Marcial is doing so well. We have basically taught him
all of the lessons except for a few of the commandments and things about
church auxiliary but he already knows everything about that since he
already read the whole guia, which is basically the bible dictionary in
Spanish, its just in the back of the book of Mormon not the back of the
bible. So.... We basically just teach him that stuff because it is a
requirement for baptism then we move on really quick and he has a lot of
questions just about the stories that he is reading in the scriptures
and things that the prophets are saying. He is the best! We went through
the baptismal questions with him this week just to make sure there
wasn't anything that he was missing or that he needed to learn more
about. He passed with flying colors... at least from our point of view
:) We also planned his baptismal service with him. That got him really
excited. We let him pick people to do the talks and the prayers and
everything. He had fun thinking about the people that have helped teach
him. He asked us to do something to be a part of it too because we are
really important to him since we taught him everything since the
beginning. He said he wanted one of us to do a prayer and a talk and
that we could chose who would do what. I am doing the prayer and Sister
Haycock is doing the talk. After we made the program he was just
glowing. IT seemed more real to him. We went and saw him later in the
week and he had a lot of questions about the temple and about the
doctrine and covenants and pearl of great price, because he doesn't have a
triple so he hasn't read those. He told us that he really wants to go to
the temple, which is really good. That means that he will probably go
within 60 days of his baptism, which is the goal for recent converts. If
they go to the temple within that amount of time, they are more likely
to stay active. On Sunday
I gave him a preparing for the temple pamphlet and a his own triple. He
was so excited. He shook my hand and said "thank you SO MUCH sister!"
then he sat down and started skimming through it. He was more excited
than a little kid at Christmas. It was cute! I loved it. 2 more weeks!
the count down is beginning!
We found some really really cool people. On
Wednesday morning, Sister Haycock lost a really special necklace while
she was out running, so right after our comp study we went outside to
look for it. We met this super old lady from Peru and she had all these
connections with the missionaries in Peru. She said that they bought her
house in Peru and made it into the meetinghouse for the church. hahah.
We couldn't really tell how interested she actually was, but we set an
appointment with her for last night... So we show up last night and
right as we were about to knock on her door we hear someone yelling at
us from across the street. I could have sworn he said "tienen novio?"
which means "do you have a boyfriend?" so of course I was just going to
ignore it and keep knocking on the door, but luckily Sister Haycock has
better ears than me, he actually said, "can I help you?" so we walked
over to him across the street sitting in his truck. He said that he
lived there and Mercedes (the old woman) was his mom and that she wasn't
home. We could tell though after just a few seconds of talking to him
that he was super drunk. He reeked of alcohol and his words were super
slurred and he just kept saying things over and over that didn't make any
sense... We didn't really want to keep talking to him because we didn't
really think that was worth our time so we just told him "well, we know
that God loves you and as representatives of Jesus Christ we invite you
to repent." then all of a sudden the guy that was sitting next to him
passed out on the passenger side just shoots up and asked us "hey what
are you selling? did you just say god? what about Jesus Christ?" we were
a little bit shocked because we didn't really pay him any attention
because he was passed out drunk and he had a beer sitting right there
between his legs. hahaha. But he just kept on talking about Jesus. He
got out of the car and Sister Haycock and I rushed over to his side
because he was not stable enough to be standing in the street with us.
hahaha. Somehow he actually asked us some good questions about Christ
and we were able to answer them. Then he told us that he wanted to
change his life and repent and be a better dad for his daughter and he
showed us a picture. He told us that he has 5 court cases right now, but
two of them miraculously got dropped and he knows that it is God and he
has one this week for a DUI and he might have to go to jail for 10 days
but he is praying that he doesn't. He was super funny and just about as
sincere as any drunk guy could possibly be. He asked us about the book
of Mormon and we gave him a card and wrote our phone number and the
church address and times and we set an appointment with him. HE was
really excited, then he just kept telling us, I'm going to come, but if i
don't or if I'm not home when you come over, its probably because I'm in
jail, so just come back in ten days. Then he just kept on saying, "man I
was passed out in the seat then all of a sudden I heard Jesus so I just
shot up! I think its God kind of just slappin me in the face goin
"boop, wake up stupid!" ahahahah it was so hilarious. Then he kept
swearing so we would just rebuke him right then and call him to
repentance then he would apologize then he would do it again then we
would do the same thing and he actually started swearing a lot less in
that time we were talking to him. He was so funny. Definitely one of my
most memorable contacts on my whole mission.
