Week #14

Hey Everyone.

Answers to your questions:

The people here are so loving and kind they are always giving us food and are so giving.  Another thing they do is whenever you see someone or enter a room you have to go around and give a hug and a kiss to everyone (handshake for the men since we are missionaries).  You have to do it when you enter and when you leave even, if you were only there for like five minutes.  If you don't sometimes the people get offended or think that you are mad at them.  I love it because everyone here is so close and loving. Sometimes they are a lot more blunt here.  If they think something they are just going to say.  It is not all that weird for someone to say you're fat or just straight out tell you that your Spanish is terrible.

I am not sure how big the city is because we are usually just in our sector, but it is pretty normal. It's like back home as in there are paved streets just a Little less nice. The paving isn't as good and the houses are usually really small.  I will take some pictures when I get a chance.  It is just hard because I dont usually have my camera with me.

Family life is pretty much the same as back home, other than a lot of people aren't married here they just live together and have kids. 

Yes they do celebrate Halloween here, but it is kind of lame.  Only the little kids do anything like trick or treating and there wasnt really that many out.  The teenagers and adults usually don't do anything.  A lot of people don't like Halloween here because they say it is a holliday to worship evil. They have only been celebrating Halloween for like the last 10 years or so.

Okay, so this week has been pretty normal.  We had divisions this week, which was fun because last time I went with a gringa to her district, but this week I got to go with a latina from Argentina which was really fun.  It went good and I was able to understand and communicate with her all day.

I feel like I am finally able to feel at least comfortable with the language as in I can understand the majority and communicate sufficiently, but as always I have a lot to learn.

Victor- He is doing good as in he is coming to church and keeping his commitments, but he says he doesn't want to be baptized. We are working hard to help him to understand what true conversión is and how he needs to ask for himself.  We had a baptism this Sunday of a 12 year old boy the elders have been working with and he came, but walked in right after the actual baptism. We were able to talk about baptism a lot with him and show him the Font.  He told us that he is going to move soon to live with his mom who lives far from here so we are a little bit worried about him.  We are working hard to help him to gain a testimony for himself so that he can continue to progress after he moves.  Please pray for him to be able to work his problems out with his family and to be able to gain a testimony for himself.

Paulina-  We taught her about the Book of Mormon this week and the plan of salvation earlier in the week.  She had so many questions both times and has a lot of interest and a desire to know for herself if it is true.  The hard thing with her is that she lives with her mom who has more than 90 years ( they dont know the exact age of her mom because records are wrong I guess that happens a lot here)  but she can't work because she has to take care of her mom so she is really struggling. We are working hard to find a way that we can get her to church. It is just really hard with her mom as she is basically bed bound.

Jacqueline-  She loves the lessons and has a ton of interest still and I have seen her life change so much, she just is having a hard time because she says it is really hard with her family all being catholic. 

Ana-  Okay so we had a breakthrow with her this week.  She came to church and even put up a sign in front of her store that she is going to be closed for sundays so she can go to church and observe the sabbath.  I am so excited for her and amazed by her faith as she said that she doesn't know how she is going to pay all of her bills and not work sunday, but she knows it is important to go to church and she has faith that it will all work out!

That's basically it for this week as Jonathen and Belen are out of town for the week.  I loved hearing about everything back home with Jaxsons baptism and Halloween.  I love you all and am praying for all of you.

Love,

Hermana Stringham