Monday, November 30, 2015

Come and See

Hola familia!

So it has been a crazy and unusual week this week.  Puerto has been
having a strike all this week and it means that we have had to walk
every where and basically that everyone has been home.  It hasn`t
stopped the work so that is really good but it just has made it really
annoying to work.  Nothing has been open and I don`t know how we found
this internet store opened.  I think I have already explained what a
strike is but basically angry men just roam the streets destroying and
block off whole streets.  There isn`t any transportation and it looks
like a zombie apocalypse happened.  There is trash all over the
streets and only people walking around.  Its kind of scary and spooky.
Like the city is abandoned or something.  Also people are running out
of food because no food is coming in and no one is making money to buy
food.  So we have a favorite store on the corner and we usually buy
our snacks there.  Well on Saturday night we stopped by to get some
things for sunday and the store was all closed except for a window
where they were taking orders of what people wanted and then grabbing
it for them.  This is a usual strike thing because of the strike
people come by you have to close everything really fast or they will
destroy your store.  Anyways the owner knows us so he opened his door
for us and we were able to grab the things we needed.  But there was
such  a crowd outside that they didn`t have time to take our money.
We waited patiently and we were cool with it.  Anways the funny part
was that there was so many people looking through the window and
yelling basically about what they needed.  It was like they were
preparing for war.  One lady was asking for so much they just let her
in because she could get it for herself.  Anyways we were just
laughing because this lady came in and just started buying everything!
 Literally she grabbed like 20 candy bars and napkins, breadsticks,
gum!  Everything!  We were laughing pretty hard inside.  I hope the
strike ends soon because its been pretty annoying to have to walk to
the district center which is about 2 miles from our house in 100
degree weather.  Ugh.  Its been so hot this week.  But its better now.
Its raining.

So why do we have to walk to the other chapel every day this week?
Because we are practicing a Christmas song for our Christmas
conference with President.  It’s going to be great but I don`t know
why we have been practicing so much.  I think we are all getting sick
of it because yesterday we had a practice for about 2 hours.  Oh and
we didn`t have church yesterday because of the strike.  Anyways we
were practicing and the elder who is playing the piano starts jazzing
it up and speeding it up so it becomes this jazz slash rock kind of
song.  There was this part where he just stopped playing and all the
elders  scream “A BEACON IN THE NIGHT”  oh man!  It was pretty
hilarious.   I think the heat got to all the missionaries this week.

This might be kind of random but this week during weekly planning
there was a bunch of ants on the floor by my desk.  I didn´t really
know why they were there because there wasn`t any food and I had just
mopped and swept that morning.  Anyways I decided to kill them really
quick with some spray we got so I sprayed it all over and then told
Hermana alailima to be careful because it was a little wet right
there. Now looking back I should of just cleaned it up really fast but
nope.  So we continued planning and I went to the fridge to get some
cereal and when I was walking back to my desk I totally slipped
hardcore.  My cereal flew out of my hands and flew across the room and
I fell right on my back with my feet up in the air.  It hurt but I
couldn`t help but laugh.  We laughed for a pretty long time.  I now
have a nasty bruise on my elbow.  It looks like the strike attacked me
or something.  But I just really don`t like ants but I learned that if
you are going to kill them just make sure you wipe it up with a towel
instead of wiping it up later with your entire body….

Even though we had a strike this week we had a great turnout at the
friendship night!  Which sounds better said in Spanish.  Anyways tons
of people came.  And tons of investigators.  It was on thanksgiving so
we talked about gratitude and went around the circle and said what we
were thankful for. It was a sweet night and a great reminder for
everyone.  Later we played a super fun game that I will  have to
explain later but literally everyone was laughing and crying of
laughter.  It was super fun and I think we will just keep making those
nights bigger and bigger.

So on to the spiritual side… J

We have a great family named Alan and Salomè!  Alan is a member but
less active and Salomè is his wife who is not  a member.  THEY ARE
MARRIED. THEY ARE MARRIED!  Its amazing!  Anyways they have the cutest
little family and Salomè is really interested in the temple and in
being sealed as a family.  I love visiting this sweet family and on
Saturday we shared the plan of salvation with them.  Salomè comes from
a religious family so she has a lot of questions and little doubts.
She always asks them in a respectful way and we always try to answer
them to the best of our abilities.  Sometimes they are really
complicated but we bore our testimony about this wonderful plan and
she said that it all made sense.  After she had lots of questions
about baptisms for the dead and temples.  The spirit was there in the
lesson.  it was just a peaceful and quiet experience.  I think that
she is really going to be able to progress and we want to give her a
baptism date for the 25 of Christmas J which would be so amazing.  I
really hope she decides to read and pray because I know that the Lord
wants her to know that it is true.

This week I ponderized the scripture in mosiah 15:7.  I love this
scripture especially the end, that the will of the son being swallowed
in the will of the father.  What a perfect example the savior gave us
of obedience to God.  I am so grateful for this Christmas season and
especially grateful that our Savior was born.  You all need to go
watch the video that the church just put out.  It’s beautifully done as
always. J we will be using it to contact and to teach this Christmas.

Well I love you all so much.  I was touched this week while reading in
Jesus the Christ about when Christ was first picking his apostles.
Some of them after being chosen went to their friend or brother to
invite him as well to follow Christ.  They said “come and see”.  I
love this so much.  We are invited to come unto the Lord to find out
for ourselves if he really is our savior.  Each one of us has this
responsibility.  To personally find out for ourselves if our redeemer
lives and if he truly laid down his life for each one of us.  I love
the savior and I know that he lives.  How wonderful it is to testify
of Him.
Love you all!


Hermana Russell



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