Week 57: Pollitos!

March 27, 2023

Odds and Ends

●We had dinner with the Alsops! She has the cutest baby bump EVER! Her little son Peter came up to us before we left and he gave us a flower to share haha!

●So we went by Reggies. Reggie wasn't home. But this younger guy answered! We asked if he was home and then asked if we could share a message with him instead. He said his name is Lil Reggie. And he said no, so we turned away and said bye. Then he asks "Hey... does one of you have a phone number I could grab?" I'm like "yes we can send you the church address!" And then he continues... "so I can take one of y'all on a date to dinner or something?" And then we saw a fullllll smile of golden teeth. Bye Lil Reggie. Nice try. I am actually more confident and controlled when I'm rejecting creepy men on the mish. It's now a talent I'm glad to have acquired!

●So we had a lesson with the cute Potratz family about staying united through Jesus Christ. It's an object toothpick activity, but I decided to use popsicle sticks instead. The intent is they aren't supposed to break. But those popsicle sticks broke. Major backfire but the kids knew the point haha!

●We stuffed our car FULL of yard sale pickup stuff. For once I was grateful to be the driver bc I didn't have to have boxes on my lap.

●We met a lady named Alma who sadly wasn't interested but I really wanted to teach her about Alma...

●Someone called us a cult... :(

●Brandon brought up that he doesn't hear about Jesus enough at church. That was a proud moment we had for him! But sad for the ward. Thankfully it's changed for the better!

●Some recent converts keep telling us Mellow Yellow is against the Word of Wisdom and even sent us an article hehe!

●Got a trim thanks to Shami!

Miracle

● A less active number, Brother Duarte, called us and said that he had some neighbors who were really interested in learning more about the gospel! He gave us his phone number and we got in touch with Calvin. HOLY IT WAS CRAZY! We met the whole family just a few days later! Calvin and Ashleigh and their cute young kids met Jade, Vivian, and Able! And they basically live on a farm! They pulled out their pythons and pigs and rats and bunnies and cows and dogs and holyyyyy. It was just a lot of animals but it was so fun! Then they ended up coming to church the following Sunday and even stayed for the linger longer! It was like herding cattle trying to get everyone to class haha! The kids already love Primary. It was such a huge miracle that God gave us! The member even offered to join lessons and take them to church too! Ahhh wow God has been working on their hearts! It's been so fun to finally teach a family. So excited to see where they go in these next few weeks!

●We got back in contact with our friend Dennis who apparently had a dream about the whole Plan of Salvation!

●We've been working with the Potratz family whose sons were just recently baptized. And so we've been trying to work on Chris too, the father! For now we are trying to become good friends with his wife Shami. She trimmed all our hair (I had to take my beads out big sad). And she fixed my companions poor face framing jobs that I literally shed tears over as they cut them. Then she said she thinks her husband will be a convert one day! Eeee!

●Daniel is so awesome. He was baptized just over a year ago. But he's had his ups and downs. We had probably one of the most powerful testimony meeting of my life with him. I learned a lot about the Holy Ghost and more about me and my testimony. I've grown so much but I still have so much growing to do.

●Paul Tolman was just lingering around while we were greeting people for church. After I gathered as much conversation as I could, he comes closer and says "Nichole was asking her coworkers if she got baptized if they would come." Instantly my jaw dropped and I started to smile! The Lord's working on her heart, it's only a matter of time!

Spiritual Thought

We had to go BACK to Firestone on pday (we practically live there now...) because we needed an oil change. So we were emailing and messaging friends while waiting and I over heard the little TV show they play in the background. And holy moly. I had never wanted to be somewhere else more. This show was one several of my friends watched back home and I just had simply never attempted to watch before. But as I listened, I realized how worldly and inappropriate it was. It made me super uncomfortable. Then I began to ponder. As missionaries, we are held to a higher standard to be focused and to rise above the world with Christ's light. So then I began to think: after the mission, what things will I go back to, and what things will I ultimately leave behind and not ever go back to? This wasn't the worst of the worst, and quite frankly, I might've tolerated it before my mission. But THIS was a core moment where I could identify that the mission had changed me. More so, CHRIST has changed me. Because I've allowed His character to become more apart of mine, I'm building more habits that will benefit me for the rest of my days. Although this example was small, to me, I really got to decide what kind of person I want to be now and forever. And in that moment, I was glad to know that when it came between the world and Christ, I chose Him instinctively. And in the future, we will all fail and falter and sway to both sides, but at the end, we must chose HIM! I invite you all to reevaluate your life, see how more fully you can CHOSE HIM! Thanks for reading my little rant if you got this far!

Birthdays

Also happy birthday to little Tommy! I love you munchkin!

Pictures