How's everybody doing? This week we had some pretty cool things happen. We´re teaching this lady named Janina who has a son serving a mission and another who just received his mission call. When her son left on his mission, she started coming to church. When we started visiting her she said that she wanted to wait to get baptized till her son get back from his mission, but that she wanted to receive the missionary lessons. We helped her understand the importance about not postponing baptism and talked a little about the temples and said that it would be even more special if her sons came back from their missions and she was already baptized so they could go to the temple together. We explained the priesthood authority and told her that her son who just received his mission call could baptize her if she gets baptized before he leaves and that encouraged her a lot. We put a tentative baptismal date with her for yesterday and when we set it, she asked about her baptismal clothes. That was the first sign that she was started to consider the idea of getting baptized sooner. We ended up moving the baptismal date a week later (for this Saturday) after seeing that she needed a little more time to receive all the lessons and one day, when we went to visit her and asked her about her reading and prayers, she said that she knew the church was true and confirmed that she was going to get baptized this weekend. Wooo!! It was super excited. I almost cried when she told us. She's awesome. She kinda reminds me of Aunt Stacy, just super fun-loving and generous.
We´re also teaching a 15-year-old girl named Roxana, whose older sister, Stacy, is a member. When we started visiting her, we asked her mom for permission for her to be taught and get baptized if that was what Roxana decided to do and her mom said that it was fine if we taught her, but that she would only let Roxana get baptized if Roxana really demostrated that she was commited to this religion. Because before, she had gone to church various times, but didn't stick with it. Stacy started investigating the church when she was 8 and her mom finally gave her permission to get baptized when she turned 15. We explained to the mom that Roxana is the same age that Stacy was when she got baptized, but she said that it´s different because Roxana hasn´t been involved with the church for as long. Roxana had been really worried that her mom wouldn't let her get baptized as early as the goal we´d put with her and had said she wanted to wait till her birthday in October. But as with Janina, we explained the importance of not postponing and that once she had her answer, she needed to move forward without delay because the opposition would only get harder if she waited. Anyway, we started teaching Roxana the lessons and she´s been reading every day. In one lesson she expressed that she still wasn´t sure if this was the true church, but then we asked her if she believed the Book of Mormon is true and she said, "Yeah, without a doubt", so we explained to her that the Book of Mormon is the evidence that this is the true church. When we went back for the next lesson she said she knew the church was true and that she wanted to get baptizd, but that she was afraid to ask her mom for permission for fear that she´d say no. We told her she just needed to share her testimony and express her feelings to her mom and that if we all united in prayer, God would soften her heart. After much prayer, we went to see her one night and she said, "Hermanas, I have something to tell you. I don´t know if this is the appropriate time, but I just want to thank you for coming to teach me..." --- in that moment, I thought she was about to say, "But I´m not going to be able to continue receiving the lessons" as we have heard time and time again from investigators. But to our delight, she said, "... Because if not my mom wouldn't be giving me permission to get baptized next Saturday." Ah, we were so excited! It was an answer to our prayers. I know that if we just ask God, and not just one time, but that if we keep asking in faith, that he will grant us the righteous desires of our hearts.
On a more uneasy note, we went to visit an investigator this week named Thomasa and there was a little rat /mouse scurrying around on the floor. I didn´t mind it too much because it was so small and just ignored it. Then a little while later, I look over at the couch in the room and saw something crawling across the top. At first, I thought it was the mouse, but as I looked more closely, I thought, "Why does that rat have such weird, long arms?" And a second later, the "rat" opened up it´s wings and flew up to the ceiling! It was a BAT crawling across the couch! Ewwww! I HATE bats. Thomasa`s son whacked it with a mop and killed it. So many creepy creatures.
We teaching a family named Carlos and Lisseth and Lisseth is really positive. We taught her more than Carlos because it´s hard to find him at home, but they have a baptize date for this month. We brought some members to a lesson with Lisseth this week and one of them asked her if she wanted to get baptized and she said yes, that she´s gonna get baptized the 11th of July. That was great to hear because it was the first time she really confirmed that she is going to get baptized. We´ll probably have to move the date back a bit because we want her and her husband to take that step together and he hasn´t been to church yet. They have two adorable little girls named Maydana and Brittany. Please pray for this family. I want them to get baptized so badly.
Today for P-day we played volleyball and soccer and had scones with the missionaries in the zone. It was fun.
Welp, I´m out of time. Till next week! Love you all!
Hermana Hawkins
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