Dear Fambly,
I'm so glad you've been having so much fun in Austin.
It's true that traveling is one of the best passtimes ever but is it
exhausting. I guess we are creatures of habit. Please say hello to the
Dragon Blaster and tell it that I will see it again someday...
So emotions are still pretty up and down, but I talked
to President the other day and he told me to MAKE SURE that I'm keeping
myself physically and emotionally healthy. He said that if I think of
something that would help me stay sane but is outside of white handbook
guidelines, to let him know. And then, by golly, it won't BE outside
white handbook guidelines because mission presidents can adjust those as
he sees fit! Saturday morning was especially rough..... it felt like
Satan was throwing everything in his stupid arsenal to bring me down and
just want to stay inside all day. But I figured that if he was working
that hard, there must be something super important we needed to
do...someone we needed to see. I had a "potty prayer" as Hna Prince
terms it, begged for grace and hope, then we went out to work. We met a
man named Francisco who was working on a house not too far from our
apartment. We asked a couple of questions to get their view of religion,
God, etc. Their answers were the usual vague, all-encompassing,
zero-demand for personal development ones... "As long as you're being
good, God's happy" "God's everywhere. Wherever people talk about Him,
He's there." "Just be good to people" "I'm kinda busy for church, but
God knows me, I'm not hurting anyone, so I'm ok"
We asked Francisco if he thought that it mattered to God where you
go to church, and he said no. Usually, I try to gently nudge people in
the right direction by bringing up different doctrines and how you can't
please one without offending the other, so which one's right? But I was
fairly short on patience, so I just said "It DOES matter. We are His
representatives and we're here to tell you that He has a plan for you.
He wants you to be happy. He established HIS church to bless you and
your family." I actually didn't notice it at the time, but Hna Quick
told me later that he started to cry at that point. We left him with a
card and the address of the church closest to his house. Later on, we
had a blitz in the elders' area. We picked a street but got sidetracked
and decided to knock an apartment complex on an adjacent street. The
normally-locked gate just swung right open as we walked up to it and we
found some really great potential investigators. They all seemed a
little hesitant at first but once we prayed with them, they seemed much
more comfortable and open. They told us later that someone had been
impersonating a Mormon missionary and using that as an "in" to do all
kinds of bad things to people in their homes.
I'm a little concerned for what that might mean for us as the legit
missionaries....but I'm praying hard that people will use their spidey
sense/gut feeling/light of Christ to be able to discern true from false.
Tommy is doing REALLY well. He got a job this week and
he's determined to get Sundays off so that he can be here. The ward is
thrilled to have him and Jeovany preparing to receive the Priesthood. We
have a lot of callings to extend, and they'll do GREAT! As for our
other investigators, they're being kind of flaky. We're going to search
out some more escogidos ("chosen ones") and help them come closer to God. :)
I'm doing good and taking this time to learn how to
rely more on the Savior. President is helping me a lot and Hna Quick is
such an angel. I'm so grateful to be a missionary! I love the
scriptures and the guidance they offer. Thank you for your prayers and
love!
I love you more than all the lessons our zone taught this week!
Hermana Manzana
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