Monday we weren't able to have a lesson with Esmerelda :( We actually couldn't catch her all week haha but we have been in contact all week and she still sounds to be progressing which we are excited for!
We did have an awesome visit with Veronicas parents! We went over to their house to see if either of them have had a chance to read in the Book of Mormon and the husband had looked at it a little bit but they hadn't had much free time since our last lesson, but they both invited us back sometime that we can have dinner and talk more because they said they have more questions, so we are super excited :)
Monday night we received a super sad text though from Jackie, and she said that her mom said she can't get baptized still.. we were super sad and confused because we had finally got her mom to be good with it, but we will keep working with them and keep praying for a miracle.
Tuesday was a treat... hahah every time I think about this day I die laughing. So everything was going good in the morning, we did our personal study and companionship study and then headed to do tasks at the church, which included doing the program for Tonis baptism. It was about 10:40 am when we were at the church doing the program and I had to run to the other room to grab the list of songs that our automatic piano has on it, and when we walked out of the little office, the door shut behind us, and it was locked... well... all of our phones were in there.. as were our keys.. AND we had a lesson scheduled at 11 with Donovan at the park and this was an IMPORTANT lesson that we had to make it to. SO. we sat there thinking what we could do, and it was funny because you can tell what kind of a person someone is when you are in an emergency because my companion started crying, when I was thinking about what we could possibly do and I remembered there was a junior high across the street so we ran over there, and used their phone and I don't have anyones number memorized, which would probably be smart, but we do have a few members that are teachers, so we tried calling the high school but the teacher there was in testing, a different school said they didn't have our member working there and then we called the intermediate school and found Sister Sanchez, who found Montse who is a youth in our branch and she called her dad. Well, by this time it is about 11 and we have absolutely no way to get ahold of Donovan. The brother in our church showed up and asked what we needed (didn't come with the key, and said he had to go to his wife who works at a school and get the key) so we hopped in his pickup and had him drop us off at the park on the way there.
DONOVAN- as we were pulling up to the park he was just driving away (it was 11 30 by then so he waited A LONG TIME) but we caught his attention and he turned around. We had an amazing lesson with him and taught the whole restoration! We invited him to be baptized and he said as soon as possible, so we put him on date for the 15th, which is THIS SUNDAY! He is super prepared though haha we told our branch president and he was like a little uneasy about it "being so soon" but when you're handed a miracle, you have to take it! He is super prepared and has been going to our church for years in lots of different states but was never baptized! He came to church and two weeks later is going to be baptized.. super awesome!
after our lesson with Donovan we went back to the church, and our brother opened up the office and let me tell yall.. I haven't let go of the keys or phone since then haha. It was definitely a good learning experience for sure.
That night we had gotten permission to go and see Jackie and Samantha(the youth that has come back to church and has mentioned going on a mission) perform in their school play, and they did so good! It was super weird to sit down and watch something, but it was nice and short so I didn't feel weird for long haha
Wednesday was also pretty crazy and awesome! So that morning I had the thought come to my head "the elders will already be down here in carrizo today for Toni's baptism interview, so why don't we have Donovan do his baptism interview too?" ok so this is crazy. Donovan comes to church in Carrizo Springs on Sunday the 1st, and Wednesday the 4th has his baptism interview... crazy right?? We had scheduled a video lesson with him for that morning, and so we changed our lesson plan and instead went over the baptism interview questions and taught the commandments that has to do with that, and he agreed to following them all!! So we had our video lesson at about 10 am, and then at 11 am he came to the church and had his interview with the elders and passed! The elders (and us) were amazed at what is happening in this area haha.
After Donovans baptism interview, we had district council and it was awesome! Our new district leader, Elder Gardanier has started doing this different way of accounting for each area which includes setting goals as a district and working towards them and everyone has been doing great with it!
After district council we all went to Miguelitos and ate lunch, and then we had our district blitz! For those of you who don't know what a blitz is, pretty much it's when missionaries all go and do finding in one specific area. So the elders from Eagle Pass came down and on Wednesday we had a few hours to go on a blitz, and they went to one side of Carrizo and we went to the other side (Carrizo Hill) and when we came back together 2 hours later, we had found 8 people between 3 companionships!
After our blitz we had come back and brought them some cherry limeades from Sonic to thank them for their help (and wow those are expensive) and then we had Toni's baptism interview and she passed as well! While the one elder was interviewing our two friends that day, we had set up the ping pong table and I played everybody and nobody can beat me still... hahah it's super fun and we all had a good time even though WOW elders don't like losing.....
Thursday I hit 13 months which was crazy! We did our weekly planning and then went out to Asherton and we had a good time there haha super crazy too though. We found somebody named Alamar, and wow she was so sweet! She is a widow, and works two jobs so is barely ever home but she loved us coming by and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she looked at it like gold!
