A Fair and New Investigators

 

Oh my dear heavens it is already week 6! My first transfer is almost done... Wow this is madness. I hope that the rest of my mission doesn´t go by this fast otherwise I will blink and it will be over! I am loving it still and we are definitely getting into a rhythm here in the centro.

SOOO our crazy goal for this last week! 555 new investigators as a mission, whereas the most we have ever gotten in a week was 236. AND the outcome is.... 558!!!! It was an amazing, miraculous week really and I don´t think I have ever prayed so often before in my life! But it was wonderful really.

To describe my week, I would relate it to Ether 12:6, you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. I started this week super excited and with a lot of faith that we would be able to get 7 new investigators this week, I was really excited to get started! Then Monday night, all of our plans failed us and then all of our backups failed us. And I swear we knocked the doors of every single person in our area book! I was dead tired but it was just Monday and I knew we could get new investigators the rest of the week. THEN Tuesday night all of our plans failed us again. AND all of our backups. We walked even farther and knocked even more doors on Tuesday than we had Monday. We talked to everyone we saw and we prayed all evening. It was a really rough day. Wednesday we were all talking at FHE with the other missionaries and it was really hard hearing about all their success stories and knowing we still had 0 news, and we were starting to get down, but we decided to keep working. AND WE RECEIVED A MIRACLE!!! Thursday we had FIVE new investigators!! I know that we needed to work hard and put in our effort so that the Lord could bless us and that He led us to these elect. From then on, the rest of the week went amazingly! We finished with 10 new investigators this week, higher than we were expecting! It really was a week of miracles and faith and trusting in the Lord.

On Monday we went to the Feria for pday and it was okay, but watching the flamenco dancing was so great. Our new area was the hub of feria and so it was hard to work at nights because there were a LOT of tourists! Our street at night was buzzing with people all week. But it's cool because a lot of people dress in traditional flamenco clothing for feria so we saw the coolest clothes all week! My favorite is when the kids dress up, so cute :)

One of our new investigators, Kingsley, is awesome. I swear he is going to be a bishop or stake president someday. He is so faithful and really solid. His one hangup is that he prefers baptism in natural waters rather than in the baptismal font. BUT I have no problem with that because that means we get to have a baptism on the beach :) He´s Nigerian and I just love Nigerian English. It really is different. My favorite thing he said was, "Kingsley you are a king!" He has such hope and knows his divine nature, its a miracle we met him! Actually it was because we were on a bus we take a lot and we missed our stop somehow. We were really worried about making it home on time and I joked to Hermana Johnson that I guess we were just going to have to have a lesson in the street so we had more time to get back when this man stopped us and asked if we were missionaries! He´d met with them before and wanted to meet with us again! Such a miracle we met Kinglsey!!

We went to the home of a less active woman and she has 5 daughters and 3 sons and a few of her daughters were over and they all only have daughters too, so I was in a home of all women. It really made me miss home and my sisters! There was one moment when I asked them a question and all of them started talking at once and I was like, "Am I at home right now??" hahaha so great! I´m excited to go back!

 

A parade during the fair right outside our window.

 

 It is really multicultural here but I love it! I´ve met people from all over and its so fun hearing different people´s stories. Its a little hard sometimes though because we switch between teaching in English and in Spanish and my brain is so confused when I go from one phone call in English to our Nigerians to another phone call in Spanish to our Spaniards! Hahah but its fun. Unfortunately, we had to hand Francisco off but he still will call us occasionally and tell us about his progress. hahah apparently Pres Deere was out with the elders when they taught Francisco and he raved about his "angeles" and how we are the best missionaries here. No complaints coming from me about that :) Palma is really making progress. She´s gone 3 days without smoking and she really is a changed woman. She´s happier and has such a hunger and thirst for the word of God. She really is an elect lady and I feel so blessed to be able to work with her. I think she teaches us more than we teach her! I absolutely adore her.

Anyways I love you and have a good week!!! Be good, do good!

Love you all and know I am praying for you!!

Hermana Folsom