Picture-perfect week

Alrighty then. I totally forgot to think about what I'd write about this week. It has been a completely crazy week from the start so I guess that’s where I'll begin!

Monday – Preparation Day, YEAH-YUH. We had a chill day and denied all invitations to go to and hang out with the the other missionaries. We just wanted to relax and enjoy each others’ company. Sister Lewis and I have an awesome time together and we really, really, really look forward to our P-days. So we had a wonderful relaxing day and prepped for the week. Hit the ground running with an appointment at a family's home for dinner. They're all home schooled and they are all musical geniuses! We don't get to work with the english families very often so that was exciting to spend some time speaking english and talking about how their family can be stronger with sharing the gospel. They want to do it so badly but they don't have many opportunities to leave the house. So we got them set up with the blog our mission hosts called Real Life Answers. They really liked that!

Tuesday – Time to get back to work with some good ol' painting! We spent the morning with our friend Maria helping her repaint the house. She was listening to music the whole time but we didn't say anything about it at first and after about 10 minutes it felt too awkward to ask her to turn it off. So we didn't. Luckily she switched it over to some french classics so for all we knew it could have been church hymns! We got a lot done and Sister Lewis got the chance to practice her spanish while they worked together to put up a border. Geez it looked difficult. I was happily painting the ceiling and my face. In the end it all looked good and she was really happy for the help. Honestly I don't know how much we help but hey, she was happy! And so were we. We paint so often these days that we think we should buy a big green van to keep all of our paint supplies. 

That night we drove all the way out to Peterborough, New Hampshire because we have a family that drives an hour to come to church every Sunday. We wanted to pay them a visit and make sure they know how much we appreciate them! The drive ended up being really worthwhile as we got a lot of phone calls taken care of and Sister Lews read the scriptures in Spanish out loud until it was too dark to see. Of course we had a good dance-session in the car (like always) and even got to stop and take some pictures. 

Those are NOT mountains but they are the tallest piles of earth I've seen in over a year!

Thank you, Peterborough :)

At last.

A spot worthy of one of my classic poses.

Wednesday – Good morning full of studies. It's always hard when our mornings get shaken up on the weekends due to service and church, and we were really happy to get time in the morning again to study! We made some really good visits that day and saw a member who we haven't seen in a long time. She's Columbian but every time we go there she cooks us Dominican food. I'm fine with that, though, because I love it and rarely get it anymore. She told us that her dad got baptized in Colombia on Easter Sunday! It was a crazy last minute thing and they didn't even hear about it until after. He just found the missionaries one day and decided he believed everything, and didn't think there was any reason to wait any longer! Her mother already passed away and she's so happy to have her dad as a member of the church, now. Her own husband joined the church at the end of last year and her whole family is getting stronger because of it. She said that her dad called her and said that this church had all of the answers that the other churches didn't have, and that's why he had to join! "Los secretos que no tiene otras".  I love when people find answers in the gospel that change their lives!

That night we had a big activity that didn't end up being big at all. We made really cool advertisements for it and got the word out and alerted everyone and their neighbor, and 17 people came. We watched bible videos and had a discussion afterwards and it was a really great time for those who were there! Halfway through a few of our friends showed up, a member who never comes to church, and I stood behind them and translated the Bible. When I started I realized that there was no way I could translate the Bible.... I mean, come on. That took professional linguists and years of sacrifice to do. No way I could do that in synch with the videos. I'm no prophet. So I made them pause it and ran to find a Spanish Bible so that I could just follow along and read it to them while they watched. 

Thursday – I had an appointment in Boston that I had to go to and that unfortunately took up most of the day. When we finally got back to Nashua we had a few hours to walk around and see a bunch of people. Not at all who we had sought out to see, but we found great people nonetheless! It always works out that way. Lately people haven't been home when they said they'd be. Or they are home.... yeah. We know you're in there! 

We went to a member's house, Raquel, and she had a friend over. She started asking us a lot of questions about the service and what we do as missionaries. Then she asked if we'd keep doing it when we go back home. I said, "Of course! But it'll be different." That's when we found out that she is a Jehova's Witness. Those TJ's. I have made one friend on the mission who was a TJ and I absolutely adore her! But we never talked about religion outside of us singing hymns for her and her husband who was in the hospital. The only experiences I've heard of between a TJ and an LDS missionary are not the most pleasant and I had no desire to take on the attacks and defend myself. I did not want to Bible Bash. Damaris, this wonderful woman, completely changed my opinion! For about two hours we talked about the Bible. She even let us show her scriptures in the Book of Mormon and relate them back to the Bible. She was kind, respectful, strong, faithful, and really good with her bible knowledge. She taught me a lot and we hugged and parted ways as night rolled in and we realized we parked far away and we were in the ghetto. Good reason to go. She helped me see that we're all witnesses of Jesus Christ if we believe in Him. 

I think this was the same day we rolled up behind this thug-muffin.

He was old. And he was combing his white hair back at the stop light. NYLIFE, son!

