life is too good 11/17/2013

This is Maria Herrarte, the grandma of the Santos kids who lives there too. I guess she was baptized in a pond in Guatemala 45 years ago, but we are still searching for her records, so we may get to rebaptize her! We love her so much. ah. she is just full of goodness and Spanish and every time she is telling us a story, if she starts laughing she does that thing that Nate does where he flicks his wrist and his fingers make a snapping noise. Lots of hispanic women do that. It is really darling.

 

Yesterday was one of those days where I was just sitting in Sacrament Meeting and I felt like light was coursing through me I was so happy. I am just so grateful for every experience I have had on my mission, and so excited for the future. IT IS SO BRIGHT! And I only know the future will be bright because the present is so wonderful. We have been working really hard this transfer, and as a result have so many dear relationships and our lives are just filled with loving these people and seeing lives change.

We had a lesson at 8 am yesterday (finally!) with the father of a part member family. The father, who is really awesome and has a lot of questions about our religion. So anyways he invited us over yesterday to finally have a lesson with him. We brought a member couple who they are pretty good friends with. When we showed up the entire trailer had been cleaned out, there was even a nice electronic waterfall picture making bird noises on the wall. We walked into the kitchen to see a huge stack of pancakes and a box of kolaches awaiting us, along with 9 steaming mugs of Atole. All of those little details just filled our hearts because it shows us how much they love us and how much hope they have that the father will receive the gospel. As we sat down to eat he just started asking questions and opening up about his background and all of his feelings about God. It was perfect. We had so many great opportunities to testify of and explain the Restoration. He is so excited about the Book of Mormon. As we were wrapping up he said to us (this is my translation): "What you two do is rare and special. You actually enjoy your work, and you do it with affection. I've told my wife many times that you are special because instead of doing this to obligate people you do it because you love them. You can see the affection in your faces. Never change that!" It was like he was pouring sunshine into our souls. It was as delicious as the pancakes.

We are working with Kelvin. He is ready and really wants to be baptized, but his mom who is not a member (his grandma and uncle are the ones who converted years ago) says he would be doing it for the wrong reasons. Please pray for her heart to be opened. He is an amazing boy. He is like.....King Limhi. He turned out to be humble, teachable, and loves God, even though his father was incredibly wicked.

We are also teaching another sweet little family. Last night after our lesson the mom asked which of us had made the little girl  the bracelet we gave her for her birthday yesterday. I bashfully raised my hand and she said "It cost you didn't it?" and as I started to wave my hand to say "Aw it was nothing" she slipped her own bracelet over my wrist, stopping me mid-sentence. It is a bracelet with John 3:16 inscribed on it.

16 ¶For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.

 

That is how the Hispanics are. They just give and give and smile at you with all the warmth in their souls while they give and then hug you. I love my mission. so much. I can't imagine what could have been better for me than working with Hispanics from all over south and central america. There is nothing better for me. I hope when I come home I take them home in who I am.

The BEST part of the lesson was when we asked the mom to pray and she got shy and said "oh no, one of you do it" and all of her kids chimed in "MOM! You never do it! Please!" so she consented to help the youngest (4) say the closing prayer. And how they all understood and agreed to read the book of mormon because as the 12 year old said, "if we feel God with us we will know it is true."

ahhhhh......oh and then also, we got the transfer text last night, which sealed my joy because both Hermana Hale and I will be staying here in Louetta west for the holidays. I fell to the floor in a fit of happy laughter and sighs. I couldn't sleep for happiness. Heavenly Father is really just too kind.