To start off, the start of this week was really really rough. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But ill talk about that a little later. But what saved this week was Ramiro!
Elder Saravia and I have been finding lots of success in the super sketchy part of our area haha. We always go with a local member so that is pretty much our protection. Nothing bad has ever happened to us but we do see lots of things. We were in the middle of a lesson and there was all this yelling like 5 houses down. These old ladies were playing cards or something and I guess one of them cheated and the others got heated. (haha that rhymed.) Anyway they started calling each other bad words and yelling then all the neighbors came out of their house to see what was happening then they started throwing punches and stuff. Then it cooled down and then we were then able to finish our lesson, how rude of them to interrupt us. ;)
While we were in this part of our area we were walking and this huge ripped black guy came out of his house so we kinda started walking faster. Then he called us back, I thought we were gonna get robbed but then he said "What do I have to do to have you guys teach me?" We told him wed come back in a hour and teach him. His name is Ramiro, he later told us that he was thinking about all the bad and hood things he had done in his life and wanted to change. He prayed with god to help change his life around. The he went outside of his house and the first thing he saw was US! He told us he knew it was a sign from god and now he is literally doing everything we invite him to do and now he is preparing to be baptized. This is one of the strongest moments I've had in my life knowing that God literally has perfect timing and always puts us in the right spot at the right time. Ramiro has a cousin that we are teaching too. She speaks Spanish, English and Chinese. We gave them a book of mormon and it turns out that she has been translating it from Spanish into Chinese!! These two are literally GOLD!
Another story if you don't think Ramiro is gold yet, after the first day he contacted us he was walking and there were Catholics and some other people from other religions talking to Ramiro telling him that we are liars and that the Book of Mormon is all lies and that we are horrible people. We hadn't even taught Ramiro at this point yet, he said "No they are nice and I know they aren't liars." Then they started heckling him and some dude got in Ramiro's face and kept yapping, then Ramiro shoved him and he fell down these stair thingys and broke one of his fingers, Ramiro told us later he felt bad because he sinned for pushing the guy down haha.
Last week we wanted to baptize 4 people but super sadly, and why this week sucked, all 4 of them fell through.
The first Julio and Leonardo, they were both progressing super fast and everything was going great with them, they were attending church and reading their Book of Mormon. But their mom has another older son who was baptized like 7 years ago and now he is inactive so she doesn't want that happening to them either.
Angles, like Leonardo and Julio, she has cousins that are now inactive too so she doesn't want that to happen so she won't let her be baptized either.
Carlos, this one kinda hurt the most, he's been super good and has been super excited for his baptism. He is moving to Panama in a month or so. He had his baptism interview and passed it but in the end decided he wants to wait to be baptized in Panama. We aren't sure why he wants to wait but I guess it's his choice. So that is how all our baptisms fell through this week.
For our exercise we have been running on the beach! It's a 10 minute jog from our house, I never thought I would be doing this on my mission!
This week started out horrible but ended up amazing! I know God has perfect timing and if we do what we should He will always put us in the right spot. I love you guys! Have a great week!
Elder Nethercott
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| My pics from our run on the beach! |
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| A pic of the ocean from a members house. |
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| My daily ice cream. |
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| Ramiro at church! |
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| Rosa at church. :) |
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| We've started playing indoor soccer in our house which is really really fun! But last night our neighbor below us complained and said it was too loud so no more :( |
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| Today our lunch at the mall with other missionaries! |
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