5-30-11

Monday: Today was a god day. We got up and I wrote a response to Anna.
She had told me to summarize the last year of my life. That wasn`t
going to happen. but I did an adequate job of informing her. For our
activity for the day, we went to the mall and played with the ipad 2.
It was amazing! It was fast and sensitive and had a camera. I`ll leave
it at that. Then we went to write the family. They hadn`t written me.
Elders Hickman and Montalban made about 150 alfajores by hand. They
were crazy! They gave me one, but they had mixed ajì with the
chocolate. Yuck! We went out to teach one of our contacts from
yesterday, but he wasn`t home. My comp. and I reviewed what we had
observed from the Assisstants, and put it in practice. We went to the
Soliz Family for FHE. They made a Chilean pizza with cheese, fried
dough, tomato, meat, and ,what every chilean pizza needs, corn.
Christian let my comp. drive his truck home. He was twitterpated.

Tuesday: Today had its ups and downs. But it ended on an up, so that`s
good. We had our Distrizona and our leader, Elder Cortes, told us that
his best friend had been stabbed to death, back home. He cried a
little as he reminded us why it`s so important to help people find the
Gospel. We had an awesome tie trade as a zone, afterward. I saw an
Elder making up his own music on the piano and thorugh, "What a talent
he has." I thought of all my talents. A lot of them are not very
developed, but nothing to sneeze an either. but what am I REALLY good
at? Knowledge. My comp. makes fun (not in a mean way) for all the
random facts I tell him. I`m really good at memorizing and learning.
In my Patriarchal Blessing it says that I will use the time that
others waste, to study. I think it`s because of my ability to retain
knowledge. including my vocab. In the evening, we spoke with MIrta`s
dad finally. He`s not going to let her get baptized because she`s been
behaving badly since she started linstening to us. We tried to explain
to him that we teach the opposite, but he turned aroudn in
mid-sentence and went inside. My comp. was angry. He`s a sensitive
guy. Mirta came out and we told her she needed to behave well if she
wanted to truly repent. She probably won`t get baptized this week. We
gave Hna. Marìa a blessing of comfort. Her best friend died on Sunday.
We read Scriptures and I just felt such love for her.

Wednesday: Today went really really well for us. We dropped off our
clothes and then went to get our hair cut. After that, we went to do
contacts before lunch. All of a sudden, my comp. said we should turn
down a street. We did, and we got into the third house. The
Assisstants have challenged us to challenge at least one person to
baptism, before lunch, every day. We met Leo (a girl) and challenged
her to be prepared for baptism like Jesus`. She said that she`d never
thought about it before. We walked past a bunch of school kids and my
comp said, "Get ready for the `hellos". Then we heard a kid say,
"hello" in English. So dumb. WE taught Josè, a contact from a few
weeks ago. He let us in and we taught him the Restoration. He`ll pray
about our message. Then we taught Elìas the Law of Chastity. but first
we checked up on his Word of Wisdom progress. He said he was fine, but
his son, Abraham, said he`d drunk some alcohol. We talked to him and
helped. He accepted the Law of Chastity and Eternal families. He will
get married! While we were in the gangster aread, some guys tried to
offer us marijuana. I don`t know what we did differently, but the
people let us into their homes. I love the work! There was a 6.1
earthquake today. Sweet!

Thursday: I saw the biggest miracle of my mission today. When we gave
our numbers to our District Leader, I tol dhim we had a baptisimal
date for mIrta for Saturday, but I didn`t really hope for it. We`ve
fought so hard for so long. I, personally, have been waging a mental
war with myself every day, trying to keep going, and getting weaker
every time. I`ve felt like a worked muscle that bulges against the
strained skin of the surface. I`ve been close to breaking for a while.
It`s been hard and it hurts. My comp. told me that that`s when Christ
comes in and saves us. I just gave him a half-heared smile. We passed
my Mirta early in the afternoon and talked with her. We told her that
if she wanted to get baptized this Saturday she`d need an intervew
tomorow, and our Leader would need to know in advance, or rather,
tonight. She told us she would try her best to get her Father`s
permission before the end of the night. We left it to her, and said
we`d call at 9:30. We did contacts and had an FHE with Melissa and
Maca. After my class, Maca said she`d go to church on Sunday, after 7
years! When we left, we called Mirta, to see how it went. She said it
went "fine." I ws confused and asked if she had permission and she
said, "YES!" yES, YES, YES, YES!!!! She`s gonna get baptized! But she
didn`t have the permission slip, so we went over and made one by hand.
As I was writing, a drunk guy started loitering and mumbling to
himself. When I finished, there were two. I gave the permission slip
to Mirta as one drunk said, "**** your mom." I told him to wash his
mouth because we don`t say things like that in front of a lady. Then
he shoved me, hard. That`s when I realized he wasn`t the funny kind of
drunk. He was the angry kind. He started swearing and kicked me. I
told mirta to get the slip signed and bring it right back. The other
drunk picked up a 5 ft. branch that lay nearby and tehy both followed
me. The first one kicked me in the shin and the inner thigh and the
branch got my upper arm before I noticed a car pull up and 5 gangsters
got out. I got scared. But they were Mirta`s cousins and helped us to
safety while fending off the baddies. Mirta came out and apologized
for her cousin`s father-in-law, who was the drunk. She escorted us to
safety (for which, I just felt silly). When we were alone. I started
weeping. I was unable to speak for a time. I was just so happy that
Heavenly father saw fit to bless Mirta htis way. And the Lord caught
me before I broke. I was weak. My comp. seemed to always KNOW that
she`d get baptized. I need to be more hopeful like him. We fought (and
got beaten up) for this baptism. I don`t know what to think other that
grattitude. After Mirta told her DAd she wanted to get baptized, she
said he was quiet for a while. I`m sure the Spirit worked there,
before he eventually said, "yes."

