After emailing last Monday we went to the local farmer's market here in
town. Everything was quite expensive! We were walking around & came
to a booth with fruit. I was eying the strawberries. I asked the guy
how much they were.. they looked sooo delicious. but I didn't know if I
wanted to spend that much money on them, so we moved on. We tried
samples on beef jerkey, salsa, & hummus, a guy even offered if we
wanted to sample his coffee! How sweet ;) Sister Wagner ended up buying
some hummus, so I decided I was going to go back & get me some
strawberries! There was a kid there now, & I asked if I could have
one basket (there were 3 little baskets in 1 box). He grabbed the box
& started putting them in the bag. "Actually I just want one." "No
it's fine!" Confused, I said "Well, how much is that?" "Oh it's fine,
you can have them. My brother told me that you're from the church &
that if you came by to give some to you to help you out." Isn't that the
sweetest thing ever?!? We both wanted to cry. We got like $7 or $8
worth of strawberries for freeeee! I asked the kid if he goes to our
church & he said "sometimes.. but my brother goes every week".
Monday night we had dinner with the Garcias and then had a lesson with Mandy.
 |
| Strawberries taste even better when they're free! |
Tuesday
we had a mini zone meeting, aka both districts in our zone were
combined because a couple companionships weren't there because they were
down the hill getting their new missionaries. Later that day we visited
a less active, Pam, who is confined to a bed most of her days...
After
visiting her we went to visit Sis. H, but her gate was locked. I
looked at our planner to see what we had planned next & we had a few
names down & we also had a street that we chose the night before
that we wanted to tract. It made more sense to visit the names we had
down, but I felt prompted to go to this street. It was a miracle because
a lady & her daughter were out in their yard! We went & talked
to them & she said she might be interested in learning more. :) We
had dinner with the Chaffees & the Rountrees. I LOVE the Chaffees!
They're such a cute little family who are very missionary minded.
Wednesday
was awesome because it STORMED! It's actually been raining quite a bit.
They say if it continues to rain how it has been (every couple of
weeks), then in 1 year they'll be out of a drought. Which seems like a
heck of a lot of rain to me, but hopefully! Only downside of the rain is
the humidity it brings along with it, but I'll count my blessings because I'm
not in the awful humidity back home :)
Our dinner with the
Ericksons got cancelled, so we took the Dyerlys up on their offer of
feeding us whenever we don't have dinner. & I'm so glad we did, they
fed us carne asada tacos! yummm.
After dinner we visited the Myers then the Scotts (less actives).
Thursday was even more awesome because it STORMED harder! We tracted a little bit & met a really sweet lady named Angel who wanted us to come back Friday...we went back Friday & she wasn't there :( We
went to visit Ericka, who is a former investigator from Wrightwood, &
turns out she's moving back up to Wrightwood! So we helped her pack a
little until dinner with the Andersons. After dinner we visited the
Northrups & finally got to meet their daughter & son-in-law,
Lacey & Luke. They're all less active.
Friday
we weekly planned, went over to help Ericka more, did service for the
Huttons, and then ate dinner with them. As we were leaving, Sister Wagner saw a
snake! She got closer & said "it might be a rattlesnake". I told
her to get in the truck & then we took a picture of it to see if we
could see a rattle & sure enough! It was a rattle snake!! I'd never
seen one in it's natural habitat before. We figured we should go tell
the Huttons it just came in their yard. We ran & told Bro Hutton, who
got a hula hoe & a flashlight & went on a snake hunt.
Saturday
we did service for the Hergenraders. You'll never believe what we did!
We helped them butcher chickens!! Then they fed us lunch.
Later
that day we tracted a street. In total we walked about 1.3 miles &
talked with a couple people. One miracle was that we found a lost
member! We knocked on the door & a lady opened. We introduced
ourselves & she said "Larry, they're your people" I had no idea what
that meant...at first I thought "oh man, they're probably from Calvary
Chapel & Larry likes talking to us to bash" so I asked "we're your
people?! what do you mean by that?" He said "I'm LDS!" Him & his
wife are super nice & want us to come back to visit!! Way cool!
Saturday
night we visited with the Castros & they found the video you posted
of me singing "Dark Paradise" & played it over their bluetooth
speakers.....yikes. It was weird, & made me realize how much I miss
my guitar, but no worries...there's nothing I'd rather be doing than
missionary work right now :)
Sunday
rolls along & we have yet to meet with ANY of our investigators. We
passed Michelle to the Wrightwood elders, haven't been able to contact
Christina, Diane keeps cancelling & telling us she's way busy,
Candita says it's going to "take some time" for her to understand, Candy
was out of town, & Austin has been ignoring us (Richard &
Sergio come along with him). We were sitting in RS when Sister Mills
pulled us out & said "there's an investigator over here. Bro Shook
is talking to him. He was at the 99cent store & said a girl invited
him here." His name is Antonio. Sure enough, he was at the 99cent store
& started talking with "an angel" about the church & she made
him feel really special, so he decided to come to church. He showed up
at 9, but didn't see her, got scared & left. luckily he came back!
We later found out his "angel" was Sammie! She invited him to church
& he came! We sat & talked with him. He feels like a bad person
because he started drinking a couple days ago. He knows he shouldn't..he
actually showed up to church drunk. But we told him of the love
Heavenly Father has for him & the joy that can be found in this
gospel. We set up an appointment to meet with him at the church this
tuesday! MIRACLE.
After studies & dinner, we went to visit
Candita. She thankfully allowed us in & we wanted to read a chapter
from the BoM with her, but instead she wrote it down & said she'll
read it. When we left, we noticed we had a missed call from Austin! He
asked if we were coming over tonight. We originally planned to visit
with Sammie that night, but she texted to cancel saying she had too many
things going on. So we asked Austin if we could visit with him & he
said yes!
When we got there, Austin & Richard were both
there! We sat outside & had our lesson. Austin admitted to us he'd
been avoiding us because he'd been partying, but he's tired of it. Him
& Richard both are tired of drinking & doing these different
things & need a change. Austin decided that day that he was going to
quit smoking & drinking. They see the bad choices they've been
making & want to make them right. We read Alma 32 with them &
talked about how to develop faith. It was way cool because Austin was
trying to apply every single verse to himself. Hopefully this is the
point in their lives where they are sufficiently humble & ready to
receive the gospel. Please pray that they will have the strength to
resist temptation!
Although the week started out really slow..Sunday was just what we needed!
It's
no surprise that this week I'll hit my 9 month mark. Lately I've been
reflecting on my mission thus far & honestly I feel all sorts of
different emotions realizing I'm half way done. I never imagined myself
being this far out on my mission. The time has just flown on by, &
the second half, I'm sure will be even faster, which scares me. Being a
missionary is the best thing I could be doing with my life. I've never
felt closer to my Savior & seen so many miracles.
The
Church IS TRUE my friends! If you don't know that, ask Heavenly Father.
The Book of Mormon is the greatest book there is. Everything our church
is founded on weighs on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It
contains the FULLNESS of the everlasting gospel! What a joy! It's so
important to read from its pages each & every day.
Have a wonderful week & I'll talk to you next week. :)
xoxo Sister Viraldo
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