What If He Didn't Like Ketchup?‏

Hola Familia!

 

Hello!  I just love you so much!  I love hearing from you!  And Cam got his call!!!!!!! I've been so excited to come and email to find out.  It was torture waiting until today.  I may have squealed out loud here in the library. Oopsies!  I am so excited for you, Cam!  You have a long time to wait, buddy.  As long as I did.  Don't waste this time you have.  Work hard.  Read Preach My Gospel, read the Book of Mormon, and really learn how to recognize the Spirit.  It will help you so much when you get to the field, I promise.  I wish I would have prepared better.  It felt like I had so much time and then all of a sudden I was giving my farewell and it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was actually going on a mission and I realized that I wasn't near as prepared as I wanted to be.  I'm so excited for you though!!!!  A little sad that you'll be speaking Portuguese and not Spanish though.  That's so exciting that you and Brady and Ben and Perry will have all served in Brazil.  I kind of feel a little left out.  Oh well, I wouldn't trade DC for the world!

We have had a pretty amazing week this week, full of awesome experiences.  Hopefully I have time to share them all.  The other day we were walking about, it has been so nice this week.  Almost too nice, actually.  I think we might have hit 90 at least once.  And it was humid!  But anyway, we were walking and we passed this guy and the street holding a sign asking for food.  We didn't do anything because we were headed to an apoointment.  But the image of him just kept nagging at me the entire time.  And I thought to myself, if he's still there when we get back we should do something.  So we head back from our appointment and guess what.  There he is.  We usually have granola bars or something in our bags, but this time we had nothing.  We walked past him and we both just looked at each other and said, we should do something.  Hna Wallis said, "Let's just buy him a burger."  It made sense, there was a Five Guys right in front of us.  But I was so worried.  What if he didn't like ketchup, or what if he actually wanted a cheeseburger, or what if he only wanted two pickles instead of four?  Or what if he was a vegetarian?  That would have been a problem.  It's silly, but I was really concerned.  But then, this thought just came to my mind, just invite him with you.  I'm not an expert at taking homeless guys out to eat, but I said to Hna Wallis, "Why don't we invite him to come with us, maybe we can even share a message."  And we did!  He was so grateful, and he was asking us what it was we did.  He's from Southern California (the same place as Alena, actually) and he had seen missionaries before, but we were the first girl missionaries he'd ever seen.  He's out here looking for his birth dad, and he found him, but it didn't turn out to be what he had hoped.  So he's stuck here with a place to stay sometimes and he's looking for a job.  It's really hard to find work here right now though.  He told us that he's really interested in church and everything.  He went to church as a kid, but stopped going because he didn't understand what was being taught.  And then he asked the golden question:  Every church teaches something so different, how do I know what's right?  Well, we know of someone else that had the same question...transition to the first lesson.  It was awesome!  We taught a lesson in the middle of Five Guys and the spirit was there and some of Jeff's questions were answered and the English elders are going to get in touch with him.  Heavenly Father really does put prepared people in our path, we just have to be willing to talk to everyone.

Later that night we were looking for a less active but we were given the wrong address.  We only had about 45 minutes and we didn't know what to do.  We had a couple of options but we didn't feel super content with any of them.  So we went back to our car and decided to pray.  Afterwards, I was waiting for an answer and going through our options doing pros and cons in my head, but I couldn't really focus on any of them because one thought just kept overriding all the others: "Listen to your companion."  Oh.  Then Hna Wallis looked at me and asked if I got an answer.  "Yep," I said, "Listen to your companion.  No pressure."  The thing is that she had gotten the answer that we needed to knock in that area, but she was hoping that I had gotten something different, because she didn't really want to do that.  Neither did I, to be honest, but we did.  And we found a family!  That was a really interesting experience, especially because I've been trying to be more humble and to rely more on my companion, and that really taught me a lot.  And also about revelation.  We both received revelation that was completely different, but it was the revelation that we needed to do what Heavenly Father wanted us to do.  We had to work together to figure it out, but we were blessed because we did.  He truly guides this work.

Continuing on to the Junior saga:  The Friday before last Friday we fasted for Junior.  It was Hermana Castaneda's idea and her and Pili did it too.  This whole week he has been in such a good mood, he's been listening and he's been excited to see us and he wants to learn.  It's been a whole different Junior than the week before.  That in itself is a miracle.  Even better though is that we got to go to the temple on Saturday!  And we actually made it there.  Something always happens with the Castaneda's and things that we plan never seem to turn out, but this time they did.  And it was so special.  We called the sisters there the night before and told them what we would like and they did an amazing job.  They received revelation for exactly what Junior needed to hear and the Spirit was really strong.  We talked a lot about families and how Junior can be the light that his family needs by accepting the gospel.  He knows it's true.  Those VC sisters are so special.  Junior really loved all of it and even posted the pictures on Facebook before we had even made it home.  It was such a good temple trip.  I wish I could explain it by saying more than how good it was, just know that it was.  He still wants to get baptized in November.  He's crazy, but we'll see what happens.

Yesterday at church we also had a surprise.  Reyna was on date for the 13th, but she told us on Thursday that she didn't quite feel like she was ready and she was worried that her mom, who died and was super Catholic would be really disappointed in her decision.  We asked her to pray about it and specifically ask Heavenly Father if this was what He wanted her to do and if her mom would accept her decision.  She ended up not getting baptized the 13th, but on Sunday she came up to us and asked us when she could have her interview.  Um, what?!  So she had her interview and is ready to get baptized.  The only problem:  She doesn't want to do it alone because she doesn't want all the attention.  So we've got to find someone else real quick that's ready to get baptized.  I'm so excited for her though.  She's very smart and very firm in her decisions and she got the answer that she needs.

And now for the terrifying news.  I got a phonecall last night from AP Litchfield (who is a friend of Mindy Strong, by the way), and he asked me if I would do him a favor.  Of course.  And then he asked me if I would be willing to train.  Yikes!  I told him that if he was sure that was what the Lord wanted then yes.  He said he was sure.  And then he said, "Here's the thing, you won't be staying in Old Town."  Those might be the most heartbreaking ten words I've ever heard in my life.  I'm not ready to leave and I'm not ready to train.  But it's what Heavenly Father wants.  So I'll be training and either white washing or opening up an area.  And I am so scared.  I don't feel ready for either of those responsibilites, let alone one of them.  I guess I've done everything the Lord needs me to do here, but it breaks my heart to have to leave.  I love these people so much.  Especially the Castaneda's.  They've become my family here.  My comfort is knowing that Heavenly Father has His plans and this is His work, so if I'm willing, He will make miracles happen. 

Family I love you so much.  Thank you for being so wonderful.  Thank you, Mom, for praying for the people that I love so much and for loving them even though you don't know them.  Just know that they are so special and that your prayers are being heard and making a difference.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson