He Loves Us Personally!

Buenas tardes :) 

         This week was ten times better than last week! Hermana Valencia and I have clicked and have had so much fun but worked so hard :) She’s pretty much a newbie so it’s great because she does what I say ;) haha just kidding! I love it because she’s so ready to learn. She still struggles a bit with the schedule, but she’s still adjusting so I’m trying to understand and be patient with that. I just have to remember how I felt when I had 3 months and it makes it a lot easier. She is hilarious though and we have spent this week laughing :) 

         I am SO excited about one investigator. Gerardo :) He is SO ready! It’s almost too good to be true. There’s gotta be some problem.... But really. It was the best. I was inviting him to be baptized and before I could even finish the invitation he was like, "Yes! When? Tomorrow I’m busy and the day after tomorrow as well, but just tell me when." We were both in shock just like, is this really happening right now? He came to church Sunday by himself and loved it. He only stayed for 2 hours though so he needs to attend 3 more times :( But wow, it was a great week seeing him progress.

         I was thinking a lot about how we even found Gerardo. Cool story. One day we were running late to an appointment. We were supposed to be in two places at once. Jhenciano was taking us to meet his brother, and we were supposed to teach a convert at the same time. I don’t know how it happened but we just happened to have two members with us. So I decided we’d do divisions. I went with Jhenciano to visit his brother with a member and Hermana Ordoñez went to the convert. During the lesson with Jhenciano’s brother, Gerardo walked in. We invited him to listen and I remember the lesson with him was so great. He got emotional and asked us if we could visit him. I have no idea what happened but we could not find his house for like two weeks! We went to find it and they told us that they didn’t know anyone named Gerardo. We were bummed thinking he had given us the wrong address, but then one day Jhenciano was like, "Hey Gerardo wants to know why you haven’t visited him." Jhenciano took us to show us where he lived. It’s just amazing to see how God was there in every single moment. It’s not coincidence. God really does put people in our paths. 

         And remember Ana? She now has a baptismal date in November! She pretty much just has problems with her family. They’re all really Catholic. She’s scared to tell them her decision. But I know she can do it :)

         We have really been blessed this week, and I feel it came from talking with families. With Hermana Ordoñez we were contacting, but not as much as we should have been. This new transfer has brought new animos though! Last week we talked with 14 families. I thought talking with so many families would mean we would have a ton of new investigators. Nope. We only had one. But the blessings came in other ways. We had three investigators at church, which is more than I’ve seen in my time here in Ignacio Merino. We have two with a baptismal date, which is also more than we’ve had here in a while. And we had 5 with a member, which is the highest number we’ve had in this area in more than 6 weeks. We were so blessed! Maybe not in the ways we thought, but we were blessed. I remember we walked around Tuesday and Wednesday as appointments fell through and people weren’t home. We were bummed, and it wasn’t the best way to start off the transfer, but we kept going and were able to see miracles :)

         With all the contacting, of course we found some crazies haha. We were contacting a lady and some mean lady looked at us with this awful look and screamed, "Don’t change your religion!! Those Mormons have seven wives!!!" And the lady we were contacting looked at us and was like, "What did she say?" and we were just like, "Uhh... We have no idea..." haha there’s always opposition, but it was kinda funny this time :) The best part is that we keep seeing that same crazy lady like every day! Next time we’re gonna contact her ;)

         Also Mary is progressing so well! And her son Bill! They came to church Sunday. Her and four of her kids :) It was SO great! She needs to get married first, but Bill is so ready. We’re gonna see what we can do this week. Maybe there’s a matrimonio massivo coming up and she can get married for free. :) That would be great!

         Anyway, God loves us. That’s all there is to it. We will never understand how much he loves us. I’ve been able to understand this a lot more in the mission. He loves us personally :) I KNOW it! 

        And I love you all :) Hope you have the best week. See you in fiiiiive! :) 

Love,

Hermana Roper