Monday, September 2, 2013

#39 [Independencia -11] Sept. 2nd, 2013

HI THERE!!!!

Yay for Camille!!! She’s married!!! weird... but good for her. Way to go, Camille!!! ETERNAL MARRIAGE is the best. The only way to be happy eternally. Ah, the mission has really made me excited to get married, just because it’s one of the main things we talk about, “you can have your family forever”– “the gospel can bless your family and strengthen it” – “a Christ-centered home is the best home to have”, etc. Gosh. I can’t even apply these principles in my life, yet :) haha anyways.

Thanks for the update, as usual. I am super happy that you got my leaf mail. I thought it would be legit, and it was. We did write on it while it was green, and let it harden up for a few days until we sent it, to make sure it wouldn’t crumble. I actually put a stamp on it, but I guess it fell off. I didn’t think it would work if I taped it on, because they might think it was not legal or something. So I guess there is a stamp somewhere, lost.

Also, glad Jeff got my letter. Did he like it? haha I bet he did :) haha and also, another thing. I am happy that you get to meet B’s parents. She is the best. I think the world of her, and we are going to be friends for sure after, so you might as well become best friends with her parents, too. Then we can just hang out all the time together, hah.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH - A G! I love that kid. It should be ok to have him (chat on Facebook with Heather), he is such a sweetie. But he is not getting baptized. He has all of the lessons, and just won’t get in the water. He is K’s best friend. Just tell him that he should get baptized. Maybe she can do some missionary work! That would be helpful to the sisters in Azua. I know they just tried his 5th baptismal date, and he failed on that one, too. What a weirdy. Maybe ignore him. Jeff had a friend from his mission that did that to me, too. I was definitely creeped out. hahahah

Here is the week in review. Get ready for this :) it was a good one.

SO after we had written on Monday, we went to A's to prep her for the baptism. We were stoked because we were positive that she would be getting baptized, and it wouldn’t fall through like last baptism... :( So we get there, and she’s like, “Hermanas, I have a problem. I enrolled for school, because I don’t have my high school diploma, and I paid for my classes, and I just got my schedule. It starts on Saturday from 2-6, and then on Sunday from 8-12; every weekend.” So she signed up for these classes, because she’s from Spain, and her credits didn’t transfer over, so she can’t get a job here, so she wanted to get work, so she could support her and her son. So she did this to be self-sufficient. And there was a problem, because this special course lasts until January, and it would give her the last 2 years of high school, in just a few months, and it would be easier to get a job faster. So she had that problem. Our hearts sunk super deep. We weren’t sure what to do because both things are good. We asked her if she could talk to her profersora and see if she could miss class on Sunday, so she would be able to go to sacrament meeting, and so we planned on meeting up with her again Tuesday. Tuesday came, and she had not talked to the teacher. She thought that maybe there would be another time for church, so she looked into that. Right after that, we decided to have a fast for her. So me and Herm. B. fasted. Man, it was SUPER tough. We had no energy, and it was hard, but worth it. (and then, to make it even harder, when we got home to eat dinner, we found out we had no electricity in half of our house—which lasted for 5 days, and that we had no gas for a stove. So we moved the microwave into the kitchen—one of the only places with power, and made microwave-able lasagna. Super good. Anyways, back to A.) We go back on Wednesday, and she’s like, “I don’t know what to do. I can’t miss a class at all, or else I have to suspend the program and wait a year to do school. I don’t know what to do. I want to get baptized, etc.” and so we’re like, “A, we’re gonna be blunt. The bigger the sacrifice, the more God blesses us.” And we go off on that in Spanish obviously for a bit, and then she starts to tear up, and tells us that she has made a decision. So we filled out the paperwork and got all ready for the baptism. It was a miracle. I know it all worked out because of her faith and our prayers. We worked way too hard for her to not get baptized. It was such a tender mercy. I feel so blessed to be able to be one of "her missionaries.” Ah, I love her.

I say baptisms because 3 people got baptized. The other herms had 2 baptisms. One was an 8 year old, and the other was a father; the last one in his family. It was a great baptism. That family had been praying for 20 years for him to accept the gospel, and now they are so happy. It was a fantastic Saturday :) I will for sure send some pics.

Random note, I started a new journal. I am still 100% on my days. How are your journals? Are you keeping a good history of the happenings in Orem ?

Also, we had a recent convert give us some super ugly clothes the other day, and I decided to wear a vest because we were going to her house—and she wasn’t there, so I wore the hideous vest all day. It could’ve been one of the worst days of the mission because of that dumb, ugly vest. Never again. She missed out seeing me in it. A lot of old people told me I looked nice. That’s not really a compliment, seeing how they have zero fashion here...haha.

Also, we did intercambios the other day. It was fun, except all we did was walk. She’ll get over it, because really, you do a lot of that out here. She’ll see.

Haha man, I love my mission. Anyways, I am so glad to be here serving. It’s crazy that waking up early to do the exact same thing day after day can be so rewarding and fun. I love it, and don’t know why. Just know that I love you all so much and hope you are having a great time, too. I also bore my testimony in church for the first time since I have been out, and I FREAKED out. Man, it is so tough, which is weird, because that is all I do, 24/7. Weird how that worked. I still sound like a 2 year old when I bear it, but oh well. Judged!

I hope you have a great week! I will talk to you in 7 days! (not like I am counting... it just happens that I know how many days are in a week... haha.) But tell the grandparents “Happy Grandparents Day” on Sunday :)

Peace and blessings—stay out of trouble,

Herm Erickson 1

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