Well, I have lots of news for you guys.. so I'm going to start with the bad news so that I can end with the good! :)
I think you guys may have misunderstood why we had to have this switch in Areas. Our house before was pretty. It was new and had everything that it needed and was just a little cold and humid. But nothing that we couldn't live with. The real reason that we were looking for another place to live was that we were living next to 4 men who were at times quite drunk. Here in Valdivia there are a lot of houses that are build behind other houses (just in their back yard) so that they can rent them out. That is the case with the house where we were living before and also where we are living now. In Collico, there were three houses in this yard and the two other houses were filled with drunk men. This was especially a problem since our front door didn't really lock well and in the summer when the door wasn't bigger with the humidity it just opens with the wind... Sooo when President Obeso saw this and saw how secluded our entire sector is, he told us that we had to leave. And now we live in a really old house (I think it's like 50 years old and you can see it's years) but it's behind our mamita's house! and it's the only house there and it has 4 fences haha so we're super safe :)
The bad news about the house is that it has RATS!! And slugs all over the place and the water heater sometimes works and sometimes doesn't and when it's working it just about burns us but when it's not it's water straight from the freezing river. Not to mention the man smell that we found when we got here. and there weren't even any cleaning supplies in the entire house! No wonder it was so dirty! The elders didn't even have any supplies!! haha so we're still in the process of cleaning and getting rid of all of our little friends who like to play in our kitchen! haha But we are being very careful about putting away all of our food so that they can't get to it and washing the dishes with bleach before eating off of them. So we're still safe :) Don't worry. And we put out poison for them and they have eaten a BUNCH so they're going to die within 3 days now I believe! Whoo! Sad but necessary.
But now for the good news!! OUR AREA IS INCREDIBLE!! The field is white already to harvest and the ward was just waiting for sister missionaries to get here to be able to progress. Our bishop apparently has been praying for 7 years (since he was called as bishop) to get sisters in the ward and now here we are! The thing is that there are a LOT of sisters that live alone and are inactive in this ward so the Elders couldn't go into their houses to teach them. There are also a LOT of sisters who are super excited to go out to teach with us!! We even have ward missionaries!! :D It is so great!! We taught 13 lessons with members this week!! That is definitely a record for my mission. I have never felt so much support from the members before and it makes a WORLD of difference!! We have also received a LOT of references from the members!! They have a lot of confidence in us! Which is great! but also pretty nerve wracking!
I don't have much more time but I just want to share one story!! We received 11 references from one member of our ward and decided to try to find a few of them when we had time that same day. As we were leaving the house, we said a prayer, as usual, but this time, as I was praying, I prayed specifically that we could find someone that God had prepared to listen and accept our message. Even in the prayer, the spirit was super strong and I KNEW that God was preparing someone to answer my prayer. So Hermana Marinho and I both felt that we should go find one of the references that lives close to our house. So we went and knocked on his door and it was really interesting because you can tell from the very moment that someone opens their door if they are going to be receptive or not. When he opened the door, we knew that he was interested in listening to us because he left the house to come talk to us in front of his gate. We started by introducing ourselves and telling him a little bit about what it is that we do as missionaries. After talking for a little while about how our message can bless us as families, he told us that he had woken up that morning feeling like there was something missing in his life. He said that he had been crying and didn't know why he felt so sad and just began to pray to God and he asked him for a sign. He told us that he didn't think that it would really come but he did know that he had asked with a real desire to receive. He then told us that he knows that we were sent from God to be that sign that he had asked for. He said that he could feel something, something good, something that he knew was from God, almost a pain in his chest, and wanted to cry. We explained to him that he was feeling the Holy Ghost and we invited him to be baptized. He said yes! Then we gave him a pamphlet to read and he told us that he would read it but that there was just one problem. He doesn't really know how to read. In this moment, Hermana Marinho and I both felt really strongly to promise him that if he tried the best that he could, God would help him to understand by the spirit what he needs to understand. At this point he was crying and we were just about crying also and he promised to read it and to pray for the help of God to understand and to know if it is true. But he told us that he can already feel that it is true. We will be meeting with him again on Wednesday! God listens to and answers our prayers!! When members and missionaries work together, we can see soo many miracles!!
I love you guys!!
Hermana Harvey
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| This is Yeni! She loves to go out and work with us! She worked with us for 3 days straight!! :) It was great haha |
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| Woo!! Look!! The rats ate their food!! Good rats... |
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| In therapy! :) Whoo! |
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