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| Picking mandarins, yay!! |
Monday we had a really
fun zone activity. We played capture the flag with nerf guns in the
church parking lot. My team was really terrible, but it was still fun!
Monday night we set up a dinner/fhe at the R's home with M
& her family. They invited a couple other families in the
ward and the Chinese Elders were invited. The
dinner & lesson went really well & everyone seemed to have a
good time! After that, we went home to start our mission fast &
begin our training for zone meeting.
Tuesday
morning we had fun outside of our mission in Brea!! hahaha before you
think sister K & I are apostate, we got permission to go to the
eye doctor. Brother L in our ward is an optometrist who said we
could come to his office & he would do it for us :) & MIRACLE!!!
My vision got better! Crazy, right? My prescription used to be -3.00
& -2.75 but now it's -2.75 & -2.50, so it didn't improve by
much, but STILL. after having fun in Brea, we went to zone meeting where
Sister K & I had to give a training, after that we went to Let
It Be, then went to try people. For dinner, we had leftovers from the
Rs...ribs!! best way to break our fast for sure! That night we
had a great lesson with M.
Wednesday we
had a great lesson with J. We talked about Jesus Christ
establishing His church. When I say "great lesson" I mean we talked for
50 minutes then had a 10 minute lesson..... After we had lunch, then did mormon.org. We went over to the B's & helped D with her homework & watched the new video on lds.org
about the 10 commandments. It's really good; if you haven't seen it, go
watch it! Then we had dinner with the Hs. Then we went to an
apartment complex where we had a lot of potentials to try, but of
course, it being apartments, many of the potentials we had from 2010 had
moved out. We did meet a couple people where we were able to give a
short restoration message & leave them with the pamphlet & a
card. That night we had a lesson with Sister R & it was really
really good. We just had good conversation & watched The Hope of
God's Light.
Thursday
we did service at the thrift store. Our lesson was
cancelled, so we came home & had lunch then we went to the church to
have a lesson with M. Thursday
afternoon we had J's baptismal interview set up with Elder
W (our district leader) & the Chinese elders (they had to
translate) & we had 1 more lesson to teach M before her
baptism. We all met at the church & as we were sitting with M,
she started saying "I know it's late, it's already Thursday, but I don't know if I should be baptized on Saturday."
My heart sunk. She told us that as she was handing out her invitations
to her friends, they gave her some articles about how our church is
different than other churches. She didn't give us details, but it was
probably some Anti stuff. She said that she wants to know the difference
between them. We, of course, talked about the Priesthood & prophets
& the restoration, etc. She was still apprehensive. She asked
another question, I don't remember what it was, but I remember not
knowing how to respond...all I knew what to do was to straight up
testify. So that's exactly what Sister K & I did. It was so
powerful & the spirit was present. I cried a few times both from
being emotional & the spirit was so strong. We asked her to pray
that night. J went on with the baptismal interview &
passed. Side note: when they asked him about tithing he said "my grandma
gives money to Buddha...........but I give money to Heavenly Father."
hahaha too funny! Sister K & I were devastated (me more than Sister K). I was in tears. We prayed, we even fasted.
Anyway, Friday
came along and we texted M to see if we could stop by and see her
that day. She texted back & said that she prayed and thinks she
needs to learn about other churches before she makes the decision to be
baptized. It hurt, but Heavenly Father strengthened us. It was a hard
thing to hear, & we were super sad, but at the same time we felt at
peace, knowing that we did all we could and the rest is in His hands. I
learned that no matter how much you plead, you cry, you pray, you even
fast for Heavenly Father to give you something or allow something to
happen, it's all in His timing. M & J will get baptized
sometime; just not now. I'm still sad when I think about it, but I also
know that Heavenly Father knows her & her needs & knows when she
is ready to be baptized.
So Friday
was a very somber day. Weekly planning + fasting (usually we snack the
whole time we're weekly planning...it's just what you do) + cancelled
baptism + contacting as many people as you can & telling them the
baptism is cancelled + everyone calling/texting asking what happened =
makes for a really long, uneventful (as far as missionary work goes)
day. We wouldn't have even left the house all day if it wasn't for Mama B
taking us to get froyo at 8pm. We needed to get out of the house.
So our Saturday
didn't go quite as planned, but we did see some miracles! We found 2
families who are interested in coming to church & at least 1 family
wants us to teach them (mom & 2 girls) :)
We were walking
down the street going to try a potential. We had to cross the street to
get to the house & a lady & 2 kids just pulled in a driveway.
We could have easily walked right by because they were busy, but I just
walked up to them & started talking with the mom. She was super
friendly & we just started talking about the weather & how she
used to live in Las Vegas & now she's here & wants her kids to
learn more about Jesus & she even just bought her daughter a bible
because her daughter has been asking about it & wanting to learn
more. We invited her to come to church & she said she would love to,
she even asked what to wear. She said she wants us to teach her to. She
told us how she was so happy we came & talked to her. She saw us
but didn't know if we would talk to her. Amazing!! She gave us her
number & hopefully we'll be able to set up a time this week to teach
her & her girls.
We had a stake RS dinner that night, but
before that we decided to go visit a potential. We knocked on the door
& a Chinese family (dad, mom & son) all answered the door
together...it was really adorable! I don't really remember what I said, I
just know that it was kinda awkward, I think because usually at door
approaches we start out with the Restoration, but since they opened the
door as a family, I started talking about how we believe families can be
together for eternity. We didn't talk much before the dad, P, asked
what our church address was & said that they really want to come!
I
started thinking about it, if the baptism would have happened, yeah it
would have been WONDERFUL & M & J would have made that
amazing covenant, but we wouldn't have met N & her two girls, who want to come to church and learn
more, & we wouldn't have knocked into another Chinese family who want
to come to church as well. Heavenly Father is so merciful. M &
J will get baptized in the future, & now maybe these 2 families
will too!
Sunday
was our ward conference. The stake president gave a really good talk in
Sacrament meeting & then we were all together 2nd & 3rd hour.
President T & President S (who are actually both in our
ward) taught. It was just a really good Sunday.
Then we did beattitudes for Brother & Sister W & Brother
T. We had dinner with Brother & Sister W & they
invited J (our less active) & another single girl. It was fun.
Then we had ward coordilation! THE BEST. Brother
H was giving an analogy on how we are told to pray without ceasing
& he compared that to being in the ocean & it raining. Being in
the water is like always praying, always having that connection with
Heavenly Father & listening to the promptings He gives us. And when
it rains that is when we are saying our formal prayers. After he was
done, I was sitting there & it was silent & I said "Can we wear
floaties?" Brother H looked at me with a really serious look &
said "I'm gonna slap you" & just busted out laughing. Harder than
I've EVER seen him laugh. He thought my comment about floaties was so
random & one of the funniest things he's ever heard. hahaha, so if
any of you had doubts that I was funny, my Ward Mission Leader will
attest to that! He said he's going to figure out how to incorporate that
into a talk. hehehe.
In my priesthood blessing I got,
something stood out to me. It said, & I'm paraphrasing: "Heavenly
Father expects you to share your kindness, pureness, willingness &
personal desires. Something you haven't done yet on your mission, but
when you do this He will bless your family" sooooo I decided to stop
being selfish & start doing those things because I want Him to bless YOU!! I'm still trying to figure out exactly what he means by sharing
my personal desires, but I'm getting there! I'll do my best!
So,
you get to find out next week if I'll be transferred!! I don't know what will
happen. Actually, if I leave, you'll probably find out before that
because Mama B will probably post it to Facebook. haha.
Love you all so much. Thank you for everything!! hope you have a great week.
xoxo,
Sister Viraldo
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