I HAVE SO MUCH TO WRITE
Ok. So. Where to begin!
Tuesday we went to San Jose. We got there, I went to the dentist to fix my retainer (woohoo!) and then we went to Hermana Burninghams old area (after getting subway hehe). At first I thought, this is lame, Im being dragged around to go visit all these people, but guess what. It was actually a great experience. Because i got to meet some really awesome people! Really awesome converts. It made me realize that there are amazing, prepared people everywhere :) And it made me not so scared to leave nicoya, whenever i do in the future. And i got to teach some lessons to them, and realized that I am still a missionary even if im not in my area! Haha so it was a good experience.
Then on wednesday morning, me and the other trainers went to the mission office for a meeting with president. He said that being a trainer is the most important calling in the entire mission - more important than the assistents to the president (whoa) and that he spends the most amount of time picking trainers than anything else. One thing he does thats interesting is he holds a picture of his daughter or son next to our picture, and asks, Would I want them to train my child? Haha so thats kinda cool. When we got there we found out there were 10 hermanas coming in - and all latinas! I was shocked! Everyone thought i would get a gringa because i already know spanish. But no! So then i started to get nervous, because ive had three gringa companions haha. I was nervous she wouldnt like me or we wouldnt get along! But anyways we had the meeting and President gave us lots of advice on how to be good leaders and clarified a bunch of rules, always asking us to be one hundred percent obedient. So after that we went to Presidents house for breakfast, where we ate eggs, gallo pinto, and tortillas - a tico desayuno. Then we had the reveal of our companions - we all gathered together and president called the trainer to the middle, and then said the name of who we would be training, and then they would run up and hug each other and it was very exciting haha. My new companion is Hermana Perez! She is from Guatemala :) She is just so cute! Im so excited to have her as my companion. I know without a doubt we will have so much success together. She started crying during our first practice together during our companionship study because she was so happy to be here hahaha how awesome is that. President wants us to speak only english in the house so that the latinas can learn, but its just so much easier to speak spanish! haha but im helping her learn english in our language study and im going to try to talk more in english with her.
So now I am going to write about the most amazing miracle I have had on my mission. Last week, hermana Burningham and i were walking home at night. There was a few people on the other side of the road about to walk past us and I thought, we could talk to them, but nah. Hermana B however, stopped and walked over to them. We made small talk and then we asked if theyve seen the church, and the guy stopped and said, Actually were interested in going to a church! So we asked for his number and the girl with him gave us hers just in case, and we gave them a pamphlet for the plan of salvation and put an appointment with them for
this friday! We were way excited!
So the
friday of the appointment I called to ask how to get to their house. I was a little nervous to call because people sometimes cancel when we do that hahah but she said, can you come a little later? My husband (theyre not married but people call each other that anyways) doesnt get back till later tonight. We couldnt come by later, so she said, Oh no importa! Come at six still and ill be here! So we went over, and she was there with her dad. He had heard we were going to come over so he decided to stay and here what we had to say. So heres the amazing part: We asked Ciani (the girl) if she had read the pamphlet. And she said, ¨Yes! All of it! Me and Fabian (her boyfriend) read all of it together. We were wondering, how can we know if this is all true? And then we turned the page, and it told us! It told us we could ask God through prayer. So thats what we did.¨ Ok now at this point i was just in shock. This NEVER happens. Some of our long time investigators dont even do this haha. She said that she doesnt know if she got a response, but Fabian said he slept well that night - hes been really stressed and hasnt been sleeping but he slept really well that night and felt really good about it. So we proceeded to give the lesson and they understood literally everything perfectly. They had SO many questions, and they were perfect questions. And when we would explain something they would say, oh that makes perfect sense! And then explain everything back to us. It was so amazing. We left on cloud nine, with an appointment for the next day. So we went the next day and Fabian was there. Cianis dad was there again, and this time with his wife. She told us that she never comes to Nicoya (they live like an hour away) but that night she just felt for some reason she could come over to her daughters house. And we just happened to come over that night! So, we had planned to give the plan of salvation lesson again for fabian, but they asked so many questions that lead us to the lesson of the restoration - we gave that entire lesson, and also taught about a ton of different commandments like tithing, word of wisdom, etc all because of the questions they asked! Every single thing we taught, they accepted it completely and wanted to know more. It was just amazing. And thanks to the spirit, we were able to explain everything they wanted to know. We explained what the Book of Mormon is and they were like, wow that makes perfect sense! And then explained everything back to us about the Book of Mormon. They were like, do you have any you can give us? And of course we didnt because we had given the ones we had away haha but we promised them we would give them each one the next day! Fabian and Ciani accepted baptismal dates for the first of november! Her parents almost accepted - they will i know it! :)
The next day the
sunday sessions of general conference and Fabian and Ciani both came to the morning session! And it gets better - a really strong, young couple in the branch apparantly know them! So they sat by them and explained everything. We went by and visited them that night to give them the book of mormon and they said they had been waiting all day to get the books and were really excited to read them! like what?? Haha they said they felt So good in church, that they didnt feel new but instead felt super comfortable and that everyone was super nice (thank goodness) and that they were going to come every
sunday. Fabian said, those men just spoke with such, authority! Yes fabian because they have authority! Haha they say things like that that are just perfect. They said they felt such peace and calm. They even told us they had been having problems as a couple, and since we have visited them everything as been great and they feel so happy. Again, im in shock. When we gave them their book of mormons they were like, thank you so much! And started flipping through the pages, asking all these questions, and seriously they are such a miracle. I feel super unworthy to be able to teach them! They are prepared by God, without a doubt. We actually might even move their baptism up because they are just so ready. It is just amazing to see this.
Our district leader has been talking to us about this (he entered the mtc same day as me so its kinda fun to work together) and hes like, miracles are happening in nicoya. What are you two doing? Answer: Being exactly obedient! I have no doubt that being exactly obedient brings miracles. I have felt so happy this past week because i feel the spirit working through me. I can still improve so much though - be even more obedient and give even more of my heart to the Lord.
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