February 23, 2015

Hello!

Well this week it looks like it will be the last stretch of my mission. We had a really good week this past week. Last week after emailing we were heading to our church building to have a lesson with a member who was from Brazil and on our way we were smashed in the metro as usual and started up a conversation with the person next to us. He said he was from Brazil and he had only been here for a couple of days. He just so happened to be getting of the same stop as us and so we invited him to see our church and he agreed. We were able to give him a tour, introduce him to lots of members that were there for family home evening and give him a lesson. It was a really cool to be able to do that. This week we had our big zone conference that we gave a training on. It was a bit stressful to get everything organized and give our training but it was such a great training. I really think everyone enjoyed it and it’s going to help this zone and stake out a lot! That was eight hours and then we had an hour meeting with all the district leaders then a 30-minute dinner break and finished our night off with a meeting with our stake and mission president. I thought I was going to become one with the chair. I was very spiritually tired. I sadly had to bare my leaving testimony at the zone conference. I have seen 4 of my going home companions do it, but I never thought I would have to do it!

We only had one split this week and it was a really great split full of really great contacts on the bus and metro! Our best day this week though was Saturday. We had this lesson with this guy who a couple of weeks ago contacted us while we were teaching a lesson at a McDonalds. It was probably the coolest lesson I have had so far on my mission. He told us that he saw us at McDonalds walked out and then a voice told him to go back and talk to us. He walked all the way back into the McDonalds and asked us if we were preaching the gospel and that he was Christian. The whole time we had the lesson the spirit was really strong. He agreed to everything that we taught about and said he had always wondered why there were so many churches on the earth and that it would make so much since that Jesus Christ and god the father would have to appear to restore the gospel. You could imagine the excitement my companion and me had after that lesson. We have been here for about 4 months and after many days of contacting people we haven't found anyone that was really interested or who would be able to stay in our branch because of age or language. There was an activity that night at the church and we walked in just floating to find out that there were four less actives who we have never seen at our branch party and two members had brought a non member friend. I it was so cool to be able to talk to all of them and be able to set lesson up with them. 

The next day was Sunday and we decided we wanted to fast so that this guy who we had an amazing lesson with would enjoy church and feel the spirit. I wish I could tell you that he liked it or that he even came, but unfortunately he didn't come but went to another church. It was hard to hear but if I learned one thing on my mission is that there will always be so rough patches on the way. I’m so thankful I was able to fast though the spirit was so strong through out all of church. Every one of the talks on Sunday were so inspiring and talked about missionary work and how we need to be constant. It gave us the perfect push we needed! I’m so thankful for missionary work and for the opportunity to do it and continue to do it! I love you all tons xoxox bisous

-Soeur Dick