Week 62--Among the best miracles I've seen

Hola Queridos,

THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT WOULD HAPPEN AS A MISSIONARY:

#45: Find out I CAN actually go to Michigan and it's still in my area! What a free feeling that I can pretty much go everywhere I want! #noboundaries (See fine print: ain't nobody got miles fo' dat.) 

#46: Get permission form my mission president to call Emily Parton and Ellie! I told him offhand about our friendship and he told me to give her a call! Love you booboo

Found out this week that "no problemo" is actually NOT correct Spanish grammar and just makes you sound like a gringo who has no chill. Also accidentally:

• Told someone her baby's hair was very fat.
• Told an Hermana we would read her mind everytime she texted us.
• Called some ducks a bad word.
• Even a native can make a mistake. My companion couldn't remember the Spanish word for "behind". She texted an Hermana saying that "We are going to be a few minutes late. Sorry, we are a little bit retarded."

Fun week all around!

Saturday night we go to visit a member of the ward who hadn't been coming. The address did not exist. We go to knock on the next closest door and on the porch there is a couch. On the couch there is a woman passed out cold. Awkwardly, we wake her up and ask if she is Hermana Dominguez. She says no, but then says she knows where we are from. "Are you a member?" we ask in surprise. "No, I was excommunicated from that place!" The awkward intensifies. But she jumps up and says she'll call around to find Hermana Dominguez. She is super willing to help us. She comes out and brings her teenage daughter, Phoenix. She tells us Phoenix almost got baptized three years ago, but her father would not permit it because he was "a witch" (literally--he was a Wiccan.) We asked her what she liked best about the Church. She said she enjoyed learning about what commandments God wanted her to do. She brings out her Book of Mormon and tells us about her favorite story, about holding to the Rod! We have a short lesson and find out she'd been taught just about everything. We'd been praying and felt a prompting that there was someone being prepared to be baptized the end of this month. We asked her, "Phoenix, how would you feel to know you're prepared to be baptized then?" She has jumped in headfirst!

We also had another miracle--Halima. We found her when we bought lemonade at a kid's lemonade stand and gave the kids pictures of Christ in America and the temple. The little girl ran to her mom and said, "This is your book!" Halima came down and asked us about the temple, and she mentioned she was moving close to there, and also mentioned she had read the Book of Mormon. We asked her if she believed it was true and she said, "YES! This Book is everything I believe. I really want to join with this group!" She accepted baptism in her new ward after she moves--which, coincidentally enough is where I served halfway through my mission. She had been wanting to learn for years, but her travels had gotten in the way. She's initially from Africa and she was raised Muslim but went to a Catholic boarding school where she gained faith in Christ. She had a roommate who was Mormon. The roommate would always sneak out of the room in the evening and be reading a book--you can guess what. Halima was curious and would read it whenever her roommate wasn't looking. She's moved all over the world since then and been seeking truth ever since.

The Book of Mormon really is like a magnet for the elect. D&C 29:7-8 "And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect...Wherefore the decree hath gone forth from the Father that they shall be gathered in unto one place upon the face of this land, to prepare their hearts and be prepared in all things."

Los quiero muchísimo pero Jesús los ama aun más!

Hermana Pugmire