Power Outage

These are the only pictures I took all week. We had the power out for twenty-four hours. This is us eating lentils in the dark (I learned how to make lentils from Hermana Videla's recipe book, and they're vegan!)

13 July 2015

Dear family,

We had a crazy day yesterday, and I'm not even talking about the power outage or all of the rain. We got over that because we are flexible missionaries and we don't mind getting ready for church in the dark. We even still had hot water, what a treat. And our investigator and her husband drove us to church even though it meant he would arrive late to work so we didn't have to walk through the puddles too early in the morning. Luxury.

We had a surprise in sacrament meeting. Hermana Fullmer leaned over to me and whispered, "He is here." He's the one who got mad at us in early June and said he didn't want us to visit anymore.  Didn't think you'd be hearing about him again, did you? He talked to the bishop and he wants to be baptized. We set a date for the 26^th of July and taught a lesson with him last night at the Diaz’s (the ward missionaries) house. The electricity was still out so we had to use our flashlights to teach in their living room.  We sang The Lord is My Light. I chose the opening hymn, by the way. 

 A hard moment yesterday was showing up for a lunch appointment with a member in a tragic moment. Her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend live with her. Just as we rang the doorbell, the boyfriend was on the phone hearing that his younger brother had died in a fire in southern Chile. It was heartbreaking. We didn't know what to say and couldn't even give him a hug because we're missionaries. A hand shake just doesn't really offer a lot of comfort. Hermana Fullmer suggested that we say a prayer and the mother asked me to offer it. 

Obviously we wanted to let them have a moment as a family but the mother and her daughter insisted on sending us lunch which we ate in our own house.

Our investigator made beautiful comments in Relief Society. The lesson was about temples and she said that the temple is her motive. She longs to see her mother again and is excited to do her work. She has made it clear to her future husband that her goal is to be sealed to him in the temple and not just get married civilly. She has downloaded all of the gospel library and is reading things like "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple" and "Jesus the Christ." 

We visited a family we are teaching with the ward missionaries who are preparing to serve missions themselves. The father commented that the youth in the church are so good. He says that he has seen examples in various places and that perhaps it is too late for him but that he wants his kids to be like these youth he has seen. Examples matter. It was great to have members there. They accepted a baptismal date, finally, although they didn't go to church this week.

A newly baptized young man hasn't been going to church, which is really frustrating, but we had a good lesson this week. We stopped focusing on what he isn't doing and nagging him and instead just taught the doctrine. We taught Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been praying to love him and not get frustrated because he isn't keeping commitments. He responded really well and participated more in the lesson. Hermana Fullmer said after we left, "Love works!"

I love you! Have a beautiful week! Happy birthday to Kiera!!!

Love,

Hermana Eva VanCott