Oh my heavens this week was SO eventful! Like its insane. I think I am still recovering from it. Just so many crazy things happened. But first I have a story to tell. Yall will enjoy it.
So, yesterday morning I get out of the shower and I was just getting ready. I am standing there and I realized I was standing in a puddle of water. I looked down and I was like... umm.. that's super weird! So then I looked to see where it was coming from and I couldn't figure it out. So I was like, "Hermana! Can you come figure out where this water is coming from?!". She comes in and we realized that it was streaming down the wall. Great. So then it starts dripping slowly out of the electrical vent in the ceiling. We called Elder Nilsen who is the housing coordinator and he told us to go talk to the people upstairs and figure out what was going on! Right as we get off the phone the water starts coming out like a faucet out of the vent!!! So we ran upstairs as fast as we could to talk to the people that live above us. We go up and there was a kid sitting on the couch with his shirt off and they were bringing mattresses into the front room. This was our conversation:
Me: "Hey do you guys have a leak??"
Kid: (nods his head)
Me: "Are you trying to fix it?"
Kid: (shakes his head to say no)
WHAT?! I was so frustrated. Then the guy like comes over with his cigarette, looks at me, then walks back into the back room. I was like okay I am so over this. So we walk downstairs to call maintenance and the lady that lives upstairs was down there and was freaking out!! Because she said she had knocked on that door and was really worried about whoever lived up in the apartment right above them because that is where the water was coming from!! They were having the same problem as us, just worse. The firemen said though that the line in the toilet had gotten old and broken. There was like 2 inches of water in that apartment! We felt a little dumb for freaking out but it was good because they were able to stop the problem fast. So the maintenance guy came and vacummed up all the 1 inch of water that was in our bathroom and soaking the carpet by the bathroom. Then we packed up our stuff to stay with the other sisters for the night. It was crazy. Its a miracle we got to church on time AND a miracle that it didn't happen in the middle of the night. I said to Hermana Villarreal, "WELCOME TO THE MISSION. Crazy stuff like this happens all the time!". haha such an adventure.
This week we also had Stake Conference. They wanted all the missionaries to sing Called to Serve with the youth! It was really cute. But the theme of Stake Conference on Saturday night was Hastening the Work. They talked mainly about the new way to do missionary work. GET COMFORTABLE. Get comfortable with who you are, persecutions, success, failures, happiness... just get comfortable. We are different. Its just how it is. The LDS send missionaries out at ages 18 and 19 for 2 years (a year and a half), we don't drink coffee or tea, we go to church on Sunday for 3 hours, we believe in things that people think are crazy. And that's just how it is. We must be comfortable with who we are. We must truly converted to the Lord, and live as someone who is truly converted. That is the greatest way that we can do missionary work. People notice who we are. If we are living the gospel and all of the commandments, then people will notice. By our example, we can do missionary work. People always wonder why we are so happy. Its the GOSPEL. Seriously. This is such a great knowledge that we have and we would be selfish not to share it with others. It hit me hard that I am being selfish if I don't talk to everyone and tell them how much this gospel could bless their lives. We should be missionaries now and for the rest of our lives. Persecution will come, but so will the spirit. Even when I get rejected, I still feel good. Its really hard, but I still feel good! I know that I am doing everything I can to share the gospel. So we have to know that it wont always work out perfectly, but that we are doing everything that the Lord has asked us to do. Major brownie points in heaven :) My favorite thing they said was, "Our position is solid. The Church is true." BAM. There you go. Another thing that really hit me was what President Ashton said. P.S. He is like a genius. He said, "Missionaries are great finders and they will continue to find. But the people who will get baptized are the one who you (members) refer to us." I know that that is true. Ive seen it on my mission. Which is why member missionary is so important. I am excited to use what I have learned here on my mission to be a member missionary. I think I might go a little crazy but its fine. :) OH! Okay so also in Stake Conference they had everyone stand up if they were a 1st generation member, and if they were a 2nd generation member. That was me! I was in that moment just so incredibly grateful for members that were a good example to you dad and introduced you to the gospel, and then for missionaries who taught you! Things would be a lot different if that had never happened. I know this church is true and we have such a great work to do here! And there is so much of it so we need to work as hard as we can :)
Okay lets see what else happened this week.... our investigators are doing great!! We saw the Arredondos every single day and they are THE BEST!! They are seriously like grandparents to us. They fed us every single time we went over there and said, "we know that they don't give you guys a lot of money for your food so you are all welcome to come here and eat whenever you want!" SCORE!!! haha that was the greatest thing I had ever heard! We talked to Maria about baptism and taught her and her granddaughter about it with a diagram that I made and they totally understood! There are some things keeping her back though. Rejection of family, her husband not agreeing with some of the commandments, and that she has already been baptized before. She is progressing a lot though and is doing really really well! We love them so much. We also had a really awesome lesson with Eva. Well, awesome and really frustrating. I wont talk about the frustrating part though. All I know is that for about 5 minutes the spirit was SO strong. Her boyfriend had a question about who was the father of God? And before I didn't really know how to answer that question, but after studying and time in the temple, I knew what to say to him. God got His body the same way we got ours. And I told him about how there are other worlds too and he was like "Thank you. You are the only person from any religion that has been able to tell me that." I felt the spirit so strong and I think he is more open to listening to us now! it was just such an awesome experience to have on my mission. I learned a lot from that too. And I know that if we follow the spirit, that the Lord will tell us what we need to say.
Everyone else is doing so good! It finally warming up here in Galveston. I forgot what its like here in Texas.... soooo humid. Biking around with my hair stuck to my neck. no bueno. But I LOVE IT! I love everything about my mission. I am learning so much everyday! Hope you all have a great week!!! Love you all and thank you for your prayers and encouragement!
Con amor,
Hermana Dorian
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