said yes for
the first time. We asked him what was different, and he didn't know..
But something had changed. It's just really neat to see and feel that
the spirit touched his heart in that moment because Heavenly Father
knew that they needed to start learning to get to where we are now. He
really does have a plan. (Also, we went wedding dress shopping with
El today.. And we found the perfect dress! Shopping for wedding
dresses is almost a spiritual experience. You go for so long and are
so stressed because nothing seems to work and then- bam! The stars
align, your bosom burns and the spirit just says- yup. It's the dress.
Haha. After this experience, however, I am not planning on marrying
any time soon- so much stress! )
Speaking of the windows of heaven, President Wilson took us to P F
Changs the other day for good food and deep talks and it was literally
the happiest thing of ever! As we were there, we were talking about
all the people we are working with who are struggling with money. It's
been heartbreaking to see their faith so shaky as the storms roll
around them. The conversation turned to tithing and the promise that
God will "open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it". I thought back to
my cute mom and the little miracles we saw growing up as she paid her
tithing. Heavenly Father really does take care of us as we keep his
commandments. President then shared his view of the scripture. As we
pay our tithing, as we keep the commandments, we have the opportunity
to attend the temple- our little window to Heaven. And this is the
greatest blessing that God could give us. It really opened my eyes.
I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to be so so
happy. I am grateful!
As promised, here is the baptism story from the eyes of my dear companion:
Hermano J Gramajo got baptized on Saturday night! It was such a
wonderful experience. We felt so strongly that it was the Lords will
for him to be baptized because everything that went wrong was fixed so
that he could get baptized! For starters, the leadership of the ward
all went to the temple that day and we realized last minute that we
didn't think we had keys to the font but we had the idea to
try all the keys on our key ring and one of them worked!! So then we
turned on the water and even on the hottest setting, it still came out
cold!! We had to boil water on the stove and after doing three big
pots of boiling water, it was time to start the baptism! (Side note:
While we were figuring out the water, thirty minutes before he
baptism, the thought came to call the son of Hermano Gramajo and so we
did! His girlfriend told us they wanted to come and we're ready but
they didn't have a ride and were too shy to call us! Some great
members were willing to go pick them up and they came and had a great
experience. They are on date to be married and baptized on February
20th!) last but not least, we go to open the curtains of the baptismal
font and a different key was needed than what we had. None of the
bishopric was there (who would have had the key) because of the temple
trip. So we gave an Hermano the job of figuring out a way to open the
curtain. We started the baptism in pure faith that he would figure it
out and everyone would be able to see the baptism. When the time came
for him to be baptized, we went into the room where the baptismal font
is and THE CURTAIN WAS OPEN. we looked a little closer and realized
that the Hermano had gotten his toolbox and unscrewed the nails that
attached the curtain to the wall and had pushed the whole curtain
over. I love being a Spanish missionary! I don't think anyone really
noticed the the difference. Haha! We were so grateful!! Also, he put
it back afterwards, don't worry. Hermano Gramajo shared his testimony
after his baptism and it was a very sweet moment.
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