For our Pday last Monday we had a little fiesta as a district because our DL, Elder Aquino finished his mission this week. He is from Wisconsin, and he sent me a picture of him and Elder Larsen! Small world. At our fiesta, Hermana White made tinga (meat on a crispy tortilla with lettuce and cream and other stuff), and we all made pupusas (a Salvadorian corn and cheese pancake thing) together. Yay Hispanic food! I love it.
This week has been interesting because I feel like it has been one of the hardest weeks so far, but we also saw so many blessings. We spent a ton of time finding this week. We have made it a goal to do at least an hour a day, and wow. It's like fun and not fun at the same time. We also had a lot of appointments or joint teachers fall through which is really hard. Probably the most frustrating thing for me is how noncommittal the Hispanic world is. It kills me. I am getting better at rolling with it. But anyway, finding. There was more than one day this week where we were out in the rain knocking on doors. I prefer knocking houses to apartment buildings, but it is harder to find Spanish speakers that way. This week though we found a family as we were knocking (in the rain) and we have another appointment with them this week. We found another family, knocking in an apartment building after trying to find joint teachers for almost an hour, who we talked to the mom for a while, and she said she had been thinking about God when we showed up. Cool right? We have an appointment with her too. So lots of hard things but also a lot of good stuff.
More blessings this week came totally out of the blue. We met two guys, Delfino and Jose, my first week here, literally almost seven weeks ago, and we stopped trying to contact both of them after a couple weeks because they weren't responding or not acting interested. But this week, out of nowhere, Delfino texted us his new address and set up an appointment. And then, when we drove out to Eden Prairie where he lives, he wasn't there. Shopping took longer than he thought it would or something. As soon as we got off the phone with Delfino, We get a random call from Jose who said he wanted us to come over that night! We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he was really excited to read it. Crazy.
Yesterday there was a big block party on Nicollet, where our church building is, so they closed the street basically all day. We combined with the English ward for sacrament meeting, and then everyone had to go home before they closed the street. Then, we set up a canopy and passed out cards and gave tours for six hours. It was awesome. I loved contacting on the street. I think total the missionaries gave more than thirty tours. Then we again walked through the rain back to our car haha. There was a lot of rain this week.
Sister Scholl pulled out a Christmas CD yesterday which is fine, except that it's awful. Ugh. Like the singing is bad. Shudders just thinking about it. I let us listen to it once through and then suggested something else. I need to download stuff for myself. On the other hand, we also listened to a production called Lamb of God, which is basically the text of the Gospel of john in production/Broadway sort of form, and it's actually incredible. We have mission conference tomorrow and our zone is singing a musical number. and gueesss who was put in charge of it. Meee.... I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's ok. We're singing A Child's Prayer, and I think it will be good.
I was thinking this week about how important our covenants are and what they mean for us. As a covenant making people, we do not have the option to regress into our old habits and our old styles of living. Especially a a missionary, I'm realizing more and more that coming home and being the person I was isn't an option. Because once e receive so much light and so much knowledge, we do not have the option to turn back. Having put our hand to plow, we can't turn back. I was reading in Alma this week about Alma and Amulek, and the scriptures that stood out were 9:19 "For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God" and 9:23 "And now behold I say unto you, that if this people, who have received so many blessings from the hand of the Lord, should transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they do have, I say unto you that if this be the case, that if they should fall into transgression, it would be far more tolerable for the Lamanites than for them."
There's no going back! Keep moving forward! Never look back!
Mucho amor
Hermana Andrus
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