I'm A Missionary...NOT A Lawyer :)

Familia :)

         Another boring week for you guys eh? That’s just the way I like it ;) There´s no such thing as a boring week in the mission... Sorry. But this week FLEW. I think every week goes by faster than the one before. I don’t like it. But it was a great week :)

         Okay let´s see... Okay first Hermano Julio. He´s a keeper. I’m pretty sure I told you all about him? But yeah we had another lesson with him this week, and he loved it! He said if he can get an answer, (which we all know he will if he really wants to) then he wants to get baptized :) He came to church yesterday, and loved it also. It was so neat to watch the members help him out. They were by his side every second! And a little bit about him... He´s 56, and divorced. He said he had depression because of it for a while, but feels like he´s in a good place now. He lives with his mom and sister and they are soooo against the church. But with time they’ll come around right? :) 

         Richard is also getting baptized this Friday! We had the most awkward lesson I’ve ever had on my mission (and that’s sayin somethin) about the Law of Chastity. Hermana. Arce is new, and it was her first time teaching the Law of Chastity, so she didn’t talk much, so guess who got to have pretty much all of the embarrassment? Yep. Me. She just laughed at me afterwards, that lil punk haha. Love her. But anyway... I whipped out my Law of Chastity pamphlet and he seriously just started laughing! What the heck Richard?! He’s 23, and is quite a funny bugger, but really?! But he´s great, and even if it was awkward, he is changing his life around. Worth all the embarrassment! Gotta love those Law of Chastity lessons... 

         And guess what?! Cesar has a baptism date! He’s the one with that disease I can’t spell... But yeah, we were teaching the Word of Wisdom and he started talking about the voices he hears and stuff and I was ready to say, "Okay can we end with a prayer?" When Hermana Arce says, "What are you willing to do to feel peace in your life?" I just looked at her like wow. That´s my companion right there. Challenging Cesar to baptism again even after he turned her down the first time. (And she was pretty bummed the first time) But then Cesar says, "I want to be baptized. I know I said I wanted a year to prepare, but give me one more month, and I’ll be ready." Such a miracle! He´s getting baptized Feb 28th :) Love my companion :) 

         Funny story time. Okay Hermana Blanca is a lil crazy haha. She’s a lil old lady... 80 somethin years old. Well, we saw her walking down the road and decided to go help her. She ended up taking us to this house she said was her husbands that she wanted to get into. I’m not sure what happened, but she doesn’t have keys to get in. So she asks the people in charge of the apartments if she can get it and they told her no, that she doesn’t have the right to get in. So then Hermana Blanca says, "It’s been four months. Why wont you let me in?!" and then points to me and says, "Look! I brought my lawyer with me today to talk to you!" WHAT? Pretty sure I’m a missionary NOT a lawyer lol. It was so funny! But the best part was after. We walked her back to her house and taught her a little bit, and invited her to come to church with us and she says, "Hermanas... I don’t like to lie. I don’t think Ill be able to go." Hmmm... Doesn’t like to lie eh? Gotta love Hermana Blanca. 

         Also another funny thing is watching us run from water balloons. Here from Jan. 20th to Feb. 20th EVERYONE is throwing water balloons all the time! Usually it’s little kids, but this week we had full-grown men throwing them at us lol. What did we ever do to them?! :(

         Sad moment of the week... For the third Sunday in a row Diana and Gabriel didn’t show up for church. :( We went and saw her this week, and it was great. Gabriel wasn’t there so we didn’t talk about marriage, but we talked a lot with her about how she feels about the things she found on the Internet and the Book of Mormon. She admitted that she was a little mad when she found everything, but now she understands that everyone has weaknesses. She said she feels bad for Joseph Smith because he had so much responsibility, and that people need to be more understanding. She also said that she finally feels like shes a part of something. She said before she read the Bible by herself, but now she feels like she's part of a family. She also said to tell mom hi :) She said we´re best friends for now, but you can have me back as your bestie in 10 months haha. Something I’ll always remember that she said though was, "No debemos preguntar por que. Debemos preguntar a Dios PARA que." This pretty much means we shouldn’t ask why things happen, but we should try to look for what we can learn in every situation. So I asked her what she thinks the reason is that she came to know about the church and she said to become a better person, and have more unity and love in her family, and to be happier. Keep praying for them! They’ve gotta come around someday... But like you said mom, it took our family a looooong time to come around, so I definitely need to be more understanding. 

         Well, that´s about all that I can think of that happened right now... And I don’t have much more time anyway soooo talk to you next week :) Love you so much family! 

Love,

Hermana Roper