Friday – We planned out the best day ever. Seriously, possibly the worlds best day absolutely ever. WOW I forgot something from Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY WAS RIDICULOUS!

In the middle of the day we got a call from our landlady saying that she got some sofas for us and they were going to bring them by. "Sure! Thank you!" Then she calls back and said, "Courtney is going to try to talk you out of taking them because they're dirty. But don't worry. I'll get them wiped down and they'll be fine, ok?" "Sure! Thank you!" A little while later they come with two sofas recovered from a house-fire. In case you ever come into this situation yourself and think it's a pretty good steal to pick up some surviving items from a house-fire, let me just stop you right there and save you the trouble. It's a lost cause. It's over. It's too late, there's no turning back, you can't reupholster them or spray them down. No amount of scrubbing or air freshener or dryer sheets will do the trick. Opening your door and strategically placing the fan will not work, either, although it can add for short-term relief from the vigorous, mind-penetrating smell that WILL fill your home and leak into every fiber of your being. Going one step further and leaning them outside on the patio is not worth the trouble seeing as that, too, will not take the smell away. An additional fact that's pretty disheartening is that no amount of prayer will do the trick, either! Hey! Would you imagine that! So Thursday night we came home to find that our old sofas were just layin' around outside the apartment building... and we had fun with that. 

Fun, but still not worth it. Sister Lewis  really hated the smell and finally I joined her in the ranks for the fight against these inferno-seats, or the fumigators as we called them. By Saturday they were gone and we are still airing out the thick stench in the apartment. Our home has never felt so empty and yet so completely full at the same time. 

I'm exaggerating.

But only very slightly. 

Ok. Friday – We planned out the best day ever. Seriously, possibly the worlds best day absolutely ever. Five lessons planned and ready to go, district meeting with the other missionaries was great, and then we started our way towards our scheduled out day. Nobody was home. In desperation we prayed and asked who we should go see and we thought of Patricia, an old friend who we had stopped teaching a few weeks ago. She answered and welcomely invited us over! We had a great time reading with her and she fed us Colombian soup and caught us up on her life as of late. She's so sweet and I love her so much! It was good to see her again. 

Saturday – Started at a pancake breakfast for the little kids at the church. They made hundreds of half burnt-half uncooked patties. I couldn't eat any because they had dairy but my companion lucked out and had a few :) Then we taught them a little message about Family. Kids are so cool. They blow me away! We met one of them who carries around passalong cards in his shirt pocket and hands them out to the neighbors. He's three years old. I'm not kidding. We asked him "How many did you hand out last week" and he said, "I think six." I maybe wouldn't have believed him but then on Sunday we saw him and he had another stack in his pocket ready to go! He actually hands these out to strangers! So cute.

Saturday we also taught one of the hardest lessons of my life. Out of respect for the person, I will not give details. But it was HARD and we were not ready for it. However, with the Lord's help, we said exactly what we needed to. They fully understood the concept of what we were teaching. We saw them again yesterday and they were happy and excited to see us so we know it went well. I'm really thankful for that. It was so hard that afterwards we went home to chill for a bit before getting back out again. 

Sunday – I had to translate church :/ I joked that I got lost so I just started talking about the restoration, but I didn't. Hopefully I said everything that needed to be said. It was a very good experience as well as spiritually draining, and I am so grateful that I get to be learning Spanish! It's amazing how much of a difference it can make in someone's life. So many people stop going to church because they don't understand the language and nobody offered to help them. I love being able to spread the Lord's gospel in different languages. They really need it, and they are so humble and appreciative for the help of translating even though I'm sure that half of what comes out of my mouth is nonsense. 

Our little friend Jordy stayed at church for five hours because his ride got stuck in a meeting. We couldn't believe it. The first time we had him there he ran out of church yelling, "I'M FREE!!!" after just one hour. Yesterday he had a great time and we're getting really excited for his upcoming baptism!

That night we visited with his mom. It breaks my heart to learn more about her because her difficulties are very challenging and nobody would understand that unless they took a moment to see what it's like. We have gotten to know their family so well since coming here to Nashua and lately she's come to us with her true concerns. She is such an incredible, strong lady and we are helping her to take all that she has learned in her life and apply the gospel to it. Finally she understands the difference it can make in her life, and with her son's baptism she, too, is growing. Tomorrow we're going to help her in the garden and make more plans for the future of her family. She's strong and even though the storms not nearly over for her, she knows that calm seas don't make a skilled sailor. 

Well that's about it! 

More pictures from this morning! We did our studies at a lake that we found last week. 

There's something about reading scriptures out in nature that calms me. Ok, let's be real, there's something about NATURE that just keeps me stable. It always has. Where do you go when you need to be happy? 

Hope you have a great week! If you're in Colorado, I hope the snow is gone forever. If you're in Utah I guess I'll see you soon! If you're in Hawaii, go to Kahula Grill for me. If you're anywhere and everywhere else know that I love you and pray for you often!  Especially if you're family. I love you!

Hermana Hileman