Week 5 in Florida

HOLA Familia y amigos!!   

So... Yesterday my email account wasn't working. So I'm emailing today!! 

  

I am officially half way done with training! I don’t really know how I feel about that… It’s very likely that Hna. Russell is going to be leaving next transfer, and I’ll be staying. That doesn't mean I’ll be a trainer or a senior companion, in fact I’m praying that won’t happen. But it means that I’ll be the companion that knows the area and the members, and all the investigators. That’s a little scary. But I have seen over and over again out here that the Lord really does qualify who He calls. That is so comforting to know!   

Well, we have one couple right now that is doing really well! They use to be very Catholic, but they started to have bad feelings about it, and they have family who are LDS, so they were referred to us, and we started teaching them! The husband has had a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon, and still prayed to Jesus, instead of to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus. We had a lesson with them on Friday, and the husband, Jose, said the closing prayer. He started with “Padre Celestial”!!!! And then he asked to be able to understand the Book of Mormon!!! He forgot to close in the name of Jesus Christ, but his wife, Rosa, told him. He was a little embarrassed, but it was totally fine! I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!! They left for New York today for until October 6th, and we’re going to miss them so much! But they said they’d read and pray. Hopefully they can come back with some strong testimonies! 

We have another family that is just so amazing!!! They’re the ones we had pizza with last week, the Moreno’s. The dad, Jose, says he’s never felt the Holy Ghost, but he just thinks it all makes sense. The mom, Olivia, is Pentecostal but she never was baptized into it. She said if she learns if this church really is the Church of Jesus Christ, she’ll be baptized. The mom’s brother, Alfredo, has been to church once, likes it, and feels the Spirit when we’re there. The daughter, Jocelyn (11), is a superstar! She’s reading the Book of Mormon at school, and sits in on all the lessons, even with her little brothers and sister are running around being normal kids. The parents and uncle don’t make time to read the Book of Mormon, so they’re progressing really slowly… There’s a huge difference between them and Rosa & Jose, and I’m pretty sure that difference is that they aren't reading the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is the convincing evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet, called by God, to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ once again on the earth, THROUGH Jesus Christ. Nadie puede recibir un testimonio real sin un testimonio del Libro de Mormon. Este testimonio es TAN necesario! Personas que fueron bautisados sin un testimonio del Libro de Mormon no son convertos reales. Y personas que nacieron en la iglesia no son convertos reales hasta han recibido un testimonio del Libro de Mormon. Entonces, si no tienen un testimonio del Libro de Mormon, tienen que recibirlo! Por favor J Pero, no hacenlo para mi. Solo hacenlo para ustedes, y para su Padre Celetial. 

 Here’s kinda a funny, awesome, sad, weird experience. There’s this man, Omar, we try to teach, but every time we see him, he’s too drunk for the Spirit to be with him, therefore we can’t teach him. But he always asks questions that the gospel would answer. So we keep going back. We always tell him he needs to not drink when we come back, but we still find him drunk. We went to his house on Friday, and he was drunk. But he told us that he got Fridays and Sundays off, and that he wanted to come to church. So we told him we’d come back next Friday to talk about church. He said ok. We told him he needs to not drink, and he said it’s too hard, but he’ll try. Later that day, one of our appointments fell through, so we stopped to get gas. We found Omar inside, finished a purchase of a 24 pack of beer. We asked him what he was doing and he just started apologizing. We told him that we were only there to help him, but he has to want our help. Hna. Russell promised him that one day he wouldn’t have a single drink. He called us his angels, kept apologizing, and reminded us he wanted to go to church, so we reminded him we’d be back Friday, and that he needs to not drink. Someday we’ll get to him, but I have no idea when that day will be… 

 That’s pretty much it for this week. Not too much exciting stuff happened. OH WAIT!!!!!!! THIS IS THE BEST PART!!!!!! I’M THE DESIGNATED DRIVER!!!!!! I haven’t driven in more than 2 months! And now I get to drive all the time :D Except that there are too many missionaries for the cars, so ours might be taken away soon.  But until then, I get to drive! I love it!!! It makes me miss the Suzuki really bad, but I’ll get over that. 

 Oh, here’s something else.  I feel like being a missionary has helped me understand the organization of the church a lot better. And it’s so great! I feel like we’re working behind the scenes. I’ve also learned that I’m totally fine with not ever being a bishop. It takes a great man to be a bishop, and then after he gets called to be the bishop, the Lord makes him an even greater man. I’m always worried about telling the bishop more stuff we need him to do, but Hna. Russell keeps telling me that he needs to know about it all, and then the Lord will tell him what to do about it.  He really is the Lord’s servant. And he doesn’t get paid for it in money.  

 Another cool thing about serving state-side Spanish: We meet people from all over the world (well, mostly South America). I’ve met people from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Cuba, Panama, Ecuador, and Honduras. There might even be more, but I can’t remember them all!   

This work is so great! I love it more and more every day. I’ve learned a lot about why it’s so important to be obedient. Even if you’re not a missionary, being obedient brings blessings, but being exactly obedient brings miracles. Pres. Cusick is really big on this mission being the most obedient, and I am so grateful for that! I’m excited to see what this mission does in the next 15 months! 

  

I love you all so much! And so does your Heavenly Father. Never forget that. 

Muchas gracias por todo! 

Les quiero! 

Hermana Despain 

  

   

 

We celebrated our 1 month today with a huge rain storm! We were in car, so it wasn't too bad. But we still got soaked!

We also had some brownies :)