This week was pretty uneventful but we are still doing well and my companion is now talking quite a bit more than she did when she first got here. And I understand her a little bit better, there is something about being a missionary and having to raise your voice because I feel like I talk twice as loud as I did when I got here. When I first started talking to people I was nervous when they had to ask me to repeat myself. I thought it was because my Spanish was so bad but then my companion told me that it was because I was talking too softly. Well now I have to tell my companion the same thing. So we are getting better with that little detail.
We have been tracting and tracting and tracting some more and we are not doing so hot with finding new people who want to hear what we have to say. But I am sick of being lied to!!! Man these people are sneaky... or my companion and I are the most gullible people on the planet. We knock on a door and someone opens the door and we try our best to get inside and teach but usually that doesn´t happen... So we set up another appointment with them and when we return it never works out like we thought it would. When we knock on the door the people we talked to either send a kid to lie for them saying that their mom is sleeping or their dad just left. And we even have it to where we knock on the door and the same person answers and then quickly says... "Let me go turn off what is on the stove" and then they shut the door and when my companion and I are standing there waiting for a couple of minutes we realize.... WOW... they are not going to answer the door again. Even after we knock on the door and ring the doorbell again... It is pretty ridiculous but we are not giving up that easily!!!!
When the people lie to us I always sing, "Just you wait Henry Higgins just you wait.... You'll be sorry for the day...." And I can´t remember how the rest of the song goes but I usually make something up. My companion asked me yesterday what the song meant and then she made a face when I told her and asked.... "Tell me again why you sing the song?" I guess I am a big nerd and singing that song full of revenge just makes me feel better...
This week we got caught in the rain and it was CRAZY!!! Ecuador really gets some rain!!! I just can´t believe it! It is like the movies when the day is fine and then three seconds there is a crack of thunder and rain just pours. (I thought the movies were just being dramatic... But it really rains like that!) Well luckily the mission gave us new umbrellas that we can collapse down to fit into our back packs because I hated walking around with the long umbrellas... I felt like I was carrying around a sword all day hanging on the side of my backpack. But do you think that the people show us any mercy when it is raining? NO!!! People ask us what we are doing out in the rain and when we say we are missionaries they make a face like... Well you must be stupid!!! One old man even told us, "Maybe the rain a signal from God telling you to go home!" I laughed pretty hard when he said that!!
We have been teaching a woman called Beatriz and she has received ALL the lessons and she even reads the Book of Mormon. She told us that when she reads the book she knows that it is true. Well the only problem is that she doesn´t want to be baptized. So that is a big hold up. She even came to church yesterday so we are going to see what she says today. But when we were asking her if she had any questions for us she had quite a few questions about Joseph Smith. We explained the Restoration again so that she would remember what we had taught her. I then asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet and she said she wasn´t sure. I then told her that the Book of Mormon is evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Well she told us that she would pray about it again. So we are pretty nervous about what she is going to tell us tonight. But I still don´t get how people can say that they believe that the Book of Mormon is true and not accept Joseph Smith as a prophet of God.
We have been visiting the Quintanilla family and it is pretty neat to go over to their house now. They have changed so much. They don´t yell at their kids as much as they used to, they are really nicer to one another... It is just amazing how the gospel blesses the lives of EVERYONE! They are teaching their children how to pray. Jeremy their son is about 5 years old and he says a pretty good prayer but gets stuck in the middle and then repeats what his dad says. Well last night we all burst out laughing because Hermano Stalin said, "Bendice las hermanas para que ellas pueden encontrar mas personas." (Help the sisters that they can find more people to teach.) and Jeremy repeated, "Bendice las hermanas para que ellas pueden encontrar mas esposos." (Help the sisters that they can find more husbands.) We all were laughing so hard that we had to start the prayer over again. But it is so neat to see them teaching their children how to pray. We all are kneeling in a circle and it is so awesome to be a part of that experience with them.
Experiences like these make all the super hot hard days of work worth it. I am so grateful for this experience and I am seeing how the gospel blesses us. Mosiah 2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Love Hermana Welch #1 (Jess)
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