Hola. ¿Que tal? Soy la Hermana Ashby.
Wow a ton has happened this week. Hopefully I have time to write it all.
Last Monday I was sick. Well not really sick, I just had a fever. Of 102.1 but no other symptoms. It was seriously the weirdest thing. My throat felt fine and I didn't even feel nauseous at all and so we called the mission nurse and she made us cancel all of our appointments and told me that if I still had a fever in the morning that I had to go to the doctor whether I had other symptoms or not. I was sort of really upset. And then I still had a fever in the morning but it was only at 101 and we had a district meeting and Hna Parrilla and I were supposed to teach a lesson and the mission nurse wouldn't answer the phone and so we just decided to go anyways. But then on the bus I began to feel worse so I asked Hna Parrilla if she could teach more than we were planning and so she did. But then we got to the chapel and I didn't want anyone to know I was sick so I acted fine and then we taught. I started out the lesson but I didn't do anything else. And I could tell that everyone thought it was reaaaallyy bad that I wasn't participating and our zoner leader even asked me specifically a really obvious question THAT I WAS ABLE TO ANSWER BTW. (this all happened in Spanish) And I was really upset and we got home and I just felt sick and like I was the most useless missionary ever. And then our zone leader called. He asked us to read chapter seven in preach my gospel about learning my mission language and really try to apply it this week. I just started crying. I had already read that stupid chapter about fifty times. sigh. And so I told Hermana Parrilla that we had to work really had this week to find new investigators and find futures and have investigators in church on Sunday so that the elders can see that we actually work. And I just prayed for success and for the gift of tongues. And that is when the miracles came in.
So on Wednesday we were searching for an old investigator from our area book and the phone number we had was wrong so we decided to visit the piso. We knocked on the door and this eleven year old girl answered. Her name is Yasmine. She was not the old investigator but we asked if we could teach her and her parents anyways and she just got really excited and asked us to come in. We were a little worried because her mom wasn't there but we started teaching her and she was weirdly receptive. And then we brought out The Book of Mormon and she was just excited and she told us her friend Nayeli has that book and reads it with her family every night and her friend told her how amazing it was.We were like who is this Nayeli that is teaching people about the Book of Mormon? Becasue she isnt a member and nobody in the ward has ever heard of her. We have plans to visit her this week don´t worry. And so then the mom came home. Diana. And we were terrified at first because she was like who are you and what are you teaching my eleven year old but then we said we were missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ and she was like, "oh, okay" and she sat down and asked us to preach to her. Then we taught a whole lesson and they just agreed with everything we said and asked if they could come to church with us and they wanted to read the Book of Mormon and they were so happy and we kept thinking they were joking when they were excited to know more but they were not joking and we were just overjoyed. We visited again on Friday and they agreed to prepare themselves to be baptized the 12th of April. They are Brazilian so go figure. Those people come pre prepared to hear the truth.
Another miracle happened too, but I think I only have time to share what happened last night. But it really started in Principles of the gospel lesson during Sunday school. The lesson was about eternal families. I was helping Carmela ( the same women we teach every Sunday night how to read) follow along in the lesson manual and I just felt so sad and I couldn't figure out why. But then I realized that while everyone else in the class was sharing happy experiences about being sealed with their families Carmela doesn't know whether her family will be eternal. Her husband isn't a member and he doesn't even let her stay for all three hours of church. I honestly almost started crying right then and there for her. I mad it my personal goal to get that family to the temple. I was obsessed all Sunday and I kept telling Hna Parrilla all day that we have to get Julio baptized and she was just like "okay Hermana we will ask him if he wants to listen to our lessons but don't get your hopes up other missionaries have tried and he never wants anything to do with us." But I honestly didn't care. This was sooo important to me. So we got to their apartment and we sat down and Carmela went to the kitchen and Julio walked so I just started nudging Hna Parrilla and she rolled her eyes and was like, "Julio you want us to teach you about out church?" and of course his answer was no. I was really frustrated with her and with the whole situation and and so I turned to him and in the clearest slowest español I could muster I just started asking him if he believes in God and how he feels about our church and whether or not his family is important to him.
Everyone was in shock because normally I am pretty much a mute when we go to their house because they neeevvveeerrr understand me. But he understood me this time, I made sure of it. All of his answers were really positive so I decided to just go for it and challenge him to be baptized on the 12th of April. I explained to him that if he wants to be with his family for eternity he is going to have to be baptized and then be sealed with them in the temple of the Lord. Now everyone was really in shock. They seriously all just stared at me and then at Julio. AND HE AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!! I grinned and high fived him. I think Hna Parrilla is still in shock. We start teaching him the lessons on Thursday. I really hope that everything goes well with him.
Entonces, ¡tenemos tres fechas bautismals!
So thats it for right now. I have 20 minutes left but I will use them later today. We are going bowling with our whole district. Woot!!
Love you all!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
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