There a few things I think I will never understand. One of them is why nutella makes it acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast. I don´t know why; it just does. Another is why Christ was willing to suffer so much for us? What caused him to have such a great love for us. I think I´ll never really know. But I sure am grateful to know that He did that for me.
This week was great cuz it was Christmas!! It was so good to talk to the family and hear there voices. I also accomplished my Christmas goal which was to memorize all of "The Living Christ" in Spanish. On the night of Christmas day, we visited a potential investigator named Yamilet and found out that her husband had just abandoned her and her 9 year-old son 3 days prior and she was suffering. We were able to share some words of comfort and hope in a time when she really needed it. She said we were like angels. No better way to spend Christmas than sharing the light of Christ with someone passing through a time of darkness. Yamilet came to church on Sunday with her son and she brought 2 other investigators! her sister, who´s a single mom and her son. She also brought her other sister who we found out is a less active member! So we ended up have two families in church! Annnnnd, Luis finally went to church again! I was so suprised and excited to see him! It had been a hard morning of passing by for investigators and hearing lie after lie, but God blessed us with some miracles.
We dropped Carolina. She didn´t even have a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true and she thinks it doesn´t matter what church you´re in. Heck, she lives right in front of the church and has never visited on Sunday. That should have been sign enough that she wasn´t willing to act. It´s sad, really. I´ve noticed in my mission that the people who have seen some of the biggest miracles in their lives, for example God healing them from a grave illness, are the ones who are least willing to act to test the truth of this message. And the ones who have suffered some of the biggest trials are the ones who are humbled and prepared to receive the gospel. You´d think that someone who´d witnessed such a big miracle would be more willing to show their gratitude to the Lord, but just as Laman and Lemuel turned around and started murmuring just shortly after seeing an angel, there are people who take their blessings for granted.
On a happier note, we found a new family this week named Yasmina and Victor who has already been to church 7 times! We just need to get them married and review the lessons to prepare them for baptism! They have 3 kids who are old enough to be baptized. Please pray for them.
We moved Jessica´s baptismal date back a week cuz we need to finish teaching her the lessons.
The church attendance fluctuates here so bad. Last Sunday it had gone up by 39 people, but yesterday it went down 27 people.
We had a zone meeting this week in which an elder shared a little about his background. He grew up in really humble circumstances and entered the military at age 10 so he could prepare a better future for himself. In the military, in order to have better food privelages, they had to run. So he ran and ran himself almost to death so he could eat. Then he visited a specialist who asked him why he was running himself to death for food if food is a combustible, not a delight and advised him to not worry about running so hard to be one of the first people to get to the place to eat, but to take his time and get there last and just eat the other food that wasn´t as delicious, but would satisfy his needs. So that´s what he did. He didn´t earn the same food privelages, but he didn´t have to run himself so hard and be compeltely wiped of energy. In this military camp he did, only 50 people pass, which is a small amount and he was able to pass because he took the advice to not run himself so hard. He applied all this to the mission and said that sometimes we work ourselves to death run out of energy, but if we work at a good pace and work efficiently and intelligently, things will come out better in the end. Anyway, it was pretty impactful to learn about all he had to go through at just 10 years old and it taught me that everyone has a story and until we really get to know them, we won´t understand why they are the way they are.
I hope you all have a spiritually-uplifting week. Much love, Hermana Hawkins
