Serving in San Antonio Texas: Self Isolation! March 23, 2020

Hey everyone!!! As you probably already know, as missionaries we have been put into self-isolation which pretty much means we are quarantined in our apartments except that we can leave to go buy groceries or to go to the church if we need anything, so we have used that to our advantage haha. This week has been good, it did have a few really challenging moments (one of them when I found out my BFF has to go home :( ) but I have also learned a lot!

Monday we were still able to go out, so we went to Asherton and visited some of our people there! We first went by Esmerelda but she was sick.. we don't know if she had Corona or not haha but we didn't visit with her. We did stop by Veronicas parents and had a little visit with them and talked about the book of Revelations in the Bible and how crazy everything is right now.. Then we stopped by Rocky and his mother Juanita, and Rocky was the one that asked my comp a few weeks ago to go with him to Vegas... hahah but he was super under the influence during that contact with him so we decided to go back and he was pretty normal! We talked with them both about what we do as missionaries and they invited us back, but sadly we couldn't go back because she is in the age range we couldn't visit when we went back on Thursday, and we can't leave our house today which is when we would have gone back..
We also had another lesson with Yiselle (we found out that's how you spell her name, not Giselle haha) and we talked more about church being postponed and also talked a little more about baptism and she pretty much agreed to being baptized, she just said she wants to come to church first a couple times and we agree except that's a little challenging for her to do right now haha but we are going to start having our visits through technology..

Tuesday we kind of started our online proselyting a little bit and we asked to be in all of the online garage sales in the areas we are serving, and in the Carrizo Springs one we put up a Free Book of Mormon or Bible, and a lady named Jessica sent us a message and this was our conversation...
J- "Is this still available?"
Us- "Yes it is :) would you like one?"
J- "Yes but I need it to have extra large text"
Us- "No worries! Unfortunately we do not have one in large text right now but until we are able to get another one, we would love to come and read with you if you would like that?"
J- "No I don't like for no one to come into my house can u please just send it to me"
Us- "Ok we totaly understand. We will try and get it as soon as possible and then send it to you. Where would you like it sent? and you'd like a Book of Mormon, correct?" (She laughed at that message...)
J- "No. the bible."
Us- "Ok unfortunately we do not have the bible in large print, do you possibly have a magnifying glass? We would love to still send you a Bible."
J- "Then I don't want it."
hahahha and that was how our online proselyting went for that day... rough start right?
We also had a lesson with Donovan that day and talked more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and tithing. When we asked him if he remembers what tithing is about, he said "yeah, isn't it that we give the church 99% of what we earn and we keep 1% for ourselves?" and that was kind of a funny moment hahah. He is doing good and still wanting to become a member, it's just been a tricky situation haha.
We went over to Veronicas house and had an amazing lesson with her and like 5 of her kids!! We taught them all the plan of salvation and Luke (he is 15 and a big kid) started crying when we talked about seeing our families again and wow it was the most tender moment ever!
We found out that evening as well that there wouldn't be a senior couple coming to live with us anymore.. NO MORE SENIOR COUPLE... that was the whole reason we moved to the shed... hahah

Wednesday we drove to Eagle Pass and had district council with the elders and they brought a TARANTULA and just had it in our district council with us hahha it was gross.
That evening, we had set everything up for our branch president to meet with Donovan because that is literally the last thing he has to do before he can be baptized, but it didn't go as planned.. We had scheduled for them both to be at the church at 5 pm, but Donovan unfortunately couldn't make it until like 5:45 because he couldn't get the truck from his friends until then, and by that time we were at the Sanchez home with President because Toni needed to be reconfirmed, so Toni was reconfirmed and then after that apparently President needed to do errands in town and then was gonna stop by the church again on his way out.. well, donovan waited from 5 45 until like 6 45 and then left and president ended up going by at like 6 50 so they barely missed each other but our branch president was upset and said he will meet with him when church starts back up again... so pretty much donovan won't be baptized until church starts again :(
That evening we also had a lesson with Rey in the park, and it was super awesome! He is seriously super cool and came to this first lessons with questions! He had heard about how we get to "choose" where we end up after this life and we explained how it is relevant with decisions we make in this life and he loved it. He asked us also why we decided to serve missions and our conversion stories and and he said he got the chills (which means he felt the Holy Ghost) so that was awesome! He read 2 Nephi 31 after our lesson, and texted us and told us we were inspired for sharing that with him because he felt it was meant exactly for him!

Thursday we spent an hour and a half in the morning moving everything back in to the house.. yes, it only took us that long!! We were pretty impressed haha we think there should be moving sisters too...
That night we went to Esmereldas house to see if she was feeling better and she was! We stood on her porch and talked with her about her word of wisdom goal has been going, and she actually quit this past weekend!! Pretty much because the stores are closing and she doesn't want to go into public to buy any more, so she has been doing good!! We were able to reset a goal with her for her baptism for April 19th and she seemed to feel pretty good about that!

Well, for the saddest part of my week... Thursday night after we got home, we received a call from the sisters in 10th ward, which is Hermana Thayne and Hermana Abadia Pazos.. I answered the phone, and Hermana Abadia Pazos was crying, a lot.. She informed me she has to go home due to health reasons and pretty much the whole missionary department is sending missionaries home that could have any health risk at all, but this one is especially hard for me to accept, but I'm still working on it :( I haven't heard when she has to go home, but I've been able to stay in good contact with her througout the weekend and she seems to be doing good every time I've talked to her! It makes me happy cause I think she has accepted it faster than I have haha, I know it has to happen and God has a plan for everything, but it's sad my best friend has to go home :( good thing she only lives 2 hours away from me ;)

Friday morning we received the message from our mission president that we are officially supposed to be in self isolation.. so wow, Friday was a whole different day.. haha we went to the church and cleaned the whole church (which luckily it isn't that big) and then tried calling a ton of people but a lot of them didn't answer :( we did have a video lesson with Bernadine and that was fun :)
I also found out that night that my other last companion, Hermana Gomez has to go home soon as well :(

Saturday we spent a lot of our afternoon making a Facebook page for our area.. if you have seen it and liked it, THANK YOU!! if not, it's called Church of Jesus Christ in Carrizo Springs, and I'm begging you all to go like it and invite your friends to like it!!! At this time we are not able to go knock doors, so we are trying to spread and share the gospel with people through technology and we need your help!!!
The Russos are super awesome and they sent my companion some Mate, which is like an herbal tea type drink that they drink all the time in Argentina, so we have been drinking that like all weekend and it's actually pretty good (if you add sugar haha)
We had another lesson with Bernadine and Luke that night and they are all set to be baptized this Sunday and we are super stoked for that :)

Sunday we went to Crystal and we were able to have the sacrament in the house of the Guerreros and it was so awesome, and definitely an experience that I will always remember! Afterwards we went with Brother Guerrero and were there to see him administer the sacrament to the Morales family and that was super sweet as well :)
We had a more successful night last night and had a video call with the Johnson family, the Sanchez family, with Donovan and also with Rey!

I just want to thank everyone for all of the prayers you have been sending our way recently! This past week I was definitely feeling the power of your prayers as I was really needing them this past week! I am praying for you all as well and hope you all stay happy and safe! Thank you again for your love and support, you all mean so much to me!

Con amor,
Hermana Griffin :)