*Note from Karen - While I usually go through and format and fix spelling, the shift key was working intermittently as she wrote this and I am not going to fix all the capitalization.
Ola amigos!
Wow, this week was crazy, haha. Sister Garcia has been sick since Tuesday, but we have still gone out and taught basically every day. She´s someone who will probably work herself to death if the rest of us will let her. She has been able to keep down bananas and water, and yesterday she also kept down some crackers, peanuts and some other things, but it's pretty crazy. Hopefully she won't throw up the breakfast that we just ate, but it had ham and cheese, so that would be a big step.
I have really, truly, genuinely fallen in love with these people! i really learned, too, how to begin to lose myself... at least, i learned to recognize the mindset i need to adopt to lose myself in this work. as I have looked into the eyes of those we teach, seeking to know what the Lord wants me to say, to know what they need to hear, slowly but surely i have received direction and inspiration so I know what i need to testify of or emphasize or what questions i should ask to help these people. it has been amazing.
I was pretty frugal before the mission, and i am already wondering if i will be super stingy when i get back. its so humbling. This week Carlos and Sonia asked us for help paying for their oldest daughter to start school (they have four kids, ages 2 to 5... no twins) probably because we told them that if they ever needed anything, they shouldn't hesitate to call us. we get 19 mil (19000) escudos every month, which is the same salary as a teacher or professor... something like that. it is about 200 USD, i think. 80 escudos = 1 usD.. dad can do the math, haha. It costs 1500 escudos to send a child to school, which is about 20 USD, and they weren't sure where they would get the money. its crazy. rent here is around 3000 to 5000 escudos a month, I think. the people who have a bit more money tend to have more than one room in their house, or they don't have a shared kitchen area, things like that.
It is so amazing to watch the light of the gospel touch peoples hearts and to see it start to light up their eyes. its not something I could really notice before. It's so incredible to see the people here begin to develop faith, to trust in the lord and to be so willing to become humble followers of Christ. I have found it really easy to love the people, to love each person we teach, and that makes it so much harder when they don't do those things that would bless their lives and bring them so much comfort, peace, and strength. but those who do... its amazing. We have been trying hard to contact more people if we aren't sure where to go... which mostly translates to ME contacting people if we aren't sure where to go, since i need the practice. at least half of the people i have contacted have been drunk, i have found out later. also, lately i have been getting reminders of how much i truly am back in the real world. i heard the f word used in context for the first time yesterday, as an... interesting... lady who moved here a few years ago from Holland warned us about places to avoid walking at night. haha, we just thanked her, left as quickly as we could without being rude, and just laughed it off. (also, mom, don't worry, we don't walk in the sketchy parts of Espargos at night). she also kissed sister Garcia on the lips when they were doing the cheek kiss thing that everyone does here. oh, the perks of being raised in Utah.
Yesterday we talked to a man who had gone up to sister Garcia last transfer and told her that he wanted to change, but he drinks and smokes a ton. when we met him, i just looked in his eyes and tried so hard to see him as the lord sees him.. that's always the first thing i try to do when i meet someone new. and in his eyes, I just thought of the phrase, sin-sick soul, because i could see that. and after we talked to him, both sister Garcia and i talked about how we were able to see him as god sees him... we could picture him with the light of the Gospel in his eyes, shining where the atonement had cleansed him completely of that burden of darkness and guilt. she kept remarking how she could see him as a bishop. it was a cool experience. hopefully we can help him find a place to move, because he basically lives above a bar and right next to somewhere where he can buy cigarettes, and he lives in this tiny room and pays like 5 mil for it, not including electricity or water. man, the lord has really helped me love these people so much! we made some goals with him about not drinking or smoking as much, and we are going to try our best to help him. that look in his eyes, that weight that i could see there... we are going to do whatever we can to help him turn to the lord and receive his healing, cleansing grace.
We have an investigator, Dirse, who is the daughter of a recent convert. she has gone to church three times and is getting baptized this Saturday! we were a bit worried that she would feel like it was too fast, and that we would need to bump it back a week, but she is completely on board with getting baptized this week. she has been praying to know if this church is true, if god really exists, and she has been reading the book of Mormon every day, and she finally got her answer Thursday night! she told us that she prayed and asked god for a sign that he really is there and really loves her. then she started reading the book of Mormon. she heard someone call her name twice, and she asked her son if he had called her, and she asked a lady who was on the street outside her house, but no one that she asked said they had called her name. it kind of freaked her out, but she also knew that god had answered her prayer. she is so humble and has such a desire to have faith and to follow Christ. i think thatºs why she got the answer she did. she was so excited about her answer, but she really cherished it too. it is so wonderful. she has really been someone that i have been able to see the light of the gospel develop and begin to shine in her eyes. wow, it has been amazing.
We have been doing a lot of work with recent converts and less actives, too. there are a lot of people who were converted to the missionaries and not really to the gospel, and now they are less active because those missionaries aren't here anymore. we have really been trying to help them gain that testimony that they should have had before getting baptized, but its so sad.
One thing that i really love about sister Garcia is that i can see the love that she has for each person that we teach. she has so much charity and she works so hard because she has such a strong desire to help these people. it is so wonderful to be her companion!
Well, I love this work so much. I have never felt so stretched or had so much opposition from satan-almost all of it internal-as i have experienced every day of this mission, especially in the field. i think if i had really understood how hard it would be, i wouldn't have gone on a mission. so then, the question is, why am i still on my mission? because i didn't really understand how close i would be to the lord every day as i do his work. because I have never experienced so much joy and happiness or worked so closely with God and felt the grace of the atonement so fully in my life as i have this past week. i wouldn't have gone on a mission if i had really understood how hard it would be, unless i had also truly understood how incredibly worth it a mission is.vI am starting to lose track of time and days out here. i think it is a sign that i am starting to lose myself in this work. i love it so much.
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