To start out, it was Semana Santa, which means PASOS! It was madness here, every night there was a parade with lots of KKK looking Nazarenos and virgins and sad catholics. It was a really cool thing to see culturally, but a really odd thing to see religiously. Also, since we live in the center of Dos Hermanas, we always got stuck in or behind the pasos every night as we were going in to go home.
We saw some cool miracles this week. We had some really good lessons with Pa... and we were CERTAIN he was going to get baptized on the 4th like we had planned, but then on Saturday night, we found out he´s not legally married to his wife. Its going to be awhile now since they´ve been waiting on their papers from Bolivia for MONTHS already but I really feel like he will get baptized, it just might not be right now with us. But its cool because despite all of this, he´s really upfront with us and really understands repentance and what he needs to do. He´s a cool guy. C... and A... came to our missionary FHE on Wednesday which is a really good sign and they loved it! J... fought with all the old men there and is convinced that the elders are zombie hunters. Its great, I can really see them getting baptized!
SUPER COOL: We had the goal this week of reaching the standards of excellence for our mission and on Friday we were SO CLOSE, only like 5 lessons away from it, so we were really motivated to get stuff done! We had like 45 minutes before our next plan and all our other plans had failed us, so like good missionaries, when you don´t know what to do, we prayed. We prayed that the Lord would lead us to someone or someone to us who was ready for the gospel. We open our eyes and across the street there is a man. Then this man crosses the street RIGHT TO US. We started to talk to him and all we did was introduce ourselves when he goes, "You should come to my house and teach me and my family. I want them to hear what you have to say. Here is my address." WHAT. His name is P... and he´s dominican and super cool. We haven´t been able to see him yet, but I have a good feeling about him.
We get taken good care of here. There is this older American couple here who lives in Utrera and on Saturday they invited all of us missionaries over for an American Easter dinner. It was so much fun and SO GOOD eating really American food- the ham was cooked and everything! SO good adn way nice of them!
CHECK THIS OUT. I´m obsessed: easter.mormon.org SO GOOD.
To answer your question, NOTHING happens on Easter day here. Haha there were some pasos in Sevilla on Sunday mornign but we didn´t even talk about Easter at church! It was a little disappointing. We do exchanges every week, so this week I stayed here in Dos Hermanas with Hermana Cerna while Hermana Blake went to sevilla with another hermana. We HAD some investigators progressing towards baptism all up until Saturday when everyone fell off course. I´m kinda bummed but we are working hard to find teach and baptize. We´ll see one here yet! So a view into my daily activities? Like how does a normal day go? I get up at 730, exercise then at 8 we shower, eat, get ready, write in our journals, etc and start personal study at 9. At 10 we do comp study and at 11 we hit the street. Mornings here are a little hard to get lessons, but we have some less actives that like to see us in the mornings. Its a good day if you teach before lunch. At 2 we go back into our piso and make and eat lunch, relax, write in our journals, do things we don´t have time for (a lot of times this means nap) and then at 330 we update our area book. at 4 we have language study and at 5 we are back out working. We usually teach between 3 to 4 lessons depending on the afternoon and then at 1015 or 1045 we are back our piso, plan for 30 minutes and then at 1130 its time for bed. Its a really nice schedule missionary wise. I LOVE mediodia. My favorite time of the day!
So everything here was closed from Thursday until today so no mail yet, but I´m certain it will come rolling in today! One of my highlights from this week was on Wednesday. WE were walking by an outside cafe to go look up some less actives and we see these two older sisters who are both less active that we visit sitting at the cafe. they see us and invite us to sit with them so they bought up churros and chocolate and we taught them a lesson! Haha it was SO GOOD! Also I focused my studies on Christ´s resurrection this week and it was super cool following the last week of his life and after with it. LOVE it!
I wanted to serve a mission when Sister Garcia served in our ward when I was like 8. It really impacted me seeing cool sister missionaries. And then, when I was getting ready to go to school, nothing felt permanent or right. So when the announcement happened, I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I have seen so much joy and happiness from living this gospel, but at the same time, when I wasn´t living it as I should have been, I have never felt so gross and just unsatisfied with life. So for me, that is why I share the gospel. We have the knowledge that we will be blessed here in this life for living the gospel, and even better, we will receive eternal life in our Father´s kingdom in the next one. So when I have fears about opening my mouth, I just think, "I´ve got nothing to lose. In fact, I have EVERYTHING to share. Its their choice to accept it or not." And I´ve found the hardest part is just opening your mouth. But think about it, people already notice we are different. People are already watching us and what we do, so why not explain it to them? My scripture for you actually goes along with this. Its a story, in Acts 8:27-39. There is a promise in the intro of chapter 9 of PMG: The Lord is preparing people to receive the gospel. He will lead you to them and them to you. This eunuch was prepared and the Lord led the apostle to him and he got baptized. The lord is preparing people! I love this and love you! have a great week!
Love you all! happy easter and earth day and what not! LOVE YOU!!
Hermana folsom
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