WOW! This week was awesome! Please excuse my typing and spelling errors because we have limited time and I just want to tell you all about it!
First off, Tuesday we had a member come out with us to do a church tour, but then it fell through so we had her come with us on a lesson with Ramon and his family. Our member sister was very loving and bold she helped bear testimony a lot! Rosa we taught the word of wisdom and asked if she would come to church! She quickly accepted and we told her neighbor, her "fellowshipper", to remind her and invite her to come. Then that night we taught the Noche de Hogar (FHE) and I helped plan the lesson. What we did was take a picture of Christ and put sticky notes all around the room that were attributes of Him that we need to develop. Then we discussed them and put them around the picture of Christ and asked them at the end to imagine their own personal picture with the attributes surrounding it, and extended the invitation to pick one attribute of Christ to work on and focus on developing it. It was fun for our investigators, recent converts, and members. We even got the kids involved too. It went really well.
Wednesday we had a lot of members come out with us, but the most important lesson was teaching Guadalupe the Book of Mormon. We had Zul (a recent returned missionary) come and read the book of mormon with us. She was reading and really felt the spirit. It was an incredible lesson.
Thursday, we went to a referral that was kinda hidden. We were walking and both of the houses were either for sale or under construction. There was a man working on his car and I approached him and he started talking to us about Nefi and other stories. His name was Cristiano and knew a little about our church and the great things about it. However, he just said it wasn't his time yet. HE WAS FROM VERACRUZ! so i totally talked to him about that.
Friday, I finally met our investigator named Janeth. She has 2 little boys and lives with her husband. He works all week so we don't get to teach him. She knows the church is true. It's just hard because he doesn't understand the need for religion but she told us about how much he has changed since they started living togehter when she was 17 and he was 19. She knows the Lord has helped him for all these years. She shared how she feels that she just needs to continue to pray and hope for his heart to be softened so it can be a family centered experience. We updated our area book and prayed for more people that we could go visit. My companion lost her wallet and we missed a lesson. But, we were able to get a ride, thanks to another returned missionary named Adrianne Child, to visit with Guadalupe. She brought us and we taught Guadalupe the Word of Wisdom. She said it would be hard because she too, IS FROM VERACRUZ!! and lovessssss her coffee. However, she knows she can do anything with Christ's help and her desire to be baptized is more important than any substance. We then went to a members house and shared the experience of missionary work and learned about how her son is doing in Tennessee. She took us to Chick-fil-a and we found my companions wallet! We were thankful. (Side note: a bunch of teenage boys came out as we were walking in and handed me flowers and told me I looked beautiful today, my companion and I just laughed and now we joke about it all the time.)
Saturday, We read the book of mormon with Maria and kind of understood the doubts she had about being baptized. She still is recovering from her accident, but she is super excited to be able to come to church once she gets the doctors okay. We decided to check out and ask for new investigators in an area in our ward, somewhere we don't work very often. We met a sweet elderly couple who didn't know of any spanish speakers in the area, we were going to share a message but everything was in spanish so we could only leave them with a prayer, but right after Colleen had the impression for us to go to a little spanish market and talk to people there! We made thank you notes for the bishopric, our ward mission leader, and the hermanas that vistited our investigators with us because our ward was splitting. We met with a couple more people and we met with Luis and his family! His mom actually took time to listen to us and ask about church and such and they all seemed really excited! (Another side note, my companion slipped on ice and fell flat on her back when we were going to Maria's, and it made a loud noise and they had opened the door and she barely had time to get up and breathe. She's totally okay but it was super awkward and funny. ) We also raked the leaves of Sister Smith's home and I'm still sore from it (I am such a wimp) and I know I will live in California after Utah because raking leaves is too much work :)
Sunday our ward met and we had the old bishopric and their wives bear their testimonies and the new bishopric bore theirs. We had dinner which was delicious (teriyaki chicken and rice) and then met with Carmen and Karley! Karley is also from VERACRUZ and she and her daughters all read the pamphlet. All we did was answer questions. Plus one of them is actually baptized she had such a great experience in Mexico that she asked if she could do it again. That family was so excited for church and the Young Women's program and we are still shocked at what happened in that lesson and we know how amazing the church is and the programs we have are here for a reason. We went to the ward "spilt" fireside and now we are still unsure about which ward we will serve in. There were two missionaries (elders&sisters) in Layton 3rd, where we are, and then two in the other and what they did was take some from both of ours and make a third ward. So now there are 4 sets of missionaries for 3 wards. We are pretty sure we will stay where we are, and so do the members because they have already asked if I would play piano for the ward choir Christmas program! Guadalupe came to church but left early because her son was sick.
I love being here in Utah! Even when I have to wear like 2 layers of tights because it is so cold and it's not even snowing much yet! The gospel changes lives and I love seeing the miracles I get to see everyday! I love love LOVE this gospel and teaching families so they can be together forever. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Blankmeyer
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