Week 8

Bonjour Toute le Monde!

I figured since I'm not really speaking a ton of Spanish at the moment I might as well start brushing up on my French haha ;)

This week has been absolutely crazy - I've been orphaned :(

Here in the mission we have pet names for other missionaries who are influential to our development.  We name them after family members. 

For example:

Trainer =  Mom (or dad if you're an elder)

1st District Leader =  Dad (I don't know how this works for elders)

People who were in the MTC with you =  little brothers/sisters

Other missionaries who were trained by your trainer =  brothers/sisters (because you have the same mom or dad)

I hope you get the picture :)

This past week was transfers! Sister Johansen and I were sure that we would be sticking together because she's my trainer and I still had 6 weeks left of my training program.

Twas not so. They tore me from not only my mother but also my Dad and one of my little brothers. It was pretty hard. I'm still in North Torrance and Sister Jo went to Hawthorne.  Actually, a lot of changes happened in the zone so everyone was a little crazy. That was the first thing that made this week crazy!

Trying to get my new trainer (step-mom) Sister Fonokalafi (from New Zealand and she's Tongan) all moved in and trying to learn the area between the two of us AND putting together our baptism!! Made the week extra crazy.

That's right! Last night our new investigator was baptized! He's the referral we got from the other elder's and we speed taught him all week so that he could get interviewed and baptised this Sunday! It was a challenge, but it was worth it. The service had a special Spirit to it and I'm glad we were able to get everything done and squared away in the time frame that he wanted. So that was a happy occasion that added to the craziness of the week.

We're not really teaching anyone new other then him at the moment, but we're always looking for people to teach. Pray that we will find those that have been prepared in this area so that we can get teaching! I mean, that's my favorite part of missionary work anyway :) haha!

One last amusing story before I jet off for the day...

SO. Sister Fonokalafi and I had just opened up our companionship prayer one day when we heard a knock on the door. That's was pretty odd for a few reasons 1) it was 10AM and 2) we're missionaries so....we don't have many visitors. We then thought that it was probably our Zone leaders or District leaders with some important news so we opened the door. Instead of the two men in white shirts and ties we were expecting - it was two women! In skirts! Speaking Spanish!

I was very confused and they asked me if I spoke Spanish and I said yes a little, since I didn't know if they needed help or directions or something. Little did I know the Pandoran box I had opened. This woman started talking to me about the Bible.  Then it dawned on me - we had been tracted into by 2 Jehovah's Witness missionaries.

Boy did I feel naive and silly. SO, I politely told them thanks, be we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we were busy so she said that was alright and to have a nice day. They started to walk away when the other missionary stopped her and said "wait, could I share a scripture with you, since we're both missionaries to brighten your day?" and I said "sure" and then....i got the whole 1st lesson. On the doorstep. In Spanish. I had to go get my Spanish bible and everything! OH man....i definitely was wishing that I hadn't opened that box and admitted to speaking Spanish. FINALLY when she gave me some room to get a word in, I told her that we had some differences, but that I was grateful for this learning opportunity, or something like that.

That opened a whole other box that i wasn't prepared to answer and finally it boiled down to them saying "there's only one truth! So, who's right?" at this point I translated this question for Sister Fonokalafi, who doesn't speak Spanish and was just standing there being supportive, said "You're right. There's only one truth. And it's us!"  0_0 I just stood there. And they were like...ok. So we swapped materials they gave us a book about "what the bible really teaches" and we gave them a "Plan of Salvation pamphlet", and they asked for a return appointment, we said no thank you and have a nice day and they left.

That took 45 minutes out of my mission I will never get back. Oy vey.

After that experience I just started to think "Man, I really hope that's not what people feel like when we come and talk to them." And I started to think about the differences between us and them. First of all, there are similarities -we both go out proselytizing, we both use similar techniques to grab attention to get people to listen to us, we want to get return appointments so that we can teach them and that is about where the similarity's stop.  HOWEVER, the main difference, and this is purely my opinion from my one experience in Spanish, is that we teach with love. I do it because I love them, and want to share this MARVELLOUS gift that we have with them - and it's totally their choice. They don't have to take our word for it, they can ask God themselves. Whereas while I was standing at the door with these two women, I felt chastised, kind of condemned, and like a number. (not to mention super dumb for not realizing sooner who they were) NO bueno. Overall, I just was cemented even more in the truthfulness of our message, and how much our heavenly father loves us.

Fun story, huh? ;)

WELL that's all the time for today. Hope you enjoyed my little experience. Your prayers and thoughts are always much appreciated :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hna Hensley