ALOOOOOOOOHA!
This week was a great week! Hna Marques is
totally awesome. We have great time. People tell us all the time that being with
us is like being with Dinamarca and Machado (our trainers). She’s super funny,
relaxed, and hard working :) ha-ha. In all these changes of companions so
quickly, I feel like a skill I’ve gotten is how to get used to and get to love
a comp- super speed.
We spent a lot of time this week getting everything
ready for an activity we had on Friday, which was my idea so a lot of the work
fell on me. We did a LUAU! It was so fun, and a big success! We had a LOT
of investigators, converts, and more than anything, less active members! And
the miracle was that on Sunday, a lot of people who don’t usually come, came!!
I really love working just in general to fortify a ward. You can do lot of good
just by passing by and saying how are you. ALL OF YOU GO TRY IT THIS WEEK. The
ward is super MAQUINA (like really good at) with visiting the members. Really,
with something so simple, we see miracles.
I’m gonna send some pics of the luau. The big
gigantic banner of Hawaii has an interesting story. We were going to visit some
antiguos the other days. Hmmm how do I explain that. Some people we found in
our area book that the missionaries stopped visiting. We kept finding pure
members, less active. I was like WHAT IS GOING ON??? We needed new investigators,
but after about an hour and a half of pure members, I just accepted that this
was something that Heavenly Father wanted me to get. Finally, we ended up
finding a guy whose name is Memo. We invited him to the luau, and he said he wouldn’t
be able to come, but he wanted to help. He explained that he has a business of making
like big gigantic signs, or like backdrops. He asked if he could design
something and donate it, so we could have a like a back drop of Hawaii to take
pictures! It turned out so big, we had to improvise to be able to hang it up!
it was by the far the coolest part. We danced the limbo, and Maria Angelica and
her family WON!!!! We played a game with hula-hoops, and we ate kabobs,
which was just about impossible to explain to the sweet little ladies who made them.
We listened to beach boys. We had almost 100 people who came!! It was such a
success! The whole ward is already asking my comp and I "what’s gonna be
the next activity??"
On Saturday, we visited all of our plans and
no one was home. We had about half an hour until our lunch, and we just
happened to end up near an investigator Roodley, un haitiano. He usually isn’t
home at that time, but I called him and he said come on over. We went by, and
it was one of the most guided lessons I’ve had in my mission. We were teaching
something, nothing to do with baptism, but somehow we ended up there, and we
put a date for June 2nd. Roodley has been listening to the missionaries more
than a year now, and he’s never even accepted fecha (date). I don’t know why,
but just that day he was ready! he came to church and we announced to the whole
ward he’s getting baptized! We are very happy for him!
Then on Saturday night, we had our baptism of Maria
Angelica. It has been such a joy to participate so much in her journey,
and that of her family. The missionaries found her family the week before I got
here, so I was there for her first lesson, when the family lost a brother to
suicide, when they first came to church, when she accepted a date for baptism,
and finally for the baptism. The family Varas Saavedra is the BEST family. They
have the goal to be sealed in the temple at the end of the year, so I hope they
can and I can be there for them during that important step also! The family has
a very special place in my heart. At some point in the baptism, the bishop
asked me if I would be willing to sing, and he asked me like RIGHT NOW. So I
sang Nearer My God to Thee, a cappella. It was very special. The only complication
was that there was a bad communication as far as who was gonna fill the font
goes, so at the last minute, we were filling it with all of the water we could
find ha-ha. I grabbed some pics of that too.
Then yesterday, we put another fecha (baptism
date), 2 de Junio (June 2nd), for Valentina, another 9-year-old girl.
Her family is also MUY BUENA, espcialmente hna Caterin. We are SO EXCITED FOR the
work here in this sector!" Pray lots for us! We love you all!
LOVE, Hna Stanley :)
Hermana Marques
