It’s Beginning To Look Too Much Like Christmas

Man has this week been CRAZY! First of all…

The Linda service fiasco. On Monday morning, Hermana Capi and I get a call from a lady named Linda who is apparently someone they (both sets of Chelan/Manson hermanas) have done service for regularly in the past. Except she’s calling to tell us she’s been evicted from her storage unit for… wait for it… LIVING in it. So she wanted out help moving her stuff out of her storage unit into a Uhaul, and I honestly did not feel so great about the idea of 1. moving someone into another storage unit so they could be breaking the law some more or 2. doing service during our normal proselyting hours on Monday evening, but the lady was in need! So compassion over ruled on sound judgement, and we decided that Christ would probably help her if He were in our shoes (She’s 70, and homeless.) But it was COLD when we got there. In the low 20’s, and windy. And she was so angry that we brought people to help us. It just did not feel right from the beginning. There were two recently returned elders that came up for a mission tour and stopped in to visit Hermana Capi, so we brought them with us (along with the other Chelan hermanas) and we decided to get it done as soon as possible, and boot. Except, because of her severe hoarding problem (which was not mentioned before we got there) she wouldn’t go any faster than moving one item out at a time, and there was filth, and mold, and cat pee, and so much disaster everywhere inside that unit. Oh my goodness, I can’t even begin to describe it. And she was just so mad – I mean, stress can get to a person, but for how much we were trying to help her, she was not being nice. She had until midnight that night to be out of the unit, and realizing that there was NO way we could work with her, we called our Ward Mission Leader, our Bishop, our Elder’s Quorum President – EVERYONE for reinforcements. And the only person who answered was the old bishop. And he had only one person that he could send: his 27 year old inactive son. After being consitently yelled at for an hour, the RMs left to head up to Bruster, and the old bishop’s son joined us. When 9 o’clock rolled around, we were all super excited to leave. The Spirit had not been there during that service project, and I really wished that I had spoken up louder with my initial impression of whether or not we should continue to be involved.
The thief that added grief to the Linda service fiasco. Much to Linda’s dismay, we called her the next morning and told her about our white handbook, and how we could no longer be involved in helping her. (She told us she was going to throw her stuff over the fence of another storage place and sleep outside with it, and we seriously couldn’t deny the Spirit telling us not to be involved anymore. It was getting too illegal, and too out of control.) We had tried to involve the ward in getting her a moving crew or something, but it was entirely unresponsive, as was our District Leader, who we wanted to consult with. So we kept trying to nicely tell her and back out gently when all of a sudden there was a wrench in the whooooolleee thing: the bishop’s son came back the 2nd day to “look for his phone” and STOLE Linda’s record player/radio deck and stereo speakers. And we knew he’d had to be the culprit, too, because he was openly eyeing it while he was very rudely going through all her stuff. Him being there after the RMs left was one of the biggest back-out-now vibes we got, but it wasn’t until the morning after that we found out why. She left us maybe 5 voicemails the 2nd day, all about 15 minutes long, all questioning our integrity as a church and as missionaries for bringing a thief to help her move. And so it was after fervent prayer, calling the old bishop’s son (& being lied to), and then finally calling the old bishop himself that the stereo was in fact found in his room and returned that same night. Man, was that a relief.
Getting sick from the Linda service fiasco. That was probably the biggest consequence that came from not following the spirit. Because we had been working in so much filth and cold on Monday night, Thursday and Friday were spent with me trying to pretend like my fever wasn’t in the 100s and that my whole body wasn’t sweating/aching perfusely. I almost had to miss all of the baptismal interviews because I was seriously ill, and it was seriously a battle to remain focused and participating in the few lessons we were able to teach. I was exhausted, and I felt so bad for adding more pressure on an already stressful week by getting sick. (Although I’ve got really bad chest congestion, I feel like a normal human being again, so that’s nice.) I think that the Linda service fiasco has been the single most effective learning experience that I’ve ever had on the mission.
The snow! Finally on to a more pleasant note 🙂 This past week starting on about Wednesday, we started getting snow by the bucket full. It descended from the sky in the form on golf ball sized flake clumps, and immediately piled up to almost a foot high. So of course Hermana Capi wanted to build a snow man, and I did too, so during lunch on Wednesday, that’s exactly what we did. We made it in Len and Lesa’s backyard 🙂 I didn’t enjoy being cold and wet, you know, while fighting a really bad cold, but it was worth it. Our snow elder looked really good. Then the dogs came and ate the snow man, which was sad. Now he’s just a melted torso…
But for the main hightlight of the entire week: The Baptism! 🙂 This is the best part of the week. Actually, it’s the best part of what makes up missionary work. Salvador got to baptize his wife, son and oldest daughter, and the look on his face was one of sheer love and joy in the priesthood. Milagros, up until the day of her interview, had been joking around that she could “still change her mind!” But she didn’t 🙂 And after the baptismal service, she came up to us and gave us the biggest hug and told us that she’s never felt so warm and peaceful. She knew that what she had chosen to do was good, and that it was what God wanted her to do. Man, this family is incredible. Even Julie, who doesn’t turn 8 until the 5th of May, participated in the baptismal service. She helped us with our half-time show by bearing her testimony of eternal families, and how much she can’t wait to be baptized next year. She wrote her testimony herself, and then gave it to her parents after the service because they didnt’ get to hear it while they were changing back. Milagros legitimately had tears of joy in her eyes. That is what the gospel is about.
I’ve loved working with them. Last night when Hermana Capi and I went to give them their first new member lessons, they all got so sad when we told them that we are leaving our missions in 11 days. So she’s going to make us dinner (ceviche and handmade tortillas) this week.