So I didn´t have time to email last week because we went to the Buhlers´ all day and we were going to email there but then their internet stopped working and I didn´t get back in time to do anything. Not to mention I was on intercambios with Hermana Hansen and everything was just crazy.
A bunch has been going on lately over here. We invited Mercy to get baptized, but now she´s started working weekends and she can´t come to church... She comes to everything during the week that she can and she is just awesome. We were talking about reading the scriptures and she said, "Well, you have to do what it says! It won´t do you any good to read the Book of Mormon if you don´t put it into practice!" She is so prepared it´s crazy. But she can´t get baptized for the time being, so we´ll keep praying really hard that she finds another job and doesn´t have to work weekends. She can´t come to institute or any other YSA things either.
And speaking of YSA activities, last Friday we were walking through the park when we stopped to talk to a cute girl sitting on the bench. She´s 20, and she just moved here 4 months ago from Cuba. She told us that she didn´t really have any friends here yet, and so we invited her to come to institute with us that night. And she came! Then she came again to the YSA FHE the next night. And she and her mom came to church together on Sunday! Her name is Yerlandy, and her mom is Isora. NO ONE can pronounce her name (Yerlandy´s), it´s really funny.
Also last Saturday we went to eat with the Buhlers at Jaime´s Italian restaurant, and before we went to go find some less actives in the área. We knocked on one door and the husband of the less active lady answered it. He told us that she´s working in England right now but that he would be interested to learn about our church. So we´re teaching him right now. His name is Orlando. We´re not exactly sure how much interest he has in the church, but we´ll keep working with him.
But Orlando, Yerlandy, and Isora all came to church last Sunday. And a miracle happened. Our Gospel Principles teacher is Fatima, and she´s amazing. She teaches by the Spirit and with a lot of energy and involves her class really well. But last Sunday topped it ALL. Last week Fatima´s father passed away, and the topic of the lesson just happened to be eternal families. When we came in, she was playing music quietly from her phone and she had put pictures all over the Wall of families and temples. The Spirit was overwhelming the whole lesson. Isora was crying almost from the moment it started and by the end, at least half the class was teary, myself and my companion included. Fatima didn´t talk about her father until the very end, when she too started crying and bore her testimony that she KNEW her family would be together again because they had been sealed in the temple. It was by far the best Sunday School class I have ever atended in any language.
So then the next day, Hermana Hansen came with me on intercambios and we went to visit Isora and Yerlandy, and there was a surprise in their house by the name of Eladio, a friend who lives with them. He´s a Baptist (the first Baptist I´ve met on my misison) and he was so involved and interested in our message. Later his wife came and she already believes all the same doctrine that we do. It was incredible. We invited them to be baptized and we set a date with Yerlandy and Isora for the 26 of October. They were a little hesitant at first but I promised them that by that date, they would feel prepared and have the desire to be baptized, and so they said they´d prepare to get baptized then!
My awesome companion also set another baptismal date over the phone with Harrison´s cousin Charlie. She called him and asked if he knew a lot about our church. He said, "Yeah, Harrison´s talked to me about it. I want to be a member." So she asked if he wanted to get baptized, and he said yes. Then she asked if he would get baptized on October 26th, and he said that he would. Crazy, no? We still haven´t taught him, but I hope he will be able to get baptized on that date!
Nothing else too far out of the ordinary happened this week, besides conference! We had the immense blessing of being able to watch almost every session in English! We watched all except the Sunday morning session in English. And because we´re in the islands, we got to watch all the sessions live! They went from 5-7 and from 9-11 at night. We just watched them together, all the missionaries and the Buhlers. It was wonderful. I´m a little bummed that we had to watch the Sunday morning session in Spanish though, because I definitely didn´t understand as much, and apparently it was really awesome. We just didn´t want to abandon our investigators who had come. And it wasn´t hard to understand because I don´t know Spanish, but because my brain had to concéntrate harder on figuring out what they were saying and it was a lot harder for me to understand what the Spirit was saying to me. Maybe one day I´ll watch it in English...
I don´t even know which talks I liked best. Elder Bednar´s was WONDERFUL. I was looking back over my notes from that talk and I realized that I didn´t even write the word tithing once. For me his words applied to every blessing we receive for every commandment we are given. I realized that a lot of times I´m looking for a specific blessing and I miss the other blessings I´m receiving. I loved his counsel on having your eyes and ears spiritually open to recognize the blessings that are poured upon you.
And I loved Elder Dyches, who was followed by Elder Holland. Both of their messages were exactly what I needed to hear and touched me so powerfully.
As a missionary, of course I liked Elder Nielsen, Elder Ballard, and Elder McConkie. Elder McConkie was basically just speaking directly to missionaries, although he applied the points to all teachers of the góspel. Everything he said is something I can and should apply on a daily basis.
I also loved President Uchtdorf, as always. I didn´t get the full value out of President Monson´s or President Eyring´s talks so I´ll have to go back through and read those again.
In between sessions of conference the wonderful Hermana Buhler fed us and so we got to spend time together with all the missionaries and it was great. I cannot believe I´ll only be on my missión for one more conference!
Please pray for Mercy, Orlando, Isora, Yerlandy, Charlie, Claudia, Stella, and Julio!
Hasta luegito!
Hermana Lara Schaumann
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