Highlights of the Week
Zaida, our recent convert and mother of 5 accompanied us to a lesson and gave her simple and beautiful testimony.. “I am so happy. We don’t have anything, but we are happy.” We were happy because her son, Percy, was so rebellious and didn’t want to be baptized if it made his mom happy. However, several ward members intervened and adopted their family, inviting them to Family Home Evenings and visiting them. When we saw Percy yesterday we were so surprised to see the change. “What happened? Why are you so happy?” He has changed and is happy and loving. The power of love from the members. Wow. What a change.
Several families wondered, “Why was the church so full today in sacrament meeting?” I responded, “It’s because today is the championship game of the World Cup and everyone wants to be obedient so their favorite team wins.” Before every prayer yesterday I jokingly asked, “Which team should we pray for? Spain or Holland?” Apparently, the faith and prayers were stronger for Spain as they won (3-2).
The little kids of the neighborhood still continue to follow us around and call us “gringa” and so yesterday we decided to joke with them (like Karen tricked Lili). “I’m not white, I’m Chinese” (No soy gringa, soy china!). I then spoke to them in the 4 Chinese phrases I know. They believed me and now they call me “China, china!” instead of “gringa.”
We had interviews with Pres. Blunck last week and his family. They are from Oregon and are amazing. They are pretty laid-back and have a lot of trust and love for us. Pres. Blunck said that they might keep Hna. Reyes and I together here in the jungle for 6 months (I already have 5 months here…who knows what will happen).
We are teaching families in Aguaje, an area with houses built on stilts. We weren’t able to teach them for months, because the area was covered in water, and the only way to cross is in canoe. Now, everything is dry and we met an amazing family, Sadit and Romulo, and have had several Family Home Evenings with them with the member families that live close by. We are really seeing miracles with the families of Aguaje.
We are seeing major hermanamiento (fellowshipping) with the famliies in this ward. It makes all the difference. We combine Family Home Evenings with them and have a lot of fun being creative and remembering every game I have played for the past 5 years in BYU FHEs. With the members, we help each family create their own mission plan in family (thank you for the idea, from my home ward, Sherwood Ward). What do they want to do daily, weekly, and monthly. We taught the difference between a wish and a goal. You have to answer que, porque and cuando. (What do you want to accomplish, why, and when?).
I have discovered that buying little water balloons is probably one of the best investments in the mission. We use them in our lessons, with our activities and games for FHE, for zone activities (we played water balloon volleyball last Pday and everyone at the beach stopped playing in the water to watch us. They had never seen anything like it before). Also, it’s amazing how buying little hard candies makes a big difference. We give them away to the mototaxistas and it really brightens up their day (they work from 6 am to 9 pm every day and sometimes barely make enough to cover their costs. The job market is stiff here).
Have a great week!
Hermana Christensen
