August 7, 2007 Letter

Okay, so we found this investigator... actually she found us! She waved us down on the street and she wanted to know how she could become a mormon. !! Wow. This is what all missionaries pray for. Her name is Yaquelin, she´s 22 and has been an Evangelist (Evangelico) for about 8 months. whew! good thing she´s not orthodox... those are scary... We made an appointment and asked her to read a pamphlit, we went back and taught her the first lesson and she was SO excited to hear everything we had to say. Everytime we taught a different principle she would say things like: Oh, that´s beautiful, that´s so true! Wow! She has such a happy spirit and is so eager to learn more. She has such a big joyful smile and is so kind to us, like we were sisters. :) It´s nice to really look foward to lessons when you know they will actually listen! :D We just hope there´s no big catch... for some investigators they can be so diligent until we find out that they don´t have their papers and aren´t declared as a person, or their husband ends up cheating on ém, or someone had an abortion... really really sad things that take a lot more time to heal, and prevent baptism, and we can only help them so much... but we do what we can and try to be patient. And make sure we always teach with the Spirit.
We visited some other Evangelicos the other day and we left with such a horible feeling, Hna Robertson was on the verge of tears. When we come accros those really hard-core people that are grasping onto the Bible with both hands and won´t accept anything else.¨If I have faith I´ll be saved! Gloria a Dios! Aleluja! There is no true church, we worsip God, that´s all that matters.¨ They think that when they feel the Spirit it´s a bunch of ¨booyah¨, like singing loud, banging tamborines, speaking in tounges... wow. We live kind of close to an Evangelico church and we can hear them singin´and praisin´ the Lord (most churches broadcast their meetings with speakers from their building) Once for about a week there were preachers outside at night with their microphones and stage platforms in their nice clothes, telling how they were healed or how God can save us etc... Always repeating the same things like ¨Gloria a Dios! En el nombre de Jesus! Cristo salva!¨ after every sentence. And get this, tell me this is not vain repetitions of men : one night this dude totally went off for 20 minutes on one exhausting rant only saying gloria a Dios like, 50 times, then he´d say Christ saves! 10 times then something else, and then he´d hold the last word out really long and then take a breath... and then keep goin´ ... and going.. and going... gah!! Then he hands the mic to some lady and she does the same thing... Ay-ay-ay. They are so lost... so so lost. It´s so sad! It just pains me that they are so deep in their religions and beliefs that their hearts are so hardened... But, there are people like Yaquelin. Yay! What a relief! *sigh* this work can get pretty frustrating, and difficult... but we´re hangin´ on to very inch of help from the Lord.
Anyway, so I was really sick yesterday, I had all the symptoms of Dengue and it really sucked... I mean, I was almost lifeless in bed with a high fever, headache and aching everything. Me and Hna were like, Nooooooo!!!! we thought we were gonna miss another week of teaching, but I miraculously recovered... after a blessing from the Elders... and a few Tylonol... wow. Priesthood power is amazing! I still listen to my body and try to get plenty of rest... and drink lots of water :) And I am obviously okay, I´m here, doing e-mail, and we´re gonna go shopping after this and enjoy our P-day. :) So it´s alright Mom, I´m doing much better now. I´ll be fine. Whew!
Wasn´t it Ernie´s B-day on the 6th?? It had better be in August, cuz that´s what I remember, eventhough Mom told me it was in September... Well either way, Happy Birthday!!! How old are you?? heh, just kidding. ;D Thanks so much for the update and the pics! What were your B-day plans? That surf camp sounds like so much fun!! Good to hear you´re keepin´ busy. We actually visited a mall the other day in the city when Hna had to go to the dentist, and we stopped at a Guess store. I saw a Swiss Army t-shirt (the brand of your backpack) that I knew you would love. I thought of you. Miss ya tons!
Oh, yeah, so got another ¨blessing¨ yesterday from a Seventh Day Adventist lady who offered to rid me of my headache and body achings. Heh, it was interesting. She had a pot of hot water and one with cold and she started with a prayer, with her hands on my head, and blessed me. Then she put the hot rag on my forehead for 3 min. and then the cold, then the hot... it felt good, but she was gonna keep goin´ until I made some miraculous recovery, so I just waited a while and enjoyed the treatment. I was lucky to be out on the street, teaching a couple of lessons, but we went home early so I could go to bed early and get more rest. And now I´m feeling just peachy.
Hey Mom, to answer some of your questions, Do I iron anything?... heh, well... no. Don´t really need to. Things just seem to straighten out in the humidity. And my laundry? We stick out clothes into a mini washer that spins them around with soap, the machine spins them dry and we hang them up on wires by our front window to dry during the day. The Temperatures? I´m not totally positive on the temperatures here... I just know that it can get dang hot out here. You can always look those things up on the internet. :) Are my toes clean?... heh, actually, right now they´re okay, cuz I just took a shower, but sometimes our feet get pretty dirty and muddy from the streets, blech. Wow, and when it rains...oh, man. It rains hard, and the only things that stay dry are our heads and backbacks cuz we put bags on them. AaaH! but the rain is so much fun!! I don´t care if I get wet, as long as my books are dry. I always carry an umbrella, for rain, or sun. I actually have pretty good tan lines on my feet. Sweet! I will try to send a picture... eventually...
We drink clean water from those big blue ¨Culligan¨ type bottles, never form the tap. And if we eat any fresh foods, like fruits and veggies we dip them in water with clorox to kill anything dangerous. We watch what we eat, and but we eat packaged stuff too. Question for you: what´s my blood type? I forgot. I think it´s A+...not sure. Just curious. Thanks! Really Mom, I had no idea you were planng on starting a kids choir business, or even a tumbling class ?? Wow Mom! I´m so proud of you! Keep me updated. :)
Marcie Greenmun!! ´Ello Love! Hows the family?? I wanted to know where Brian is serving in Spain, cuz we have an investigator who is leaving for Badalona, Barcelona and needs to continue hearing form the missionsaries. His name is Josué Victorino and he´s right on the edge for baptism. He´s been a great investigator, he´s been coming to church everyweek since we met him and is very smart. We don´t want to loose missionary connection with him so we made sure there was a church where he lives in Spain so he can go there and continue discussions and hopefully get baptized soon. :D
Jan Everitt: what did you mean by ¨build a HUGE savings account¨? I don`t earn money here in the field, were you refering to something else? :)
40th Ward! everyone give Josh Bryson a big high five! And offer him rides to church and other activities, cuz I know he really wants to go! Hey Josh! I know you´ll eventually read this, hang in there buddy! I haven´t forgotten you, many people are praying for you and your famliy. If you can, please write me and let me know how you´re doin´ and what you´re doing now-a-days, okay? You´re awesome!!! Keep a list of all those good movies for me. Miss ya!!
Well everyone, I just want to thank you for all your letters and e-mails. You are what makes time go a little bit faster, and not so mundane sometimes. Letters are one of the many things on a mission that become so precious. Thank you!
Okay, I´ll have to save some other stories for next time.
luv ya all!
Hermana Benson