It sounds like things are really exciting with the Bee Party and I really liked the talk that dad sent :) This week was pretty funny/hard and so many things happened I don't even know where to start.
Well, I guess I will start with the really funny old man who asked my companion to marry him. She contacted him in the street and he was probably 70 years old. He spent half an hour telling us how we were from the devil and evil and then he started speaking Masagua which is a different language here in our area, and said if we had the spirit we would be able to understand him, and then out of nowhere he asked my companion if she wanted to marry him! It was so funny because it came out of nowhere and her response was so funny! So that was great :)
Also this week, we were working on getting Adriana and Laurdes baptized. Laurdes' daughters are the people that I am sitting on the hammock with in the photo. Also, we had to go clean the baptismal font because the room doesn't have a roof so leaves and dirt and bugs get in the baptismal font and it is pretty nasty.
Then the craziest part of the week was the giant parade. We were walking through the street in Santa Rosa and we saw all kinds of flowers hanging up and all kinds of balloons and we were like-- "oh how pretty"! Then all of a sudden we heard like chanting and drums and all kinds of yelling. We got a little freaked out and thought about turning around when all of a sudden thousands of people started walking towards us carrying crosses and altars and they were all chanting. That was when I got pretty freaked out and was positive we should turn around but then we found Diana and she told us everything was ok. She said it was just a parade for the Virgin of Santa Rosa. I guess different pueblos have their own virgin they don't just celebrate the virgin Mary. So that was the first day of working on Friday where you couldn't move through the streets because there were so many people. The second day wasn't as bad because there were just little shops that covered all the streets so it actually made contacting easier because people weren't as crazy-- just buying things. It was good because everyone was out of their houses so we could talk to them.
Also on Saturday we went to look for an investigator and I figured out we walked close to 7 miles to find them which doesn't sound like that much, but when you are walking up a mountain you really feel like you are going to die! hahah! It was super sad because when we got there she wasn't home, so we had to walk back and we thought all that work was for nothing, but then it was crazy because I guess a lady had seen us walking there and wondered why we were there. So when she saw us in El Oro she asked what religion we were, if she could have one of the pamphlets that we have and said that we could come visit her at her house! It was a miracle because I was really feeling bad this past week with the lack of people to teach. Looks like all it took was walking up a mountian :)
One thing I have learned in the mission is that is called missionary work for a reason but at the same time it can be one of the most rewarding things you ever do. You can have the desire, you can have faith, but if you aren't doing the work, and if you aren't doing your part you can't ever see miracles.
This week I was reading a lot about John the Baptist, and I think he is now one of my favorite prophets. I love how it talks about in Jesus the Christ when his father Zacharais went to the temple no one expected him to see an angel because they thought visions and angels were a thing of the past ( just like people today) but he saw the angel Gabriel and he told him he was going to have a son. I think my favorite thing about John the Baptist was how humble he was. He had lots of people listening to him and people asking if he was the Christ, but he never let it go to his head he said that there was someone else coming who he was not even worthy to unlatch his shoe. I also love when Jesus comes, John tells two of his disciples that this is Jesus the Christ and tells them to leave and follow him. How many people, when they have power and followers are willing, tell them to leave and follow someone greater. Finally my favorite part about John is when it says that he never performed miracles but fulfilled his calling of testifying of Christ. I thought a lot about that last part about how many times in the mission or in live we want miracles,we want signs but John's greatest calling was to testify of Christ through his words and his deeds, which is everyone of our callings here in this life. That's to testify of Christ. It says great things about John the Baptist in the bible dictionary and also in Jesus the Christ if you want to read a little of it it is so good.
I have also been studying the sacrament a little which is super interesting but I still haven't found my answers so if you find any good talks about the sacrament I would love it if you could send them to me! Also this week I think I heard the best talk in church I have ever heard in my whole life. It was all about exaltation and my favorite line from this speaker was "Everyone talks about how salvation is personal. And that's true. But exaltation is not personal. To receive exaltation you need your family". I just loved the talk so much because she talked about how often we worry about ourselves, are we reading our scriptures, do we have a testimony, are we being obedient? How often do we worry for the welfare of our family members? Are we helping their testimony grow? Are we helping our family to be a celestial family? We don't want to make it to the celestial kingdom only to have Heavenly Father ask us where our family is. It was such a good talk! Anyway I hope you have a great week and have fun at school :)
Love,
Hermana Jones
ps. the fruit in the picture is prickly pear. The name is "tuna" here.
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