Hey Family.
So I don’t have very much time so I didn’t get to read
your letters before writing you but I saw the pictures dad sent!! Man I wish I
was there! Simeon you looked so happy and Jake that is so cool that you could
do that for your brother!!! I hope you remember how you felt because I
want you to have that feeling over and over again on your mission. Using your priesthood
to help someone come closer to Christ, wow it makes me jealous that I can’t
baptize. To know that your actions on behalf of someone else has eternal
significance, that’s so cool!!!
This week for me has been kind of crazy. I found out
right after writing to you all last week that I have parasites. Haha, sorry Mom
ha.... but I feel like the water and pills you gave me helped so I didn’t get
really sick. I have still been able to function and do my work and I am grateful
for that. I got medicine so don’t worry about that either. They will hopefully
be all gone in 4 weeks.
This week was also crazy because there was a girl in the
ward who was turning 15 so they had a huge Quiseniera. It was insane! It’s like
it was a wedding but without the man. That’s how big it was. She had a huge
ball gown with her ¨"bridesmaids and grooms men" (all her friends). She
had a huge cake and flowers. I was shocked to see how much money went into it.
But me and Hermana Baird went and helped serve food. There were so many people
and they had so much food they needed all the help they could get! It was so
much fun to be there and see what a quisenera is like and to serve at the same
time. They had a DJ and they danced all night, I have decided I will learn how
to salsa when I get back cause it looks like so much fun!!!
Don’t worry, I did do work this week too. We found a new investigator, one that I contacted on the street actually, my Spanish was horribly bad but I managed to stop and talk to this man and then my companion came over and helped a lot. He had acutely already talked to missionaries before, like 3 years ago but because he we in school they couldn’t find him all the time so they dropped him. He is so ready for the gospel. I hope he will read and pray like he said he would. We also committed Elena to baptism on the 29 of this month and she said she would prepare for that date so that is exiting. That was a cool lesson, we were reading 3 Nephi 11 and after talking about what Christ taught the moment he came which was baptism and how important it is. My companion was a little preoccupied with a kitten and I was really feeling like we needed to ask her some hard questions and wasn’t sure if I could do it in Spanish but I opened my mouth and the Spanish was not perfect but it surprised me the amount I could still communicate and say. I asked her some hard questions and I then talked to her for a bit about her answer which I understood and then I committed her to baptism.....she said yeah but not yet ...... we pushed to set a date so she could work to get ready and she agreed to the 29th we were so happy.
Magdoliena, the one who broke her foot came to church
with her son; we got a member to help drive her there. Her foot started to hurt
at church and I was amazed at the sacrifice some people make to come to church
and be where they are supposed to be. I know she will be blessed for
that.
And Consuelo .........oh Consuelo, she broke my heart
this week... we taught her twice this week the first time was about the first
lesson and at the end we pushed her to say the prayer.... so important that we
do because when they pray the spirit comes and testifies to them. This is what
happened she began to cry in her prayer....of course that got me crying. She
said that God knew she needed him in her life and that that was why we were there;
she asked to find out if our message was true it was a beautiful prayer. So
after that lesson we were like yes she is going to read come to church. We
were so exited. She even told us about a dream she had 3 months earlier that
she took to mean that God was trying to tell her she needs to find him because
in her dream there were two paths and one was harder to find than the
other. (It’s crazy how many people down here get answers to questions in dreams
it so cool I think there is a prophet that said that would happen, anyway its
cool to see it happening). Any who the next lesson we decided to read Lehi’s
dream and hope that she make the connection which she did all by herself which
was so cool. We have to read to her cause her eyes are bad and she can’t
read without it hurting so we read it to her as she sat looking at the picture
we gave her. The lesson went well but just as we were about to ask the hard
questions and ask her to start changing her mom dropped by....we talked to her
for a bit about the gospel too and we finished our lesson as best we could and
we told her that we were coming to pick her up for church tomorrow and she said
she would be ready and come. So yesterday I went on splits because we had to
bring a lot of people to church so I went with Hermana Rosa who is a saint by
the way... but we dropped by at 10:30 to pick her up and she made a weak excuse
that she had to run and buy something for someone. I was trying to understand
her excuse so that I could say “no you need to come to church” but my Spanish
isn´t that good yet but I still was trying my hardest saying she had broke my
heart and that she had promised that she could go buy the thing after but she
wouldn´t...... she even told us the day before that she felt Satan was working
hard to keep her from church cause every time she would try something would
come up. (She also feels bad about going to church in pants because she doesn’t
have a skirt, many people don’t here). We tried to tell her that doesn’t matter
and everything and we got her to say she would come but in the end she didn’t
and that broke my heart. So pray for her please that she will find the courage
and the desire to come to church. She needs it so much in her life and she
knows it too. She just has to put forth the action and faith to do it.
Well anyway that was my week, I was wondering what you
guys to with my letters I hope you are keeping them cause I realized this is
documenting my mission so if you’re not please do.
Well don’t worry about me and my little friends in my tummy.
I have a feeling mom will worry... don’t ha I am fine. I really haven’t been
sick that much and the pills are helping so much. the good thing about
parasites is that you lose weight or at least they tell me you do, I haven’t
see it yet but I got to get rid of the weight I got in the MTC with the
food........oh talking about the food it is so good here !!!! I just had El
Salvador enchiladas last night way different from what ours are but so so good.
We also had homemade Pupusas, so so so good! Anyways that’s a side story ha
know I am happy and well. I still have those moments where it hits me “oh yeah I
am in another country this is so cool.” So I am loving it here the people are
so great and nice.
I am running out of time. I just want to testify about
the importance of the sprit this week. I have felt it in our lessons when I
needed words to express myself they were there, it so important to live worthy
of the spirit. It helps you in every aspect of life. It’s such a good indicator
that you are on the right path because if you are worthy to have the spirit
with you, to have a member of the god head with you, you are worthy to stand
with God. I know that without the spirit we do not teach. I have seen the
difference in the lesion and in my study time. Simeon, you now have this
gift live worthy of it. It is just a great blessing....all you live so you can
have it. I challenge all of you to find one thing in your life that maybe you
like doing but that may offend the spirit and try get the desire to stop doing
that thing; to leave that behind and choose to become closer to God.
I love you all and hope that everything is going well. I can’t
wait to read all the letters about Simeon’s baptism!!! I am sorry I couldn’t
read them before I wrote this week. And by the way, I found out you can still use
dear elder to write me. It will just take about 10 days to get to me but I am
ok with that as long as you all just write ha. Love you all!!! Simeon I am so
proud of you .........and Jake I can’t tell you how amazing it is that you
were able to baptize him!!! I am so proud of you and the amazing example
you are to all your brothers. Always stay worthy to use your priesthood to bless
others... and start preparing now for a mission it will help so much you will
have no idea until you get out here... but do it. This is the most important
work on the earth and we need to be the best at what we do.
Love you all
Hermana Hale
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