Hola Familia!
I love you so much! I can't believe everything that's going on over there. It sounds so busy! When is it ever not though? That's exciting for football and the works to be starting up again. And I'm glad that everyone is doing well. Can you believe that summer is already winding down? I can't! I thought this summer was going to go by slow, but it's flying by. This transfer has been the fastest transfer yet.
Speaking of transfers, Hna Spencer and I are terrified for them to happen. We want to stay together so bad! And we have so much going on. Transfers are Thursday, we have a wedding on Friday, baptisms for Pablo, Natasha, and Cayo on Saturday and a missionary musical fireside on Sunday. It should be a great week!
So this week, I don't even know where to start. Let's see. Esperanza got the marriage license! That in itself was a miracle. She texted us the night before and said that Jose got the day off and was going to go to DC to pick up his passport from the Honduran Embassy, but that after that they didn't have a ride to go and get the actual license. So we scrambled and found one with our ward mission leader, but then they were actually able to get a ride with her sister. So Hno Loza just took us out to lunch instead. So now all we have to do is get her to the chapel on Friday. And be on time. President Gonzalez hates being late. That shouldn't be a problem because we've been teaching her how to be punctual.
I am so proud of her. She's so ready to be baptized. It's taken a lot of work and a lot of prayer to get here, but I can't believe it's actually happening. Actually I can. I knew it would, but I didn't know when. We have truly seen a softening of Jose's heart. And I know that as he sees Esperanza grow and become, he will be inspired by her example and someday he will join her. Words can't express how much I love her. It's been such an experience for me to watch her grow throughout the past four and a half months, and I think I've learned much more from her than she's learned from me. She just has this inherent desire to do what is right and she does it, regardless of what it takes.
We've also had some stellar lessons with Heidy this week. She's coming around. We taught her the law of chastity, and it was one of the best lessons that I've ever been in. Typically I wouldn't expect that, especially teaching a 15 year old girl, but it was beautiful. We prayed a lot about how to teach it to her so that she wouldn't just roll her eyes at us, but so that it really touch her heart. So we used President Uchtdorf's talk to the Young Women call Your Happily Ever After (if you haven't read it, you need to) and we used For the Strength of Youth and talked about the temple and eternal marriage. And it was beautiful. I just wish that Heidy could see all the potential she has. I wish that she could see how beautiful and wonderful she is. But she's never been told that before and she has a hard time believing it now. And Kelley, thanks for sending her that note. She really loved it. She couldn't believe that someone she's never met before would be so nice to her. And she thinks you're really happy :) She showed it to Jhoana who told Adela about it, and now basically their whole family loves you. We're going to keep working with her. This week we also really emphasized the importance of the Book of Mormon and she said, "Wow, I didn't realize that the Mormon Book (that's what everyone in that family calls it, we're working on it...) was so important to read." We played a game with her where we had her pick a book and a chapter and a verse and then we read it to her and we all made applications about the verse to our lives. And then we challenged her to read and apply what she reads every single day for a week. She was excited to do it. We left her a chapter to work on and the next day we went back and not only had she read one chapter, but two. We are seeing little miracles with her every single day.
We also had Return and Report this week (which is for all the new missionaries and trainers) and it was so fun to see everyone. Basically every companionship of Hermana's has been training this transfer. It's really fun because they split us up and ask us what we'd like to tell our babies but are too afraid to tell them and they do the same thing with the new missionaries. Hna Spencer and I talked about it after and we are both very grateful that we're companions. I'm so glad I have her.
Yesterday at church, we basically ran church. Not really, but kind of. Last week they told us that we were going to do a special musical number. So this week Hna Spencer played the organ in sacrament meeting (I'm off the hook for playing the piano!) and we did our musical number and then we ended up teaching Sunday School (No preparation whatsoever) and then I played the piano in Relief Society. It was great! I get so nervous when I have to teach in front of big groups of people in Spanish! But we did it. The lesson was on the Spirit World, but since there were quite a few investigators there I was wondering how we were going to frame it. I was so worried and I was praying that we would get some sort of revelation on how to teach the class so that the investigators would be able to learn and feel the spirit. As the opening prayer was being said, the thought came to my mind to teach the lesson, but to use to Plan of Salvation to teach it. So we did that and it went really well. Better than I expected. I was so thankful for that and the Spirit was so strong.
We also had an amazing experience last night. We just started teaching a lady named Annie who the elders had been teaching. Her brother's wife and her brother's wife's mom are both members and the mom, Maribel has been visiting from Honduras. Last night we got a phone call from Maribel and she was really upset. Her granddaughter Marielise has been really sick for three days and she was just getting worse and worse, but they didn't know where they could take her--they didn't want to take her to the ER because they don't have insurance and they didn't know what to do. So we talked to her a little bit and asked her if Marielise had gotten a blessing. She said no, and we asked if she would like one. She said yes, but that she hadn't been able to get in touch with the Elders. So we called the other Elders and they came over and gave her a blessing. As soon as they finished Marielise got up and ran to the bathroom to throw up. The elders left, and we went downstairs and talked to Maribel a bit longer. As we were down there, we heard Marielise upstairs laughing and talking. Maribel went up to check on her and she said that she said that when she threw up she felt like she had thrown up all the sickness and she knew that Heavenly Father had healed her. It was a really special experience.
I think that's about all for this week. It's been a good week and we are content. Thank you for being so wonderful! I love you so much.
xoxo
Hermana Simpson
p.s. what day does Cameron leave?
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