Then we found Alicia, who has been battling with cancer, and when we first started talking with her she wasn't super interested, but throughout asking her questions about her family and her life, she told us she has family that are members of our church in Washington! Well we stood there and talked for a good 30 min about a lot of good topics, and then she told us she is usually in San Antonio for her doctor appointments but her daughter lives by Stone Oak.. well, we knew where that was because that is where our temple is! We asked her if she had seen it and she said she had and she marvels at how beautiful it is every time she drives by, and we invited her to go walk around it next time she needs to feel peace and promised her it would be the best experience, and she said she is definitely going to do that! We gave her a Book of Mormon too and promised it would change her life if she let it and she then invited us inside and we prayed with her and she was crying, it was just such a tender experience!
Well, after that tender experience we went over to Olga's house and introduced the new missionary to her daughters and like usual her daughters wanted to play football (it's usually soccer but football works too) so we had a few minutes and started playing catch with them, and after a few minutes a guy from the neighbors house named Rocky came over and started playing with us. Well, after a few minutes he walked over to my companion and asked who we are and then started asking a lot of good questions! At first, he was completely sober, but his dad was literally on his death bed, so Rocky was drinking a lot.. and by the end, he was totally crazy hahah but let me tell ya the story. So at first, we were standing in the street answering his questions he had about the difference between our church and other churches, and questions about life after death and lots of different topics. Then randomly he said he had to step inside, but then invited us up onto the porch where his uncle and brother were sitting. We went up and started chatting with them and introduced who we were and then Rockys brother has heard a little about our church so he asked questions like where we are from and how long we serve and then they asked if we get paid and that's actually one of my favorite questions to answer because the look on people's faces when they find out that we pay to do this, it's funny haha. Well, we answered some more questions and then by the end, Rocky asked my companion to run away to Vegas and get married (he has made many comments about her accent and how this would be the first time he fell in love with an Argentinian) hahahah it was a good time. As we were walking to our truck he asked if we would drive him to the liquor store and we just got in the truck and drove away hahah it was insane but so stinkin funny!!
Saturday we had a good day in Cotulla! We saw Liliana, and she looked like a completely different person! We just stopped by to see if she still lived there because last week we stopped by and the apartment looked totally different, but Liliana answered the door and seriously looked so different! She said she has been working really hard on fixing everything and is working to get her daughter back, and it was crazy haha I barely even recognized her, but we are super happy she has been able to be getting better.
Right before we left to head back home, we stopped by Ashleys house who is someone we found a couple weeks ago, and she wasn't home, but her mom Lucy answered the door! She said she wasn't home and asked how she could help us so we introduced who we were and how we had met Ashley a couple weeks ago and she said we could come back, and Lucy said she would tell her we stopped by and Lucy said she would love to sit and talk but was headed somewhere soon, and we asked if we could leave her with something before we left and she said of course, so we asked if she had heard of the Book of Mormon and she like lit up and she was like "I was actually just about to go online and order one!" and she told us how someone had told her to read the Bible and the Book of Mormon together and the Bible will make more sense, so she was just about to go order one when we stopped by! She was amazed (as were we) and it was a cool experience! She invited us back this next week and we are excited :)
That night we got home and went to Toni's birthday party she was having! Toni turned 9 on Wednesday and so we went to her party and it was a glow party and it was super awesome! We helped set up a lot of it throughout the week, so we were happy it turned out good :)
BEST PART about this week was Tonis baptism yesterday!! We had our church service and then afterwards we had Toni's baptism! It was so cute and I got to be a witness which was super special :) Toni had her grandfather come to her baptism and he was crying during it which was so awesome! Toni's dad baptized her too and that was just so amazing. Through Toni wanting to be baptized, her whole family has become active and we are so excited for the future that this family has in the church!
This week is going to be a crazy week too! Tomorrow I head to San Antonio to spend a day in 10th ward (I get to see my fav Hna Abadia Pazos tmw and I couldn't be more pumped) and then Thursday we have zone conference and Friday another exchange with the sisters in Del Rio, and then Donovan's baptism on Sunday and I am super excited for this week!!
Happy (late) birthday last week to my uncle Troy and my little friend Carter (both on the 3rd) and Happy Birthday this week to my aunt Elise (11th) and my uncle Brian (13th) as well as my little best friend Whitlee (13th)
I hope you all have the best birthdays ever!!
Thanks again for all of your love and support and prayers! We are definitely seeing them bless the lives here in Carrizo and bless the missionary work going on here too!
I love you all!
Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Griffin
Bad quality... But Jackie did awesome in her play!
Kris Burke from my last area got baptized!
Our schedule for March...
Glow party...
Toni's Baptism.
We got a show yesterday!
The special Sanchez Family.
No comments:
Post a Comment