Back to the Motherland: Gasoline and a Troll

Hola Familia y Amigos!

This week was really good. Progress is happening! It's really slow, but we're doing what we can to help this work roll on. A new branch mission leader was called and we have a big activity today for Cinco de Mayo! So a lot of this week was spent going around and making contact with people we haven't seen in awhile and inviting them to the activity. We probably invited a hundred people! There were a few days where we got invitation happy. HA! But if that means more people come and have a good experience, GREAT!

On Wednesday, we came up with the idea to print out maps of different neighborhoods that had a high concentration of Hispanics and then knock on all of the doors. Straight up tract! It was kind of cool to get to experience that. That's not normally what we do here in Spanish Idaho. We work almost solely on referrals and people who know Spanish speakers. So it was really different. But we ran into some very interesting people. First of all, we met a really great lady named Grace. She grew up in another religion and then things happened in her life where she basically got disowned. So she really had to turn inward and have a relationship with God. AWESOME! That's exactly what we teach! Another interesting character we met was Troll. Yep. That's his name. He is a high priest of Bell, the Irish god of the sun. He told us all about his "conversion" and how he came to know Bell. He was in a military graveyard, searching for paranormal activity, when he saw a bright light/firey ball that was "unmistakably Bell." I've never heard of anything like that and we never would have met him if we hadn't tracted. It was a fun day.

Also, we went to the Kuna stake president's house yesterday, President Beus. They are an amazing family. He owns the dairy we went to last week. We were meeting and talking about how we could help specific people in Melba. Somehow at the end, we mentioned that our gas light came on again. It's kinda a joke with us that our gas light ALWAYS manages to turn on Sundays. But when we mentioned that, President Beus offered to give us a little gas. I was picturing a little red gas can and they'd give us enough to get home safely and drive to the gas station this morning. We pull up and turns out they have a full on gas station (pretty much) and three 500(?) gallon tanks of gas. We couldn't take very much because it would throw off the numbers of our gas log. Then the son who was helping us just went at it! We said, after about 5 seconds, that it was enough. But he just kept going! Hna. Barnes started panicking about how much he was giving us. But he said that his dad had told him to fill it up. Uhh. Not ok. So he stopped at 5 gallons. We laughed/freaked out about it as we were driving home. Mixed feelings. We were just amazed at their generosity but also trying to figure out what we should do. We're just going to tell the office what happened. It'll be alright. I love people who are just so giving! That defines the Beuses.

The last experience that happened this week is with Frances. We're teaching her and since I've been here, I have really seen a change in her. When we emphasized the Book of Mormon and how it's the evidence of our religion is when she really started to read it and put effort into learning. She is amazing. She has a hard time reading, but will read it multiple times to understand it. (I'm getting her the Book of Mormon on CD!) Well, we've been talking to her about baptism and what she thinks about it. She was really hesitant because her parents baptized her in the Baptist faith and she felt like she would be going against their wishes if she was baptized somewhere else. We taught about the plan of salvation and how her parents are in the spirit world, being taught the same things she is. And that they have the opportunity to accept the gospel there. That really comforted her. At that point, we asked her how she was feeling and pointed out that the good feeling she had was the Holy Ghost. That's what it feels like. And we taught that we can temporarily feel the Holy Ghost before we're baptized but we can have Him with us always and feel that good constantly after we're baptized. And that's when I realized how much of a blessing it is for us to be able to have the Holy Ghost with us ALL THE TIME. It was a testimony to me of how amazing it is to be a member of the church and how much Heavenly Father loves us to give us the gift of the Holy Ghost. It really is amazing. It's through the Holy Ghost that Heavenly Father tells us things are true. It's how He keeps us safe. It's how He comforts us. Best gift EVER!

Anyways, I love you all and hope you're doing great!

Con amor,

Hermana Shirley

Photo: The gas setup.