Then we went home right after that, it was
about 815 and we had to do our numbers and everything, so while were
sitting down at our table doing our numbers the phone rings, and it is
an unknown number, so I answer, and of course it is Christopher (the
drunk guy) and he was like, "hey sisters, I just wanted to ask you about
the book of Mormon? what is that? hey whats your name? wait, whats your
first name? why are you on a mission? when do you go home? what do you
do when you go home? are you like, not allowed to get married or
something?" and he just goes on and on and telling us more about his
court and how he wants to know what he can do to be better. He was like,
"Sister Clark, just tell me what I need to do tomorrow to repent and be
better!" so I was like, "Well, you can start off by praying the way we
showed you tonight and telling God thank you for your blessings then
asking him to forgive you and help you to stop swearing, then after you
pray, you have to try your hardest all day to not swear" then he was
like, "so I pray, then I cant swear all day? man, that's tough, but yeah.
I can do that. I'm gonna do that!" then he just kept talking and it was
the funniest conversation I have ever had on the phone. He talked for 20
minutes and we have some of it on video. Ill have to show you all after
the mission. He may just be a drunk right now, but I have faith in him.
He kind of reminds me of this one guy that the elders taught in Perth
Amboy. I think I told you about him, but his name is Chino and he
changed his whole life for the gospel. He was just like Christian and
probably worse. In and out of jail, drinks, smokes has kids from
different women and things, but he left all of that behind little by
little and came to church every Sunday.
I really loved Chino and loved talking to him, he was very sincere. One
time we saw him outside after he broke up with his girlfriend and he
had a pack of cigarettes and he was telling us how he was so mad that he
just went out and bought those cigarettes, but he didn't want to smoke
them because it had already been a few months since he had smoked, so we
took them from him and read in the scriptures with him. I am hoping
that Christian kind of turns out like that... But we'll see in the next
week or so.
Tanya and Wellington are still doing well. They are
still praying to know if this is what they want, but they kind of want
to take it slow, but they want to experiment on everything, with faith
and repentance, maybe baptism. They are so great! Tanya has been reading
the book of Mormon and finding answers for how to help her son and they
make food for us and they love us a ton and are excited when we come
over. They are also the cutest parents. A couple of days ago we went
over and just Tanya and the boys were home and the youngest Alexis was
just running around in his undies playing his ipad and Tanya just looks
at him and says "tu no puedes hacer eso, tu estas sexy! Las hermanas no
puedan ver eso!" (hey you cant do this, your too sexy, the sisters cant
see that!) and we all just cracked up and he blushed and came and sat on
the couch without pants on anyways. hahahha
We had our exchange on Friday and I went to Caldwell
with sister Coalam. It was a pretty fun exchange. I set some good goals
for the future. I want to kind of stabilize my habits that I have
gained on my mission thus far so that I am a better person when I get
home and I can keep going strong. I also want to help our branch a lot
with technology and sharing the gospel creatively. As you may know, the
last couple of months I have been more on my creative side. I have been
painting, making different pictures and tools for teaching and different
things for my journals and what not. It has been really fun and I feel
like that is kind of how I share my testimony. I want to help the
members do that online. Also, just in case you haven't heard the talk by
elder Bednar yet, take this time right now and go to https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng and click on the elder Bednar talk that says #sharegoodness. Watch
it then go and do it or make a plan with your family of different ways
that you can do it. There are a lot of ideas on lds.org
and if you don't know very much about social media, don't be lame and
comfortable where you are, its time to learn, go do some research. :) A
very important prophecy is being fulfilled starting now and it needs to
be a FLOOD not just a little flash flood. Get to work family and
friends! Ok, now go watch that talk and stop reading my email. That is
more important!
I love you all so much and thank you for your encouragement and support! Talk to you next week!
-Sister Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment