That Awkward Moment when your investigator asks you out on a date - you definitely did NOT explain your purpose well enough!

Week 32

January 20, 2014

So that happened.

But don´t worry- this week was AWESOME! In December I started keeping a miracle calendar - writing down one for everyday. And sometimes it was hard to think of one for everyday. And Ollantay was a hard place. But I kept doing the calendar. But I think I´ve passed that little trial and gone to missionary miracle heaven! Seriously. Here´s a few of the awesome things that happened this week:

• The other day we were trying to get to know a certain area better and talked with a member there about other members that lived close. She told us about a young woman named Melani who lived with her non-member parents. Happy Birthday missionaries! She wasn't exactly sure where she lived, but she said she'd be at church. But then we didn't see her. Not happy birthday, missionaries. A couple days later I studied about the importance of not only teaching, but finding people to teach by the Spirit. After plans fell through, we were walking to a potential investigator´s house when I saw a street. And I just wanted to knock doors there. On the second door, a nice woman answered. We got to talking and she told us that her daughter is a member of the church. What´s her name? MELANI. Ooh when that happened I just got the chills! We have an appointment with her tonight and we have an other member to come with us. I´m so excited!
•  Oh yeah. And our ward is huge. 1015 members, but only 380 attend.
• And then Traci. We were set for her baptism this Saturday. The font was filled and heated (I must never take American faucets for granted again. EVER. If I wanted hot water, I could just twist the red knob!) And it was time but Traci and her aunt and uncle hadn't come. We weren't really worried because people are just kinda late here. But as the time passed by we starting wondering and so we called the aunt. (Okay, just a little review. Traci lives with her aunt and uncle and they take care of her, but the legal rights haven´t been passed over yet. Her mom had to sign to giver her permission to get baptized) and she told us Traci´s mom had come and taken Traci away. The aunt couldn't get the mom to listen. She asked us to go talk to the mom. We offered a prayer in the chapel and went to the mom´s house. She finally came to the door and opened it just a crack and told us that Traci left with her dad (another separate house) but we kind of didn't believe her so we just kept the conversation going to I-don´t-really-know-what. We didn't really have a plan. It was all in His hands and we were going to do whatever He wanted us to. Eventually we saw Traci pass by in the background. She waaaaas there. Somehow we got in to the yard, and then she invited us into the actual house, and then let us sit down. We listened a lot. and said things the Spirit told us to. And her mom came to a conclusion. And somehow we came out of the house (probably about an hour and a half later) with Traci and her mom´s word to come to the baptism. We walked to the aunt´s work to tell her the baptism was back on. We just walked in with Traci and the aunt was watching Faith in Christ and had tears in her eyes and that was awesome. And then there was more stuff to take care of. But the point is that at about 9:00 pm we had one of the most beautiful baptisms ever. And it clearly touched the mom´s heart. She came to church the next day and just beamed. I asked her last minute (like, after someone else had been announced) to give the closing prayer at the baptism. And I'm glad I did. She said in it that she knew she hadn't done good things to help the baptism happen, but she was glad her daughter was able to baptized. It was crazy. And amazing. And Traci was so happy and is so golden. And now we are excited to try and help the mom follow her daughter´s good example.  

This week was awesome! Love you all so much! 

Hermana Beckstead