Had such a good week! Valentine's day was fun, my companion and I ended the day with watching this SUPER old mormon video "together forever" HAHA with cookies, pizza, candy, ect. Thank you to my amazing mother for being so kind and sending us stuff for Valentines :] Oh also the whole valentines day when we were in the car we wore some heart glasses that mom sent us haha.
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| Downtown Houston TX |
A lot of things happened this week. This past week was my first time riding on the bus in Houston! It was pretty fun. We first get on the bus and the driver starts driving away before I even start to sit haha so I almost fell over. As we were sitting on the bus Hna W realized one of the passangers was a lady we have been trying to get ahold of for 3 weeks! We went and talked to her and set up an appointment :] I was SUPER nervous to talk to people on the bus. I didnt know how to walk up to them, what to say, I've never done it before. After a few minutes I got enough guts to get up from my seat and go sit behind a guy who I thought I should talk to . Right as I sat down next to him I realized he was sleeping...I started laughing because NOW everyone saw me sit down by this guy who is asleep. My companion eyeballed me to go talk to the guy behind me but I was nervous. Then I thought, "Well, maybe I can just ask him a direction question." I I turned around to him and asked, "Are we going to Downtown?" As the 26 year old started to reply I noticed something hiding on the back of his neck. I quickly realized it was a SNAKE haha so I replied, "WOW is that real?" He, E, laughed and pulled the snake from behind his neck. My companion and I were so amazed. He said the snake was a baby python...haha we were tempted to hold it but decided itd be best just to tke a pic of it. We then started talking about life and he started to explain that his mother passed away after Christmas and his dad died 2 years ago. I asked if he went to a church and he explained how after his mother died he stopped going to church. That that experience weakened his faith in God. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how he will be able to see his parents again after this life. We were able to get his information so the missionaries can stop by and visit. We were able to talk to about 6 more different people on the bus, it was a really cool experience. All the people were pretty different. After talking to one guy who asked what I represented he remarked, "No I dont want missionaries to come visit me. I just started talking to you cause you have a pretty face" HAHA I just said, "Well thanks...if you want to learn more heres our website". I am excited to ride the bus more and find those who are prepared :]
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| Houston Bus Rides with friends |
Last night I realized how worn out missionary work makes you. After I fell asleep I woke back up at 11pm. I dont even know why but for some reason I thought it was time to get up HAHA so I pulled myself out of bed and started praying. As I was praying I thought, "Why isn't she praying too?" I was so confused and so I thought, "Well maybe I have more time to sleep" and crawled back into bed haha. I think it would be so funny in heaven to read through your prayers because I'm pretty sure in all my morning prayers I'm talking about what happened in my dreams.
This week we also found out one of the less actives in our ward got put into jail. We decided we should go visit him and give him some hope that things will turn out okay. We got to the Jail in downtown and had to wait an hour for it to open. So we called people to try and set up appointments. Finally we were able to go in. As we walked through the doors there was a pretty good size line to see those who were in the jail. Lots of people could tell this was our first time visiting. We really did stand out from the crowd. Finally after a lot of confusion and an hour later we were just waiting for our friend to come up to the glass window. As we were waiting I was looking at ALL the other people who were talking to the inmates. Basically, I saw mothers with their children on one side of the glass trying to speak through a little speaker to their husbands on the other side of the glass-dressed in orange. It broke my heart to see families so close but so far apart. The spirit was totally not there, mothers were screaming to their kids to be quiet and yelling and cussing through the speaker to talk to their loved ones who were locked up.
Instantly a feeling of gratitude came over me of how blessed and lucky I am to have been born to loving parents who raised me in the gospel of Jesus Christ. With this knowledge I learn of the things I need to do to make me happy, and free. As we follow Jesus Christ we really are freed and do not become inprisoned by things of the world. Finally we were able to talk to our friend. I've never met him or seen him before but somehow his face seemed familiar to me. Since we were not allowed to take ANYTHING with us to talk to the inmates we just taught through testimony to him. We told him how much God loved him and that through is son Christ we can be clean of all sins. We told him how much his family loved him and prayed for him always. He explaiend to us that many years ago he was SUCH a faithfl member in the church, he had even gone through the temple. Something happened in his life where he started to turn to alcohol to solve his probelms and became an addict to alcohol. As he talked to us he had shame in his countanence. You can tell he was upset for what he had done and wanted to change. Before leaving we asked if we could say a prayer with him, he said he would offer the prayer. With people screaming all around I could barely hear his soft words, but what I did hear touched my heart. In a place of no hope I felt peace, I felt the spirit. As E prayed his eyes filled with many tears of sorrow for what he had done and for gratitude for his family and the missioanries. Leaving the jail I came out with having an even greater desire to share the gospel with everyone. I want EVERYONE to have what I have, I feel for those who suffer.
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| Pizza with the Hermanas |
I look at my life know and am grateful for this opportunity I have to see how our actions today really do take a big role on what happens tomorrow. This past week we also had a zone conference with our mission president. He talked about setting life long goals, we had a few minutes to write out what we wanted in our futures and how we would acheive them. One thing I mentioned was how I want to be a good wife and mother and that the mission was helping me prepare to do that. Reading my patriarchal blessing reminds me of the potential I have and how I want to always be a strong member of the church so I can fulfill what God has in store for me. Thank you for supporting me and giving me this opportinuty to serve a mission, to help others, to save souls. As I am about to hit my 22 years since I was born I still to this day am so grateful for the loving family I have. I cannot put into words my love and gratitude I have for you all :] I pray for you all individually and lvoe you with all my heart. How joyful the day will be to hug you all again :
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