25
May 2015
Dear
Family,
We
are a trio! Hermana Riveros from Pero is with us. She lived in Trujillo for
most of her life but moved to Huancayo. She studied law. She is 22 and has been
in the mission for six months. She joined the church when she was sixteen and
was the first in her family but the rest followed her, including aunts and
uncles. Before she joined the church she was agnostic, but it doesn't sound
like the kind of agnostic I'm familiar with. She was part of an organized
religion. She said she did yoga with her dad in the wilderness, went to
meetings where they tried to enter into a candle, and they believe than humans
have tails and horns. At least that's what I got out of our conversation over
cold cereal this morning.
Shortly
after Hermana Riveros arrived Friday afternoon we went to visit an investigator
and brought one of the young men from the ward. The investigator wasn't home so
we made some contacts on the way to the house of a young man who is a new
member. It felt really weird to be teaching with a trio and a member, four
people. We taught the young man and when we started to go to another lesson, he
decided he wanted to tag along, of course. FIVE people in the street and we
couldn't do divisions because both of the members were male. Just try making a
contact with four people behind you. Weird. I think it's like that story about
the man with all of the animals in his house, though. When the young men left
we felt less clumsy as a threesome and are learning to teach in unity with a companionship
of three.
I'm
pretty sure it was inspiration that President had to send Hermana Riveros
because she taught me how to roll my Rs! So many of my companions and leaders
have tried and failed to help me with that and on Saturday as we were cleaning
the chapel Hermana Riveros explained exactly how I had to position my mouth and
tongue to pronounce it well. It worked! I hugged her. Do you know how long it
has been since I gave up? I started learning Spanish a few months after I
turned twelve and studied four years in school. When I got a Spanish speaking
call I assumed I would eventually learn but I have been her for almost a year
and hadn't figured it out. So many people have tried to help me but I just
couldn't. I told Hermana Riveros that day that I was embarrassed to pronounce
words with double rr and she taught me how! There's a whole world of words I
can say now. Just imagine being a missionary in Chile and not being able to
pronounce words like dog, ward, restoration, and guitar very well. It made me
so happy that I've started thinking about studying communication disorders
again. Mom, sign me up for Intro to SLP along with my neuroscience classes.
The
mystery of our member/investigator continues. He insists that he was not
baptized. He said that he was investigating the church when he was nineteen and
that the Sunday he was supposed to be baptized was the earthquake of 1985 and
he didn't get baptized. Now he wants to. He could have served a mission at
nineteen and now says that his family is his mission. They are not members...as
far as we know. They aren't very receptive to the gospel. For a few days we
thought maybe he is an investigator after all. Maybe the paperwork was sent by
mistake? We talked to the ward secretary yesterday and according to church
records, he was baptized March 6, 1983, before the earthquake. He was confirmed
the same day and has a membership number but didn't receive the priesthood and
records show nothing about his wife and daughter. There is one member who
remembers him from years ago, the father of our ward mission leader. He says
that our member/investigator went to activities but always alone and that his
wife was never interested in the church. He continues to insist that he was
never baptized and wants to be baptized. The fact that his name is on the
records concerns him. Either he is lying to us or as Hermana Young said,
"Something fell during the earthquake and hit him on the head." I
feel like I'm on an episode of Monk.
A
recent convert has been a great example of scripture study. When we visited her
on May 1st and I met her for the first time she wasn't reading the scriptures
regularly. We taught her about the Book of Mormon, reading together parts of
Joseph Smith's testimony and talking about how Moroni who buried the plates
later appeared as an angel to Joseph. She said that the Book of Mormon is kind
of like buried treasure and she was really excited to learn about the history.
We challenged her to read every day and she committed to do it. When we
returned the following day she had read three pages and we discussed it and
invited her to continue. We gave her a chart with bubbles to fill in every time
she reads a chapter. Due to her schedule, we didn't have the chance to meet
with her again until Wednesday May 20th. She gets home around 10:00, after we
have to be in the house, which is part of the reason she hasn't been reading
the scriptures regularly. When we went to her house she was thrilled to show us
her chart. It took her several minutes to show us because she kept saying,
"You won't believe me. You're going to say, 'It can't be!'" She has
almost finished the Book of Mormon in less than a month! She says that when she
gets home from work now at 10:00, she makes herself an herbal tea and reads
from 11:00 to 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, finishing several chapters every
day! She was so proud of herself and we are too!
When
we had exchanges in Curacavi, Hermana Taylor and I visited a less active
family, a returned missionary and his wife, one of his converts. She said she
gets home from work late and doesn't have time to study the scriptures. I told
her the story of this new convert who has almost finished the Book of Mormon.
Curacavi
is outside Santiago and is a little more rural. It was a beautiful fall day and
the leaves are changing colors. The members we ate with served us lunch outside
among avocado and citrus trees.
Friday
was the talent show. Hermana Young and I sang "Glorioso." An
investigator’s mom went and so did the parents of another new member. We didn't
get to stay for the whole activity but we were there long enough to see a
couple in the ward do a lip sync to Pimpinela "Pega la Vuelta." The
wife had a short red wig. It was hilarious. I glanced at our new member’s mom,
and saw that it was cracking her up as well.
So
many people came to ward conference! We have been working hard with the leaders
and members to get people there and we saw lots of miracles. An investigator’s
mom stayed for all three hours of the block. Our member/investigator went. A convert invited
two coworkers. A less active we have been visiting was also there. One of the
member's less active mom and nonmember dad went and stayed for Sunday School,
which the father had never done before. I hope that we can continue to work
this way, not just for ward conference but for every Sunday.
The
Stake President used a lot of Elder Holland's talk from some time ago about the
ministering of angels. When we visited an investigator last night he said that
the talk reminded him of me because he had questions about angels before and I
responded with several ideas from that talk because it's one of my favorites
and the Stake President used the same scripture that I showed him in Doctrine
and Covenants ("angels round about you to bear you up").
It's
been a good week. We'll see what happens with transfers next Monday... dun dun
dun
Love,
Hermana
Eva VanCott
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