This is Anabel :) She's so wonderful, I'm going to miss her so much!
We
visited Anabel and after a few minutes she finally told us what she has been
going through. It broke my heart. As she was talking we listened and I tried to
trust in the promise that Elder Holland taught in Preach my Gospel that as we
listen with love, something they say will always highlight a gospel principle
that we can testify of and offer more. So as she spoke, it wasn’t long until
she used the word “desperate.” That word called to my attention because just
this morning I was studying hope and I learned that Elder Neal A. Maxwell said,
“That we, disciples, having been blessed with hope, we need to try to reach all
those who have been separated from the ‘hope of the gospel’; that we should try
to lift the hands that have desperately fallen.” I set a goal today to
be able to share hope with someone. So even though we can’t solve all of her
problems, we could help her by giving her hope that as she continues doing the
right things like praying and reading the Book of Mormon, she can be sure that
the blessings will come and all will be okay and all will work out. Tears were
shed because the spirit was so powerful and so peaceful. This is why I love the
gospel.
All
of our appointments in the afternoon fell through too. And it was pouring rain,
BUT we were so happy and smiled at everyone. At the end of the night, we
finally came across an investigator that let us in. We gave her a Book of
Mormon and she got so excited and said, “My new glasses JUST CAME! I’m
going to read all night long!” It was so wonderful.
We
had lunch with Clementina and she is so generous! Seriously… so generous
with even the amount of food she serves. So as we finished our mountain of
pasta and cake, she made sopaipillas pasadas which are so good! But we just
couldn’t eat more than 3… But she agreed to let us just take the rest home and
give some to the elders. So when we got home we separated some for the Elders
and decided to take some with us to give away contacting random people. So
during the evening we gave away a ton of sopaipillas. But it was 9 and there
were very few people left and like 6 sopaipillas. So we decided to go to Magay
and Nadya (the former investigator from Egypt) and give the rest to them. They
were so excited as we explained what they were. So he took them and we started
talking to his wife and then Magdy came out with 2 plates and all of the
sopaipillas… He gave them to us to eat… So we explained that we brought them
for them. But he then told us that it’s the “month of fasting” for Muslims so
they couldn’t eat them. Oh my, our plan to get rid of all our food backfired…
But it was fun doing something different!
I’m
leaving Cachapoal… L
But I’m so excited because I am going to finish the training of Hermana Suarez
from Brazil. And we are opening an area together so it’s a “white wash” because
neither of us have been there. And this is her second transfer… so this is
going to be fun. I’m actually so so excited. It’s going to be a huge change for
sure. No more Hermana Leader stuff. But I secretly love that I’m training when
Lindsay is going to start her training. It can feel like I’m training and Linds
is my companion.
The Bishop's daughter April
Oh
and since 3 girls are leaving and finishing their missions, they are staying in
our house this week. And Hermana Steenblik’s parents are coming to pick her up
but they aren’t supposed to see her until tomorrow. Hermana Steenblik went to
church in a different ward but her parents showed up to our ward. They had no
idea how close they were to her. We explained how we live a block away from the
hotel they are in. Then tonight when we got back home, her dad was talking to
the doorman to our apartment to drop off a treat and note secretly to our
apartment where his daughter was. But he didn’t know which apartment was ours.
So we took the treat to our apartment and he told us to go outside on our porch
in 10 minutes. He explained that he was on the 16th floor and how we
can see our windows from his apartment. So we walked inside and Hermana
Steenblik died. Then after 10 minutes we went to the porch and looked up to
about where his apartment/hotel room was. And all of a sudden a flashlight
started flashing and we all got so excited and flashed our lights and we were
like communicating from across a few blocks and Hermana Steenblik was just
crying and it was the S W E E T E S T thing in the entire world. Oh my, it was
so beautiful. A year and a half without seeing each other and here they were so
close flashing lights back and forth. That was so special. Then I started
packing and Hermana Solano helped me and it was so sweet. Tomorrow I’m going to
fix my suitcase wheels and I’ll be good to go!
The 4 of us missionaries in Cachapoal
This is the physical therapist that is our best friend that is going to get baptized this month :) Natay
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