A Roller Coaster of a Week!

Mountaintop experiences!

 


Hola Familia,

Today is a sad day because Hermana Jones, other Jones and Hermana Wolferts are going home.  Seeing her pack is even sadder than when I packed.  Monday we have top do so much so I'm writing this letter in advance in case I don't have time to write.

This past week has been crazy!  I feel like so much has happened.  First of all I worked on Monday with Hermana Wolferts and Hermana Navarro so I could go to Chapultapec on Tuesday.  We took some awesome photos I'll try to send them to you.   We went with some other sisters and Elder Miller who I haven't seen since Oriental.  Guess what!  He is going to be Assistant! In our generation 2 of the Elders will be assistants this coming cycle and 3 will be Zone Leaders.  I think there is only 1 other Elder that came in that group.  Plus all the sisters in our generation menos 1 have been sister training leaders.

Anywho,  Tuesday after everything I meet up with my comps to go to a few more citas [appointments] and I found them in shock.  Dana(an awesome member) had just called to tell us that Jazmin (the cousin of Jorge) didn't want anything to do with the Church anymore.  She didn't want to be baptized, she didn't want to come to the activities, and she didn't want us to visit her anymore.  We were understandably crushed.  Jazmin had tried to drop us before because her dad wasn't too happy that she wanted to be baptized, but we talked her out of it.  I figured we could convince her again, so I wasn't super worried.  She has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, she is just a little worried about her baptism because she understands it is a big step.  So the following day we went up to visit her and dropped by without letting her know we were coming.  You should have seen her face when she opened the door.  from that moment I knew our chances were slimmer than I had originally thought.  She asked if Dana had talked to us and we said yes, but that we "hadn't understood very well."  You could tell she didn't want to let us pass, but we invited ourselves in.

We started talking and she told us what Dana had told us.  She has been feeling a lot of pressure from her friends who say she is changing too much and her Dad (who isn't really her dad, but doesn't know that) gets mad when she wants to go to a church during his day of rest.  Plus she is failing 2 classes and some other stuff and basically just feeling super stressed out.  Plus someone told her that women don't need to be baptized because they can have kids?!?!...

So we retaught the doctrine and blessings of baptism and explained that all of her excuses really weren't valid.  We got her to see that the changes her friends were complaining about really were good changes.  At the end of it, as we gave her 2 options, 1) Postpone her baptism and keep listing to us or 2) keep praying, reading, and letting us visit her.  She told us she wanted some time to analyze her feelings and that she would let us know when she wanted to talk to us.  It was supersad.  We ended bearing our testimonies and Hermana Jones started crying.  It was the first time she cried in a lesson on her whole mission!  I pulled out Jazmin's Book of Mormon and dedicated Moroni 8:3 to her and told her that even if we weren't viviting her I would still be praying for her.  Praying that she would have another chance to accept the gospel and enjoy the blessings thereof.

And then we left.  Hermana Jones started bawling when we had left.  As she explained it had never been so hard to say goodbye before because they had always had the gospel in their lives and Jazmin didn't. :(  It was such a contrast from Jorge.  Why just that morning we had gone with Jorge to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  It was a really cool experience to be in white going down into the font.  I've seen people do that my whole mission but I have't done baptisms in so long. When I walked down into the font, Jorge leaned over to my comp and told her, "It looks like my baptism."   It was such a cool experience to go with him to the temple! :)

Then Thursday I got to go back to the Temple with Prez and all the missionaries going home in December.  It was a beautiful session with people I love.  I will never forget those moments in the celestial room.  We 4 american sisters were sitting on a couch together and PRez came over and kneeled down in front of us.  He grabbed my hand and started to thank us for our service and for being his friends.  We really have been through a lot with him.  Heck, his wife almost died and elders went rogue,  hermanas were in danger and some almost deathly ill.  We have shed sweat, blod, and tears with Prez. Stuz.  I can't even imagine having some one else as my mission prez.  After the temple we went to the offices and spent the day waiting for Jones and Wolferts to have their final interviews.

Friday we had an epic planning session with Hermana Wolferts and Navarro because we are going to combine our 2 areas.  I don't know how we are going to do it.  Our area is already gigantic, but hwere there is a will there's a way!  In total we have 14 people that are ready to accept Fecha (baptismal dates).  Then we went out and hit the streets till advanced English Class.  It is so fun to just talk with latinas who speak English.

So saturday in we went to go look for some new investigators we found through the English class. Guadalupe and Ingrid (you will be hearing more about them in the future) they are so awesome and accepted Fecha for the 7th of January :) Then in the evening we got to go to the temple to see the lights with a recent convert and the Fam Castillo from Oriental were there! They are converts of Hermana  Wolferts and just completed a year as members. It was so great to see them I love that family. 

Sunday things got crazy we showed up to church and 4 investigators were there only 2 of which had said they would come. The biggest surprise of all was (drum roll please) . . . JAZMIN waiting for us in the door!!!! She showed up! I may or may not have run up from the gate  to hug her.  She told me "Algo me dijo que tenia que venir"[Something told me I had to come] It was an amazing 3 hours The spirit was felt so strongly. Their usually powerhouse testimony bearers all got up as well as several lovely children with unique testimonies. In my ward there are 4 missionaries going home this month and we all got up as well. Recent converts shared their testimonies, recently reactivated members as well. I love this ward, I love knowing these people and their struggles and seeing their faith I was so happy. The climax however was when JAZMIN! Got up and bore her testimony it was so sweet. She testified of the Book of Mormon and said it had helped her to find many answers and that she was looking forward to the day when she would receive her answer about baptism. She publicly thanked us and said that she knew in the day of her baptism she would feel very ready :) :) :)

She told us she was only going to be able to stay one hour because she still had homework but the jovencitas  [Young Women] del barrio swept her up and she ended up staying all 3 hours. At the end she came up and said she wanted to talk to me about her baptism. In Young Womens they invited her to come do baptisms for the dead with the ward the 23 of Dec but explained she needed to be baptized first so she asked me if she could get baptized on Dec18. Obviously I told her we could make that happen :)

I love the mission, life is crazy and it just keeps moving on :) I really am very happy. I pray for you guys all the time. I can't believe I am going to turn 21! Que loco! Keep sharing the Christmas video with everyone and doing the daily service!

Love,

Hermana Lambert