Dear Family and Friends,
HAPPY JADE´S FIFTEENTH BIRTHDAY!!!
And also, Happy St. Patrick´s Day. We celebrated by wearing green, and by staying in our apartment for the last 3 hours of our usual proselyting schedule because the soccer game in the stadium near our house was getting so out of hand. I don´t think that had anything to do with the holiday though. Our District leader described the rival teams that were playing as the local BYU-Utah equivalent.
It was an interesting week. I mentioned last week that our investigator showed up drunk to church. A few days later we were going out to visit some people and started cutting across the large open field next to the church when we noticed a man standing there alone smoking and drinking. Hermana Hobbs said "wait, is that Matias?" and sure enough, it was! We saw him before he saw us and we called out to him. He looked up, startled, and then dramatically hurled the bottle of beer into the ditch at the very sight of us approaching. I love that the very sight of me and my companion can cause such a reaction in someone. Anyways, he threw out his cigarette too and gave us his lighter and began to invent some story about a birthday party and his uncle and the beer being thrust upon him against his will, but, he assured us, that he is still trying to quit but that it is just hard. We feel sad for the poor guy. It was 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and he was drinking alone in a field by the church. it seems a bit like a pathetic cry for help.
Another quick anecdote from the week before I go: The last month or so our district has really been struggling with getting any investigators to attend church. I have mentioned this in past emails. We have all had weeks where no one shows up at all. Every week at district meeting we talk about what we can do to do better and to be better and to get more of our investigators to actually come to church. Last week, after feeling like we had hashed and re-hashed every single thing we knew how to do (testify, promise blessings, call them, go by to get them, have members go get them, etc.) we were struggling to figure out what more we could do. Finally we decided that this week we would do everything we had already been doing and then add on top of it a combined district fast.
Well, what can I say? fasting and combined faith and prayer truly brings blessings! I don´t think I had ever experienced the blessings of a true, focused, meaningful fast before my mission. This week before our fast Hermana Hobbs read the scripture in D&C 123:17 that says "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." New favorite scripture. That has kind of been our mantra all week and especially during our fast. We can do all we can do and then we must stand still and stand back and let God work.
On Sunday we had 4 investigators show up to church which is the most I have had during my entire time in Barrio 4. It was just a small miracle but I am grateful.
Gotta go. More next week.
Love,
Hermana Parker
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