This week was a rough week for Sister Malta. She hit her one year mark a little bit ago and was feeling very homesick this week. Then two families we were teaching cut us and that did not help with her optimism! So I had to definitely step up this week and be more of the senior companion. It was weird to be the one encouraging her when I am the one with way less experience with the work and language. One morning during companion study she broke down crying. After some hugs and hot chocolate I was able to get her calmed down though (chocolate works wonders!). I then shared the story of the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon with her. We always remember them as these amazing, super successful missionaries. And while this is true, they also had a whole lot of trials too! I shared some scriptures about all of their difficulties with her and told her that when things are hard here we are in good company! We are among the greatest missionaries of all time! I promised her that if we had faith and worked hard that day the Lord would bless us with miracles. I also decided to fast for her too. That evening, sure enough, the Lord came through! We met a man while we were out knocking doors and had an amazing lesson with him. He was there alone so it was just standing on the street by his gate. Yet it was one of the coolest lessons I have had yet. I would ask him a question and then he would go off and explain his thoughts on the topic- which were always exactly what I was going to teach! At the end of our lesson he explained that he had seen our chapel several times and thought to himself, someday, God is going to send someone to invite you to visit this church. I got to be that person! This was on Friday night. Saturday evening he came to a baptism for the other sisters here and Sunday he came to church. We have another lesson marked with him for Tuesday night with his whole family! I am so excited for him! The coolest part was to see everything come together- my promise and prayer for Sister Malta, his prayer about visiting the church... Nossa (WOW), God is real!
Remember that family I wrote about last week? Elsa and her kids? Well, her brother is in the hospital in a coma because of excessive drinking. He has been there for quite awhile, always with a fever and not doing so well. She visits everyday to clean him up and stay with him. Saturday night when we met with her for a lesson, we had a couple in our branch come along. We talked a bit about the priesthood during the lesson and then she asked this brother to say the closing prayer. In the prayer, he asked a blessing upon her brother. The next morning she went to the hospital before church. When she arrived the nurses told him that his fever had finally broken! He was doing better all around. She asked more and found out that his fever broke around 8:30 the night before- exactly the time we were ending the lesson! She definitely has a testimony of the power of prayer now! It was definitely a miracle. The only problem is that she and her husband were only married in the state or something like that- so it isn't valid for baptism. So we have to figure out how to get that resolved with them and paid for before they can be baptized. Time and money :( We are going to try and mark baptismal dates with two of her kids who are old enough this week though.
Things are in motion for mixing things up in the branch here. We finally convinced the branch president to call an instructor for our Sunday school class! We really don't have the time to prep a lesson each week. We do fine, but with an instructor it is much better. So we had an amazing week with this recently returned missionary teaching for us. Then the next week the President called her to be a counselor in YWs... haha, so we are back to square one there! We are starting up some English classes this week. I am a bit nervous about that... I don't really know how to teach English, but hey, things will work out- they always do! We also have an activity planned for next week that I am really excited about! A night of desserts! So basically we are having a dessert show-down in the branch. Each family has to bring a dessert and then we judge them and the best dessert gets a prize and the title. I have high hopes for the activity. It is perfect for inviting our pesquisadores (investigators) and doesn't take too much time or prep on our part. We also want to do a big plan of salvation activity- where everyone starts on a plane, dies, and then goes to different rooms and learns about the spirit world and degrees of glory and such. It is going to take a lot more planning and prep though. So we are in the process of working with the branch president to get members here to take over running everything. If it all works out how I see it in my head, it will be awesome! You could try some activities like that there too. We call them nights of integration. Simple (well, usually...) activities that members can invite friends to and we cam bring pesquisadores (investigators) to. Everyone gets to know each other and gets a look at the chapel.
And some of your questions : I wear my hair up everyday except for p-day. So it stays looking pretty good. Buns are like the best thing ever! We go out rain or shine. Though this week it was near constant rain. So my umbrella and rain jacket are getting good use! If it isn't too windy we can stay pretty dry, so we aren't too gross and soggy when we teach. I always look forward to lessons with our good investigators. I also love visiting the members in our branch and getting to know them better. Those are definitely highlights. I also love Mondays at about 12:00... that is a magical time!
I love you all!
Sister Emma Maxwell
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| Hard work calls for a selfie |
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