I normally stick to a "lessons learned" format and side-step having to write up stories from each week. However, this week was far to weird to not share a few stories.
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SUSAN is an investigator. At least that's how she started. Back in March the elders knocked her door and began teaching her about the church. She instantly accepted the invitation to come to church on Sunday and since then has attended almost every week. We knew that she had previously met with the missionaries back in her country and that she had a pretty solid understanding of the gospel already, and for that it has been really difficult to know what to teach her. She still had not accepted the invitation to be baptized. The elders were shipped off to Lowell, MA and left Susan in our trusty hands. When we started teaching her we decided not to address the topic of baptism (knowing it had thoroughly been discussed already) and started to introduce different concepts of the gospel. She readily excepts everything we teach her! Perfect! She's amazing! We started teaching her English and she was so grateful that she had her daughter bring us purses from Ecuador! Perfect! She comes to church! Perfect! She's still not baptized..... what the floop. This last Friday we had just gotten out of a meeting with a determination to teach Susan about baptism and get to the root of the problem. We sat in the car discussing what we'd say, and how we'd say it. Honestly even I was getting a little nervous about it, but not to worry we said a prayer and then headed in. Like always, she welcomed us in with open arms and we sat down and began the lesson. She took the topic elsewhere and before you know it she was teaching us about forgiveness. I was really amazed with what she was saying and finally I said, "Susan! I cannot believe that you are not a member of this church!" to which she replied, more or less, "I am!"
Yup. Our investigator of 4 months is actually a baptized member of the church.
JORDY is the craziest 11 year I've ever met. Sometimes I forget that he's 11 because he acts like he's 6. I can't say much about him because truthfully, I love him as if he were my own kid. Let's just have it be known that yesterday at church he was such a whiny sassy-pants that he was laying on the floor of the chapel (just minutes before church started) rolling around and crying about being hungry. Motherhood will be a beautiful thing. I can already tell.
RALFIE is Isaiah's brother. Isaiah was baptized a few weeks ago and told us about his older brother pokin' around at his scriptures and asking questions about the church. Of course we got excited about that and kept his name in mind. We hoped to meet him someday and were planning on setting something up with Isaiah. So last Thursday we didn't see Isaiah at the youth activity and decided to go check out the scene. We have his address but had never been to his house before. So there we are, two white girls walking down this windy road in the backstreets of Nashua searching for #18. We find it but we see a car in the driveway that looks like his girlfriend's car. We had just barely seen her at the church, and we weren't sure why she was there right then. We got nervous that something was up and decided not to bother them in case something was wrong. Buuut... what if that's not actually her car? We start peeping through all the windows, pointing and commenting on stuff laying around inside. We're trying to decide if this is her care or not. Finally we agree that it's not, and go up to the door of #18. Right as my hand is up and about to knock we hear from behind us, "Who you lookin' for!" We swing around and see a guy sitting in a car on the driveway, right next to the Corolla we had just inspected inside and out. In his car with the windows down, just chillin' with a blonde girl in the drivers seat. We tell him we're there for Isaiah and he tells us he just left on his bike. Then Sister Lewis throws her hand out and smiling, says, "Are you Ralfie?!" Hahahaha we definitely didn't plan or prepare for it, but we finally met Ralfie!
LUCY is Jordy's mom. For months now she has been looking for a new therapist for her autistic son, Eric. Prayer after prayer left her frustrated and confused as she still struggled to find anyone. Eric is going through a lot of changes and his sensory abilities are getting worse. He's growing and getting harder to control and gaining more and more energy. Finally - last week Lucy found someone. She excitedly told us that she found the perfect person. The next day she told us that she found out she was LDS! On Sunday she brought Ana, the new therapist, to church with her. Ana told us that she moved to America and asked everyone where the Mormon church was but couldn't find it. She looked and looked and then finally gave up. Since we just opened a Spanish group in March there has been much more publication about the church. In fact, having Spanish missionaries here is how we got a hold of Lucy again in the first place! Ana said she's so happy to be back and to have finally found the church! We told Lucy that even when we don't think that God is hearing our prayers, he is. He had been working on this plan for a long time. First Lucy had to be here, then Spanish missionaries had to come to find her, then the group had to start so that we could baptize Jordy, then Eric had to get worse so that Lucy would need more help, then she had to wait... because there was a whole line of events happening with Ana to get her to where she needed to be... and now the plan finally came together. Ana found the church and a great job, Jordy has us, and Eric has Ana, and Lucy was the prayer that got us all there. So in the end... who helped who? Was Lucy looking for help, or were we all praying for guidance?
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Now there were many more stories from this week.... if only I could let you in on all of them. There's some that you'll never get to hear, and others that I probably won't remember myself until the time comes that I need them for something. I can promise you one thing, though, this mission is crazy. There are more connections between the people that we meet then there are in a flight from Boston to Beijing. There are more miracles each day here than there are in Harry Potter collectively. Because of that, I'm positive that it's the same anywhere you go. I'm positive that in your very own life there are miracles daily. The difference between you and I is that I have a plastic black name-tag and the time and ability to work solely to find these miracles. But the content and quantity of blessings that we get from Heavenly Father is the same. I know that we're all in his hands. Pray for a wider understanding. A bigger view! Try to see life from 30 thousand feet and I promise you'll be amazed at what you find.
Here we go for one last stretch! Less than 6 weeks to go and plenty of work still to do. If you had intentions of sending me packages and gifts, well, now's your opportunity! :p Aside from that, I hope that you enjoy these last days as much as I do. I'll try to take better notes so that you can share this with me.
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