Dear Friends and Family,
It is amazing how much can change in just one week! I was not in the best spirits last week, as I am sure was evident in the tone of my email, but this week is a different story. SO MUCH has happened. Where do I begin?!
First, let me tell you about the MIRACLE of Ramon and the NIGHTMARE of Antonia.
Ramon was our golden investigator that we “lost” last week due to the interference of his semi-psychotic woman-friend Antonia. Antonia is very active in another local church, but despite this, at first she received us very well. She welcomed our visits, listened and participated and even went to church a few times with Ramon. However, to be honest, I doubted her sincerity from the very start and was not surprised to see her attitudes begin to change as Ramon got closer and closer to his baptismal date and to their wedding. We did everything we could to respect and strengthen her relationship with Ramon (for example: always invited her to lessons and to church, invited them to go to a couples dinner at the church, and helped get them the paperwork and everything they needed to get married). However, Ramon, from the very start was a little uncertain about whether he was ready to get married or whether he preferred to move out and separate from Antonia. In our very first lesson, before we ever met Antonia, he mentioned to us that things weren't going very well with his girlfriend and that he was thinking of moving out and going to live with his sister. We tried not to push him one way or the other, but told him that the important thing was to live the Law of Chastity and that he and Antonia needed to pray and ask God about what they should do and that we were only there to help them with their decision.
Anyways, Antonia began to say things like “the only reason I went to your church is because I was jealous.” She also insisted that the only reason Ramon ever went was to look for a new girlfriend. At this point she began to be very controlling and manipulative with Ramon, screening our calls, and saying awful, hurtful things and finally she told us that she didn´t want us to come back to her house. Seeing that it is her house and not Ramon's, we respected her wishes. We didn't want to cause any more problems, and no longer felt comfortable teaching Ramon or stopping by the house. So we just dropped him altogether, even though he was one week away from his baptism.
That was last week, Monday. Tuesday, we had a zone conference, and our zone leaders and district leaders were all very stressed out about the fact that we were not going to reach our goal of baptisms for November. A lot of the planned baptisms were falling through and our zone leaders started asking us what we could do to “save” Ramon's baptism.
Side note: I have to admit, all of the goals and numbers aspect of missionary work really stresses me out and sometimes irks me. I KNOW it is necessary to, with the guidance of the spirit, set goals and make plans. But sometimes I feel like the elders get a little distracted and carried away in the numbers game.
Anyways, at first I felt pretty annoyed that they were even asking us this. We had done EVERYTHING we could, but it was just a really complicated situation, especially considering that Ramon is a man and we are two young women and he had a crazy jealous (possibly dangerous) older girlfriend. So, they asked if they thought it would be any different if they tried talking with Ramon. We agreed and passed them his phone number so they could set up a lesson with him in the chapel and we “washed our hands” of the entire thing.
Well, the next thing we knew the AP´s and our Zone Leaders were doing his baptismal interview and filling out all the paperwork and they even brought the mission truck over to his house to help him move all of his stuff out and move IN to his sister´s house so he could get baptized three days later. We were not there for all of this, but we were told that Antonia came out and began to scream all sorts of obscenities and said she was going to call the police—so they had to stop moving stuff out of the house, and Ramon moved in with his sister with nothing more than a single change of clothes.
I am running out of time, so I will have to write part 2 of the story next week but, well, the miracle is, RAMON GOT BAPTIZED! When he moved in with his sister, he moved out of our branch and into the area of some other hermanas in our zone (hna Warnick and hna Hobbs). We had already taught him all the lessons, so all they had to do, basically, was make baptismal invitations and fill up the font.
Lots of other things happened this week. We celebrated Thanksgiving! I think there is nothing I love more than celebrating Thanksgiving with cute South Americans who have never ever celebrated this very North-American holiday.
We also organized a very successful branch activity Saturday—we played games and ate food and watched the movie 17 Miracles. It was a lot of fun and good way for Hna Medina to say goodbye to the branch.
Hermana Medina left yesterday morning for her mission in Colombia. It was bittersweet. I was very sad to see her go, but excited for her to finally get to her assigned mission.
And now, for these last two weeks of the transfer, I am serving with a “mini missionary” Hermana Luna! She is the very same member that threw me my surprise birthday party and gives us lunch every Thursday. Well, for the next two weeks, she is my companion full-time and I couldn´t be happier. She is amazing and in our ONE day together we have already had some great experiences. Specifically with a young woman named Julieta. Julieta is another mini miracle... but that is a story I will also have to save for next week.
So, next week you´ll have to tune in for the Ramon & Antonia Saga Part 2 and for the story of Julieta. And for PHOTOS.
Well, love you all tons and tons!
Happy Holidays!
Hermana Parker
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