July 16, 2018 - Blessings and Really Strange Stuff

I think this week we knocked more doors than I ever have in my life! We walked a lot less, because we've been working a lot closer to home, but we also travelled overnight twice. It's been a week of blessings, but also some really strange stuff haha. We had some miracles show up to church (hallelujah cause Pres Mazzagardi also showed up for the branch conference haha) but none of the people we're teaching, which is a mixed feeling. The water in the whole city was cut off, we taught a women who's almost athiest (which is SUPER rare here!) and also a man who sang an original composition on the spot instead of saying the prayer at the end. Someone stopped us on the street and asked if we were nuns, and another person asked if we were foreign exchange students (hilarious if you remember that my current area is in the middle of nowhere) and then told us we should pick a different street to walk on (I'm assuming she meant for safety reasons, but since it was noon and full of people I'm not positive haha). We ran for excercize time a couple days this week, but also ate quite a bit of sugar (ooh and we have some awesome plans for today!). We ate with our ward members only three times this week (but one of the times was churrasco, AND THERE WAS SOBREMESA), once at this all natural café, and once with a super rich baptist family that invited us haha. Basically, all's well and "normal" in the mission field!

And here are a couple highlights:

Splits. So the overnight travelling was because we did splits in Nanuque, which is even more in the middle of nowhere haha. Nanuque is a bowl surrounded by farms with a giant rock in the middle. Not even exaggerating. But the 30 hours we were there were pretty awesome, and we had a party and made french toast and almost-maple-syrup with the other two american sisters :P

Eunice is the only person from the last 2 weeks that we're actively teaching. She's super sweet, and has great desire to learn, although she wasn't able to go to church yesterday. She works really hard to support her family, and really makes the best of her living circumstances. It was so sweet when she told us that she's praying and trusting in God that he'll help her find a good husband!

Fernando was a bit of a puzzle, because he's very....artistic...in his story telling, but I think it goes like this: About 10 years ago, he visited the church and liked it, but never went back. Over the last couple weeks, he had this random desire to learn more about the church, so he's been searching the neighborhood for the elders, but not finding them (because we're the ones that work in his neighborhood). He also tried to make a request on the church website, but the system didn't accept his email address. Saturday, he wandered into the chapel, which the elders didn't close all the way (shame on them! but it worked out haha), and chatted with the elders while they were getting stuff ready for the baptism yesterday. They invited him to church, and he came! and the rest is history haha. He stayed for all 3 hours and the baptism, and by the end, he was soooo happy that I'm amazed he didn't pass out! He loved the hymns so much that he collected a stack to take home (we let him take ONE). Oh, and he's also the one that sang the prayer yesterday haha.

Yesterday was our Branch conference, and President Mazzagardi and the stake president both gave awesome talks! Other than that, it was normal haha.

Ok I'm almost out of time, but the last thing was that on Tuesday, I'm going to hit my 9 month mark! (YES, it does seem like it haha). It's gonna be a really awesome week, and I'll tell you all about it next p-day :P

Love you all! See you in 9 ;)

-Sister Kirkham