This has been quite an interesting week. It has been pouring rain like crazy! So every night my pants and shoes have been covered in mud (see attached pictures). But the work has been great! Spanish is still difficult but I find that when I listen to people carefully and love them and focus on them instead of my Spanish I am able to understand and say so much more. Because its not about me speaking Spanish, its about that person feeling the Spirit.
So, the other day started out as a disaster because I accidentally locked the keys in the house. Elder Peña said (rather quickly) "tiene los llaves" and I said yes before I totally understood what he said and then he swung the door shut right as I realized what just happened. The door automatically locks when it shuts and the only other key was in the centro en Eldorado. So after we ate lunch with a member we got on a bus for the centro. I felt like crap because we were missing out on proselyting time and also because I felt stupid. Then, the place was closed cause it was ciesta time (naps) so we had to wait for like 15 extra minutes. During this time I just prayed that Heavenly Father could make up the difference for my mistake and that I would work as hard as I could if he could only make up the difference. But the people didn´t have a key. So we left and it took another 15 or more minutes for the next bus to show up. Finally, we got back to the apartment and were able to open one of the windows and use a long stick to turn the doorknob thing. I´m not sure why we didn´t try that earlier haha. But after that things got way better! We started clapping houses and we found an awesome family. They are way prepared for the gospel and have all the right questions and really accepted everything really well. Then, we had a great lesson with one of our investigators and after we asked if he had any questions and his only question was what day he was going to be baptized, so we were pretty pumped about then. Then we visited a less active family and Hermana Tavarez had a sister at the house who is like 16 or so. We started talking to her and gained her confidence and then she told us about some of the problems she was having and we were able to help her. I testified that through the atonement we can be totally clean and that it is powerful enough to make up for everything. It was awesome and the Spirit was so strong! So a terrible day turned into an amazing day because we worked hard and Heavenly Father made up the difference.
Yesterday we also taught Gladis who Elder Peña contacted during exchanges. She is amazing and talked about how she was able to change her life through Christ and now she has this beautiful feeling in her heart. We asked if she wanted it more and after she said yes we taught her the first discussion about the Restoration through Joseph Smith. And it was so awesome because the Spirit was way strong and she accepted a baptismal date. Afterwards she said she felt a beautiful powerful feeling in her heart during our lesson, especially about the Book of Mormon. We told her it was the Spirit. It was just so amazing because here was this person who had come so near to Christ with the knowledge that she had, but was kept from the whole truth and the full joy of Christ because she knew not where to find it. And we were able to give her that truth that is able to make her joy full. It just made me think even more about how lucky I have been to have all this knowledge my whole life. And now I have the opportunity and privilege to share that knowledge with others so that they can have total peace and joy in their lives. It really is incredible and I am so lucky!
Also, we are going to have a baptism this Saturday! Lucas is 9 and finally we got permission from his mom to be baptized! He seriously is such a great kid and we are so excited for him! He is the man! So, the work is progressing and we are being blessed. Its actually going to be the first baptism in this area in over 6 months because it had been closed for a few months and this is only the second transfer it has been opened. So that is pretty sweet as well!
Well, I love you all so much and am grateful for you! I miss you, but the sacrifice is more than worth it for all of us. Stay strong.
Alma 22:18 "abandonarè todos mis pecados para conocerte"
Con amor y felicidad, Elder Hawk
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Soaking wet from the rain
A Lizard...should we cook him for dinner?
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