This week was so awesome and there were so many cool things that happened.
1. Julio once again. Y'all are going to get sick of hearing about him but HOLY COW HE'S ELECT. Julio is progressing so much and so fast it's actually insane to see. We had a lesson with him on Saturday and we ran through the baptismal interview questions with him. He answered each one with so much thought and such a strong testimony that I was in tears by the 3rd one.
It's been such a blessing to be able to teach him and help him prepare for baptism and it's brought me so much joy. Even when a day is kinda mid, if we have a lesson with Julio, I always leave so happy and it genuinely makes the rest of my day better. His baptism is THIS SATURDAY and I'm so excited!!! Pray super hard that everything works out, okay? ALSO, we invited him to invite people to his baptism and he went above and beyond by inviting people to church as well, so Julio is actually the most effective missionary in the area at this point.
2. MAILIN! We found Mailin again! If y'all remember, we put Mailin on date about a month ago, and then she went MIA again. We couldn't get ahold of her by phone, she was never there when we stopped by, and last Thursday we decided we needed to drop her because we couldn't get in contact. That night, I told Sister A that we were going to go visit Mailin one last time to see if we could find her. GUESS WHAT. SHE WAS HOME. We sat down and talked to her, and she was still planning on being baptized and was really excited about it. She came to church on Sunday (miracle!!!), and we've had 3 lessons with her since Thursday. Unfortunately, her baptism is after transfers and my chances of staying here another transfer are really low, so I'm hoping everything continues to be smooth sailing and nothing happens.
Those were the two biggest miracles this week, so here are other random things that happened:
- I was on a blitz with an English sister yesterday and we were in my area. We ended up having two lessons in a row which I just had to teach in Spanish, so my brain was actually numb after that hour. HOWEVER, the gift of tongues is real because my Spanish somehow stuck around that long and we managed to make it through with relatively few pauses while I had to think of how to say something. Word of the week is apoderado which means proxy (shoutout Spanish dictionary).
- In a training that Sister Bartholomew and I had to do, we came up with what WE thought were really deep concerns that would take the missionaries a long time to figure out. I think we actually might just be dumb because I think everyone figured them all out within 10 minutes (it was a 35-minute training). Had to scramble to fill the rest of it but it all worked out!
- Our ward has started a weekly pickleball night and it’s actually such a success with our friends. It's tricky to get people to church here, but so many people come to pickleball and love it. Then we tell them to come to church with their pickleball friends and they don't, so we've got to figure out that connection and how to get people there.
That's it for this week, but one quick spiritual thought which y'all should actually read because I do them so rarely, whoops:
In studies this week, I read Alma 11:22 which really stuck out to me. It says "Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord." As missionaries, we strive to always have the Spirit with us and be Spirit-led in our lessons and interactions. Normally, we don't say much, that's contrary to the Spirit, but I think sometimes we push aside the promptings we have. We ignore the Spirit because we have our own plan, or our own thing that we want to say. If there's one thing I've learned so far, it's to ALWAYS listen to the Spirit and follow that. When we do that out here, our lessons are so much better, and people can notice the difference. When we do that, we aren't the teachers, but the Lord is!
2. MAILIN! We found Mailin again! If y'all remember, we put Mailin on date about a month ago, and then she went MIA again. We couldn't get ahold of her by phone, she was never there when we stopped by, and last Thursday we decided we needed to drop her because we couldn't get in contact. That night, I told Sister A that we were going to go visit Mailin one last time to see if we could find her. GUESS WHAT. SHE WAS HOME. We sat down and talked to her, and she was still planning on being baptized and was really excited about it. She came to church on Sunday (miracle!!!), and we've had 3 lessons with her since Thursday. Unfortunately, her baptism is after transfers and my chances of staying here another transfer are really low, so I'm hoping everything continues to be smooth sailing and nothing happens.
Those were the two biggest miracles this week, so here are other random things that happened:
- I was on a blitz with an English sister yesterday and we were in my area. We ended up having two lessons in a row which I just had to teach in Spanish, so my brain was actually numb after that hour. HOWEVER, the gift of tongues is real because my Spanish somehow stuck around that long and we managed to make it through with relatively few pauses while I had to think of how to say something. Word of the week is apoderado which means proxy (shoutout Spanish dictionary).
- In a training that Sister Bartholomew and I had to do, we came up with what WE thought were really deep concerns that would take the missionaries a long time to figure out. I think we actually might just be dumb because I think everyone figured them all out within 10 minutes (it was a 35-minute training). Had to scramble to fill the rest of it but it all worked out!
- Our ward has started a weekly pickleball night and it’s actually such a success with our friends. It's tricky to get people to church here, but so many people come to pickleball and love it. Then we tell them to come to church with their pickleball friends and they don't, so we've got to figure out that connection and how to get people there.
That's it for this week, but one quick spiritual thought which y'all should actually read because I do them so rarely, whoops:
In studies this week, I read Alma 11:22 which really stuck out to me. It says "Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord." As missionaries, we strive to always have the Spirit with us and be Spirit-led in our lessons and interactions. Normally, we don't say much, that's contrary to the Spirit, but I think sometimes we push aside the promptings we have. We ignore the Spirit because we have our own plan, or our own thing that we want to say. If there's one thing I've learned so far, it's to ALWAYS listen to the Spirit and follow that. When we do that out here, our lessons are so much better, and people can notice the difference. When we do that, we aren't the teachers, but the Lord is!
Thank you all for the love and support. Miss you all!
🧡 Hna. Pursglove
Photographs Below :)
1. Sister Astu and me (Main Photo Above)
2. Books of Mormon
3. Blitz with Sister Udy
4. Another pretty sunset
5. Motivational messages from Sis. A
Love you! OOXX 💗
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