I know it’s been a minute or two since I’ve written anything substantial, but I kind of wanted to wait to see where some of the dice would fall with a lot of stuff that’s been going on recently. Hermana Harston and I have been trying so so SO hard to find people to teach and to serve, and we’ve consequently had a lot of joy 🙂 I am happy to report that we have been able to witness some choice miracles this week.
We are saddened by the loss of our incredible Joshua to the YSA elders. His Spanish speaking mother and grandma weren’t progressing, so it was a call that we had to make. They will be missed. PLUS he moved out of our area, but you know, it still had to be done. But he’s still SO solid. He’s going to get baptized for sure, and we’re going to be there. We are confident he’s in good hands.
So! With his loss, we embarked to find some more golden souls for the Lord! 🙂
And this week, we met Dani. He’s another hombre solito, who’s just looking for his purpose in this life. We had the worst, most interrupted OYM with him ever on Thursday night at 8:50pm while kids were running around outside, people were laughing us “mormones” and so in the end, we kind of left with a wishy washy “we’ll pass by on Saturday around 4” kind of thing. And so 2 days later on Saturday when he was there waiting for us, and ready to listen to us, it was very surprising. It was also very surprising when he told us that he’d met with missionaries before, but that his work schedule had prevented him from progressing, but now he’s ready to learn. It was also very surprising that he knew exactly where his Book of Mormon was, and brought it out so that we could read with him in the lesson. The surprise only amplified when he said (after reading the last paragraph in the Introduction to the Book of Mormon) that if he knew the Kingdom of God existed on the earth, he would fight – he literally used to word fight – to be able to get in. And yes, he would like to be baptized, thank you very much for asking. Essentially, our only regret was not bringing a spatula so that we could scrape our jaws off of the pavement without so much mess. It just goes to show that you never truly know the potential lurking behind even the shambliest OYMs until you do a good follow-up! We owe it to these wonderful souls to give them the chance they’re waiting for 🙂
Also in the very neglected town of Moxee are Oscar and Teresa. They are both SUPER receptive to the gospel, and we found them on another bout of 8:45pm knocking after we’d walked 3 miles into town in order to save on miles. Teresa was initially really creeped out as us two strangers knocking on her door so late looking for her husband we’d met first, but as we shared with her our message, she was very eager to learn and then referred us to her mom! We met her, and her mom is super interested too! Oh man, we are excited to see how everything pans out this week 🙂 Member referrals have been getting better and better, and we’re just really thankful for how much support we’ve be getting.
There’s just one more miraculous thing I would like to mention about this week, and that is the baptism of Diego Fernandez. Hermana Harston and I went to visit the less-active Fernandez family 5 weeks ago on asignment from Presidente Sanchez. They were all baptized about 2 years ago, and during our visit, we were just super lead by the Spirit, and the whole family came back to church in full-force. And wanted their 8 year old son, Diego, to get baptized (in preparation for their sealing this coming November :’) So happy. Oh man.) But the baptism, scheduled for this past Saturday, got off to a terrible start. There were problems with building scheduling, the entire branch was stuck in Kennewick after the sealing of the Pimentel family who were baptized a year ago because a WILDFIRE had engulfed the highway, and Sister Harston and I were stuck with the Fernandez family in the Selah Stake center 45 minutes before the baptism was about to start with no idea what to do. We got there early to prepare the room/our “half-time” show, which is when we realized all the scheduling conflicts that caused us to call EVERYONE in the branch which is when we found out that NO ONE was going to be at the baptism. That was the beginning of the most stressful 2 hours of my life. By miracle, the branch was able to make it back to town safely (with teary red eyes and smelling very strongly of wood smoke) in time for the baptism which was ultimately relocated to the completely opposite side of town. It was just so incredible to see our little branch pull together through such a trying series of circumstances to see that 8 year old Diego could get baptized. And when the moment came, and Sister Harston and I still hadn’t been able to prepare our half-time show message about the Restoration (because of all the relocating, finding hymn books, setting up chairs, etc.) on the fly, I asked Sister Mitchell (the English member we live with) the play Nearer My God To Thee and Sister Harston and I sang our first duet together without any thought or practice before hand. She handled the soprano wonderfully, and I took care of the alto lines. The Spirit filled that tiny little Relief Society room, and it was just so nice to have the Lord take care of us in our moment of need. I think that baptism, and everyone pulling together, was the start of a happier, more united Spanish branch. Everyone was in grateful tears by the time the service ended at 8:30pm, 2 hours after it was supposed to.
So it’s been an incredible week, and as always, there are more miracles to come 🙂
Cuidense mucho. Les quiero mucho.
PS: Attached are pictures from our shenanigans painting more fire hydrants around Yakima. Fun times 🙂
Hermana Mrozek // Kennewick Washington Mission 