Hey
kiddos! How was everyone´s week? Mine was pretty darn swell. I mean duh, I´m in
Uruguay. So they changed our PDay because yesterday was the big Uruguay
Independence Day. I´m glad one of the moms figured out what was going on,
because we all figured our parents were probably panicking a little bit. Cool
your jets, loved ones. I´m here. :)
I
complete a year in the mission in two days. A YEARRRRRR. It just can´t be. I
feel like I still have so much to learn, and so little time to learn it! Man oh
man.
For
Independence Day since all of the kiddos were out of school, our ward had a
sports activity in the afternoon. SO MANY PEOPLE CAME. It was awesome. And it
was the first time that we didn´t play soccer the whole day. Latinos scare me
when they play soccer....haha they´'re too good. And then when someone finally
has mercy on me and passes me the ball, i mess up. And then they never pass
again. Maybe that´s why I´m known amongst the youth in my ward as "the
gringa." haha. Point is, we played basketball and volleyball too. Nice
change. Apart from that, we were able to find some really great new
investigators! One of them is a girl named Luciana. She´s only 17, but I
thought she was like 23 haha. She is really cool. She told us her story, and
just recently she had been pregnant but lost the two babies. And now they told
her she´ll never be able to have kids. :( But she has a lot of faith. She said
"God has a plan for all of us, even if we can´t understand it
sometimes." Rockstar. She actually lives in another ward, but we have to
see what we can do because there are only Elders in the ward and she said she´d
rather be taught by hermanas. So we´ll see. But she´s great!
Cintia
had a date for the 6 but looks like it´ll be the 13th or 20th. She managed to
find a job last week, and at least minute on Sunday they called her in to work,
so she couldn´t go to church. But normally she doesn´t work, so it´s just time,
that´s all! Also, Margot is not sure whether she´s moving or not. Haha
Margooooooot you´re killin us! So we´ll just keep helping her prepare, whether
it be here or in her new ward.
This
last weekend was stake conference. On Saturday we were at the adult meeting
(more or less "there"....mostly me and my companion were chasing
around Margot´s tornado grandson Angelo and trying to keep him under control.
And the next day everybody told us "we enjoyed watching you two running
behind that 3 year old. Haaaa only us.) But anyway, we were at the adult
meeting when we saw that a member in our ward tried to call us. So we sent him
a message asking if he needed something, and he said "i need you to come
to my house right now, i have a friend here who needs a lesson." DON´T
HAVE TO TELL US TWICE. So we went running to his house, and he had a friend
there named Andres. He used to live here but now lives in Brazil. Yeah guys, I
am getting really good practice on the Portugese up here. Haha pretty
legit....nah not really, mostly Daniel had to translate for us what Andres was
saying.. So anyway, Daniel (the member), tells us "This is Andres. He´s
got some addictions and he really wants to get away from them but feels like he
can´t. He feels really alone and like there´s nothing he can do. He´s tried
other religions, but none of them have helped him. So I told him the Gospel can
help, and he said he may as well try." So we immediately went in teaching
him the message of the Restoration. About halfway through the lesson, he said
"I feel something different that I´ve never felt before. It´s making me
feel like crying. It feels good." It is one of the strongest times I have
ever felt the Spirit ever in my life. My comp and I were both silently just
begging for the Spirit the whole lesson. I especially felt it as I recited the
First Vision. Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Christ, I feel it in my
bones.
Stake
Conference was a multi stake one between Uruguay and Paraguay by satellite.
There were several authorities who spoke, specifically Elder Bednar. He is a
capo! He talked about repentance. It was amazing. What an amazing gift
repentance is, as long as we do it with a pure heart and real intent.
Andres
gave a really amazing prayer at the end, and then afterwards, he said "for
the first time, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see a way
out." Man! Unfortunately, he was just here visiting, but he has plans to
move back in the next couple months. Hopefully I´m still here when he does. I
love the way the Spirit touches people. This is a Gospel of hope. As Andres
said, it´s a Gospel of LIGHT. Of hope. I love it! I love this Gospel!
One
year of true heartache, pure joy, and an exceptional amount of personal growth.
I love this stinkin´mission!
I love
you, I love you, I love you!
Hermana
Dolan
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