This week was really good! We worked really hard to reach the goals we had set at the beginning of the week and it was so rewarding to actually do it. There was one day (I think Saturday) when we were feeling pretty discouraged. All of our appointments had canceled and it only took 5 minutes for all of our plans to fall apart. We were also worried because we hadn't found 3 new investigators for the week. We decided to just have a day of finding. After we ate lunch, we were walking to the car by the post office and Hna. Alvarado had just given a card to someone and explained a little bit about the Book of Mormon to him. There was another man on his bicycle and he yelled out, "Excuse me!" and started coming towards us. We both thought, "Oh no, here comes a preacher wanting to argue with us about our religion." When he got to us he stuck out his hand with a big smile on his face and said, "I'm Joe." He asked us if we were Mormons and when we said yes he said with an even bigger smile, "I'm getting baptized on the 30th." We were so excited. We asked him to tell us his conversion story and he told us that he had rejected religion for a long time in his life, but then he started wanting to know the truth. He went to every church he could find and, finally, one of his friends gave him a restoration pamphlet. He read it and said that it had everything that he was looking for so he started taking the lessons from the missionaries (Elders Hall and Ray) and the rest is history. He invited us to his baptism and we thanked him for sharing his experiences and then went our separate ways. After he walked off I looked at Hna. Alvarado and said, "Someone like that is waiting for us today. We need to find them." It really lifted our spirits and our faith that the Lord is preparing people to hear the gospel. Later that night, we were knocking on doors and found a family who let us in immediately, thinking that we were from a different religion. When we explained who we were he (Adam) said he was willing to listen to our beliefs. He then started asking us all of the questions that you want to hear like "What is the truth?" and "Shouldn't there just be one church?" We taught them about the restoration and set up an appointment to return. They seemed really interested and I'm excited that we get to share the truths that they are looking for. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel that we have. I think a lot of the members of the church don't realize how blessed they are to know what they know.
I got a little frustrated with the language yesterday. Two of the members had told me over the phone within two hours of each other that my spanish is "terrible" and that I "don't speak spanish very well" because I don't understand very well over the phone. Not the best thing for your self-confidence. I was frustrated for a little while, but then reminded myself that I've only been speaking spanish for a few months. I don't think they know that. One of our investigators that we visited a little while later turned out to be a blessing for me. We were in a member's home and she was asking me how long I had studied spanish. I told them it was about four months now and our investigator, Yanet, looked at me and said, "Wow! You speak fluently! It took me years to learn english and I still don't speak very good!" I just wanted to cry because I was so happy. That was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. I know that the Lord gives us these challenges for a reason, and He doesn't leave us without the support that we need in order to overcome them. I still wouldn't say that I speak spanish "fluently", but I can communicate for the most part and there is still quite a bit of time for me to improve. I know that the Lord is helping me and I'm grateful for that.
Hna. Heather Larsen