Happy Harry Potter Day!*
That’s right, I might be on a mission in a foreign country thousands of miles away from home, but I would never in my life forget that it’s my boy’s 41st birthday. Don’t worry, though, he’s not the subject of this email.
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| With our favorite secretaries (who are about to be replaced by old people) |
Today is actually going to be pretty crazy, because we’re doing the orientation for the new missionaries. Both the greenies and some more North Americans who are getting shipped in. We’re also welcoming a senior couple, the Carpenters. This unfortunately means that Elder Juarez and Elder Herrera are leaving the office, and I am super sad about it because they’re the best! But it’s OK. As Céline Dion once said, my heart will go on.
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| RIP to my bestie who always talks to me in English :'( Hope he has fun being a branch president with his gringo! |
This week we had some seriously good lessons, including a church tour! We had scheduled with this woman named Gloria, and were ready for her, and then she showed up with her husband, Manuel, and their adorable little boy! What? Straight-up just giving us her family to teach? That’s a pretty all-star move, if you ask me. Anyway, they’re the cutest, and Manuel’s boss is a member, which is the neatest little in.
We also had a really good time calling former investigators in our area book this week. I cannot stress how much I've grown to absolutely love formers. All you have to do is call a number, and 95 percent of the time you schedule another lesson, and it’s great and everyone is happy. I just think they’re so neat.
A little miracle I absolutely loved this week happened a couple of nights ago. We were at home, it was the end of the day, and we still had a good half-hour before it hit 9. We were trying so hard to think of who else we could call, because we’d either had lessons with our progressing people that day or they were busy that night. Hermana Gonzalez asked whom we should call, and then, out of nowhere, Alex popped into my mind.
Alex is someone we had found weeks ago and tried so hard to keep into contact with. We messaged him a lot, but he was pretty spotty about replying, and he never answered our calls. I’m pretty sure we’d called him a solid seven times. So from a logical standpoint, reaching out to Alex again made no sense.
But then Hermana Gonzalez suggested, “Hermano Alex?” We both laughed, but I told her I was thinking the same thing, and so then we called him, and he answered right away. We had a really good lesson with him, and the entire time, as we were sitting there talking to him, I just kept on thinking how much of a miracle it was. It may seem small, but for Alex’s life, this is huge. It was a reminder to me that we can never give up on people and that we should always, always listen to what the Spirit tells us. Even when there’s a little bit of doubt in our minds, or even when we think we’ve already done all we can. 1 Nephi 4 says:
1 Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?
2 Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea.
3 ...wherefore can ye doubt? Let us go up; the Lord is able to deliver us, even as our fathers.
— Thanks for listening,
Hermana Newton
* Harry Potter was born July 31, 1980.
3. Sometimes you run into things that aren't in your job description in the mission office.
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