Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Sacramento in the Fall

hola hola!

el dia de accion de gracais fue biennnn divertido. 

Hna Clonts and I went to Sister Schow's daughter (Debbie's) house, her husband Kelly is the Bishop of an English ward so the sisters serving in their ward came, too!

Hna. Clonts and I went over early to help set/decorate the tables, I'll try to send pics if I have time! It was so fun! Most of their extended family was there and they are HILARIOUS!

I felt like I was in a sit com on ABC Family. I was right at home. They just talked back and forth so fast and are all so witty!

Nick (Sister Schow's grandson) told us their new baby was skinny and going through some medical difficulties but now he's "Fat and Sassy" hahaha and the other grandson (recently married) proposed to his girlfriend by a comic strip in the Sacramento Bee and there's like this huge story about how he emailed their favorite comic artist to create the whole thing so that when he and his girlfriend read the comics together she'd see it! crazy! and the story made the newspaper like alll over i guess. ALSO, Kelly (the bishop) is super crafty and made his own Gandolf Staff! It's so legit #nerdalert He's a 5th grad teacher so he made the staff so he could dress up for Halloween. Haha they're just really awesome. Felt right at home and very blessed.

The day after Thanksgiving was a little rough. No one was home.. just blahhhhh. We were both just kinda like whyyyyy? We're trying our best!

For comp study the next day we talked about Faith and what we need to do to just keep moving forward and be happy through the tough times and identify the little miracles that inevitably occur every single day. This is the work of the Lord after all. 

We had a member with us and we went to one appointment a little early because we wanted to have the member (hna. Mcfarlane) with us for this lesson, too! 

His name is Miguel and his esposa is Lurdez. IT WAS A STRAIGHT UP MIRACLE. We call him "Mi-Golden." haha All our investigators have nicknames.. 

He just explained that he's never prayed.. that his son is a christian and a really good man and he wants to make God a bigger part of his life... He wants to feel closer to God and he's been waiting for that sign. He even had a dream about it and there were 2 messengers that came to help him in his dream - Hna. McFarlane looked at Hna. Clonts and I, looked at Miguel and was like "here they are. This is the truth. God knows your heart, knew you were ready, and here they are." WOAHHHHH BABY. tears. the Spirit was so strong as we invited them to be baptized. Miguel said he wants to learn more but then he is willing to make the step. He had never prayed before but we invited him to say the closing prayer, helped him start...

"Querido Padre Celestial... 
Te doy gracias..."

and he just talked to God like he was talking to a friend. no words to describe it. so cool to see someone make that connection for the first time.

BUT THEN HE DIDN'T COME TO CHURCH! ahhhhh 

Another miracle, 

Our family the Del"Goldens" (original, I know) their actual name is Delgado's. We FINALLY got to have a sit down lesson with them and their 4 kids. We taught the kids the primary prayer song to help them learn how to pray and when we went back last night they had it memorized and they LOVE praying. Their oldest is 10 - her name is Aranza, then Fernando (totally gonna serve a mission) who's 8, Camelia whose like 3 and a baby!   

They all speak english and spanish so we watched a few mormon messages and explained about prophets. Alondra, the mom, was SO receptive. She LOVES the idea of family prayer and scripture study. She's all about the family and thinks that Church should be something you bring home with you and not something you just check-in and check-out every sunday. AMEN SISTER!

We watched the Mormon message "Mountains to Climb" with President Eyring. the Spirit was so strong. Especially during the part where the mom comes in and sees her little boy praying.. ahh. It was perfect for Alondra with all her crazy kids and busy life. We left them the Book of Mormon and are going back tomorrow to check up :) I can't wait!!!

I love being a missonary. Me encanta mi mision. Me encanta este evangelio y todos de ustedes.

I know the Gospel is true and has been restored by a prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. I know the Book of Mormon is true. There's just no way that it's not. 

Que tengan le mejor semana de sus vidas!

Hermana Skidmore