Hola Familia y Amigos,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!! I'm glad you had a great get together with the fam! Love you bro!
Mom and Dad, thankyou for always writing me the best emails full of love and spiritual thoughts. You guys really are a tough competition against all other parents ;) And I am very proudful of you both as my parents :)
This past week went super fast just like all the other weeks here in the mission. We had out last zone conference with Pres. Dyer this past week which was pretty sad but also super nice to have some spiritual direction that we always need. One major thing we talked about was TALKING WITH EVERYONE. And that we are not allowed to let a family pass by without talking to them. We did a little practice example where there were two sister missionaries and like 10 other poeple. They 10 poeple went to the back of the room and the assistants told them which of them were going to accept the message that he sisters had and the others were supposed to reject them and just walk past. So the sister missionaries started traying to talk to each person that passed by. The first few stopped for a second to listen but then said they didn't have time and started to walk away. Some just passed by and made rude comments and then there were two that actaully stopped and continued talking to the sisters and accepted a visit from them. So we talked about how this example shows us that the Lord puts specific people in our path each and every day but sometimes we will never know unless we talk with everyone. So as missionaries, we need to be more open and alert and not have fear to talk to everyone that passes by. I will say that it's been pretty hard so far but we are still working on that and practicing more to complete with our goals.
At the end of the conference, Pres and Hna Dyer stood in front and each and every one of us got to go give them both hugs and say goodbye in an organized manner because of time. Well.. after giving Hna Dyer a hug (totally normal) Pres. was next.. haha I seriously was pretty nervous because I didn't know how to hug him. (super weird not having hugged a man for a whole year) haha but it was really nice feeling that love of a father before they left for Tupiza for another conference. They are actaully going to be at the airport here in sucre on their return to Cochabamba so right after emailing, we are going as a zone to say goodbye to them just like how they welcomed us our first day of the mission.
This past sunday, our investigators who have been progressing couldn't come to church because they were doing stuff for their dad's birthday so that was a bummer. but one of our investigators who we visit every week showed up with her 11 year old son! She actually has a really bad drinking problem and it's sad because Victor doesn't like to see his mom like that and she waists the little money they have on alcohol. She came pretty late but when she got there, I could smell that she had been drinking the night before. She was also too scared to enter the meeting so the relief society and us sat outside the doors with her and after the meeting I just stood at the door and asked a lot of the members to go and welcome her to the church. The did awesome with helping her feel loved and welcome. We are working on a plan to help her out so she doesn't feel that she needs to drink. So she could really use your prayers. Her name is Maxima.
Not too much progress this week with our other investigators but we are really working to have some more baptisms within a month or two.
Thank you everyone for everything. You are all my inspritation to be here on a mission and I don't know if I could do it without everyone's support and love. I love you all!!
Love,
Hermana Forsey