Just so ya’ll know I have had a 3 day headache, lots of Excedrin, and hiked Camelback Mountain today. So it’s been great. We did Camelback for a VC prep meeting where we meth Kathryn Holyoak (or something like that) and she played the piano for us. She composes a lot of music for the church so it was a lot of fun. The hike was ridiculous. Think of Harney Peak. Except worse. It was straight up. By the end when we were going back down, my knee was about ready to give up on me. And I skinned it pretty good. You’d all be proud. I got really sick going up and If I didn’t know any better I’d say it was because of the elevation. But it was a lot of fun. Sister Vause has skinned her knees on the bikes so I helped her out on the way down. Elder White made it to the top and Elder young almost did. The rest didn’t make it to the ‘Iron Rod’, of which you had to hold on to to make it from one ledge to the next. It was rock climbing, not hiking. You should look it up on the internet and let me know the stats on it…
But the rest of the week has been Fantastic! We have had some crazy success with: IRMA! Irma has a baptismal date for March 26, because she wants the husband of one of the lady’s house she cleans to baptize her. Apparently she had a dream last week that he baptized her, so she’s going for it. It was amazing. She has just opened up and is so happy. What’s funny, is that she was expressing about how she wondered how she had never heard of the Church in Guatemala. Hna Mckenna’s dad was serving there while she lived there so hna Mckenna feels this strange connection that he missed her but now Hna Mckenna’s got her. Make sense?
Beatriz is getting flaky on us. She reminded us of our appointment for Saturday and then she wasn’t there. Odd. But she came to church last week.
We have not seen Nancy and Manuel since last transfer. I’m not exactly sure what is going on with them, but we are taking the stance that those who want to progress get more of our time. There we are shifting on who we are focusing on.
The most random experience I have had so far on my mission was completely bizarre I don’t think that I will fully be able to describe it. Mainly because I don’t know how to express how I feel. Anyway, there is a family we are meeting with. Claudia was baptized when she was 8 but isn’t active. Her ‘husband’ Jose is catholic. He has a daughter and they have a son together and they are getting ready for another baby. Anyway, Claudia randomly leaves him for a week or so and then comes back. Apparently she is gone but we had a lesson with them on the Proclamation to the Family and invited them to church where we were pretty much told that they are catholic and don’t want to go to the mormon church. We are welcome to come and talk about God but not about ‘John Smith’ so we were not really going to go back and visit them. The odd thing was that their normally insane 5 yr old daughter was quite for the whole lesson. This was sometime last week. Friday (weekly planning) we get a call from Jose. At first we were like, is this the Jose we are thinking about? But he said that he really wanted us to come over. We couldn’t Friday but we set up a time for Saturday. We go over Saturday, no one is there so we go back out into our area. We get a call after dinner telling us to come back so we do. For about 15 minutes he tries to get us into the house (no can do) and so eventually we go out by our car because he doesn’t feel comfortable talking on his doorstep. Outside he tells us freaky things going on around the house about, well, it doesn’t matter what but know that it was not right. So we were like, we can get Hno Pimienta over to bless your house…and he liked that idea. So we called but alas, adult session of stake conference was going on. Right then, our Zone leaders drove by (they live in the same apartment complex.) Sister Mckenna and I looked at each other and said, “Elders. Priesthood.” So we got them to come back to the house. Elders Green and Dursteller do not speak Spanish so we played translator. And eventually we had them bless and dedicate the home. During the prayer, Hna Mckenna had the hardest time keeping the door shut (it physically would not shut at all and there was a force pushing against it) and it got so loud outside I was crazy distracted. Really, I don’t remember much of the prayer except that Elder Dursteller prayed that whatever was in that home would understand its purpose. Odd. Afterwards, I was talking to him and he said that he felt that there was something resisting him in his ability to pray and he felt that it was the image of the Virgin that they have dead center on their wall. So he told me to tell them to take it down and to put of pictures of Christ in every room. That’s going to go well with a Catholic. So I kinda danced around the subject when we were saying goodbye. Really, what is the verb for ‘remove’ or ‘take down’? My brain failed me. Jose felt really good about what we did and we left because we had another appointment. Which we ended up leaving because they wouldn’t turn off the new Robin Hood movie. So we decided to go back to Jose’s to tell him to take down the picture of the Virgin. We both felt sick anyway. So we went back and told him, and I don’t think he completely understood what we were talking about or why we wanted him to take it down. He just nodded his head and said, “Si, Si”. Sigh. All I know is that night, I was so grateful for the power of the priesthood and I know I am not going to do anything to not have it in my life.
On the brighter side of things, we have had a crazy amount of member present lessons, the most I have ever had. Mainly because we go out with Hno Pimienta. One night we were to go out and bless homes with Hno pimiento but ended up meeting a new family that wanted us to come back! Yay for new Investigators! And according to hno Pepper I was mad that we met them. No, I was mad because he wanted go out and meet investigators at 9:30 at night. But going out with him (and a RM from Chile, Blake) was a lot of fun. It’s so nice to have RM’s to go out with because they know what to do. We ran into Elders Armour and Whaley (they cover the same area in English) a lot that night and found Christina who was living with a lady friend. She is driving us crazy and I don’t know if she will be in jail here by the end of the month. Sigh.
The other day was stake conference, which was amazing. A lot of the focus was on the “For the Strength of Youth’ and how important it was for the parents to know and live the standards of the book. Kids are smart enough to realize when parents are living a double standard. It has been amazing because Sister McKenna and I are on a roll learning about how the book of mormon really is made for the family. We will eventually share our discoveries with you when they are written out. I don’t know if this is becoming a theme for my mission or just for this area but we really are teaching quite a bit about how the gospel blesses families! Interesting…
The other day at sports I really rolled my ankle and it wasn’t happy with me for a couple of days (I’m just starting to fall apart now). We were playing ultimate Frisbee and it was a lot of fun.
Other than that I don’t have much else. The branch is having a crazy time finding people to feed us but they have been great. And the food has been, interesting…
Love you lots!
emily
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