Friday: Today was a good day. we got all of our stuff ready for our
divisions we would have later. Elder Hickman got me in a bear hug and
grasped my wrists. Elder Calaway got my ankles, and they tossed me on
my bed like a pair of dirty socks. But they had taken all the boards
out and I fell through. I put mustard and ajì in Elder Calaway and
Elder Hickman`s toothpaste. Bwahahaha! We had lunch and then went to
centinela to start the division. elder Cortes came to Hualpencillo
with me. He`s got a bad leg with 9 stitches because of a fall he had
last week. We visited a Sister who was the daughter someone he
baptized with Argueta (they were comps) in Traiguèn. Hna. Rebecca.
She`s so cool. Then we went and taught Elìas the Sabbath Day. He
committed to stop playing Soccer on Sundays. But he`s only going to
come for an hour this week. Oh well. Little by little, I guess. Then
we went to do MIrta`s interview. I was a little nervous, because it
had been a while since we`d actually taught her. But Elder Cortes said
that she was the best interviewee he`d ever had. He said that when
asked about the SAcrament and what it meant, she said it was a way to
renew our Baptisimal covenants and show our love of Jesus Christ by
remembering his atonement. How awesome is that?! Mirta also said that
she wants me to be the one to baptize her. I feel so humbled. I`m
grateful heavenly Father has blessed me so.

Saturday: Today was so amazing! It was absolutely perfect. We went to
Centinela early, to switch our comps. back. on the way home, we picked
up a tunic for MIrta from our Zone Leaders, then our clean laundry.
Then we bought a few completos from Hna. Teresa to help her Daughter`s
mission fund. We then had our actual lunch and hurried over to the
church, to fill up the baptisimal font. While waiting for it to be
filled, we studied. I really liked reading about the Sermon on the
Mount in "Jesus the Christ." Mirta came, and said she was a little
nervous. I told her that I sing when I`m nervous. So we opened a hymn
book and sang "I am a Child of God" together. She felt better. Then
she got baptized. After everything that`s happened, she finally got
baptized. All of the YW leaders and YW were hugging her and whispering
in her ear words of encouragement. Then they sang her a son, "Daughter
of a King." she was crying a lot. You know what happens to an
investigator when the Spirit makes them cry? THEY WIN! They`ve got
their own testimony, their own witness. Then we had an after-party in
a member`s home. She was so happy. While we were there, we got our new
transfers. I`m staying here, with Elder Calaway! I was smiling and
shouting for joy and all the members were happy for me. Some of them
had already written me letters of farewell. I love this ward! I have
so much love for Mirta.

Sunday: We have fought for Mirta every step of the way. When we went
to pick her up, her dad came out and said that because she got home
later last night, she hadn`t done her chores and had to do them today.
But after explaining the Gift of the Holy Ghost he let her come for
Sacrament Meeting. There were three baby blessings and we participated
in one. During the blessing, I heard a little hiccup and felt a
*splat* on my shoe. the baby threw up on my shoe! Which was just as
well `cause I`d forgotten to polish this morning. haha. Mirta wanted
me to confirm her, but I told her to let Elder Calaway confirm her. He
did it, and I metaphorically let my shoulders sag in relief. We`ve
done everything we could and fought to the end. We worked until it was
out of our hands. I made a good analogy for being Senior comp. It`s
like when you were a kid and had to stop eating cheerios in Sacrament
Meeting and start paying attention. It becomes YOUR responability. I`m
used to it now. But I remember being so stressed at the beginning, but
it`s better. I like that quote that says, "God doesn`t call those that
are trained. He trains those that are called." That would be something
I`d share with future missionaries. Answer the call, and it is SO
worth it! Maca, the inactive member we`ve ben working with, came to
church today. We stopped by in the afternoon and it was her husband`s
birthday. We helped throw a surprise party fo rhim. Elder Montalbàn
reads in English scriptures to learn. But he would always pronounce
"yea" as "yeah." so he would say "Behold, YEAH" really loud. Hilarious