Week 15 in Florida (Zebra Week 5)

Well, we had a conference call this week with all the zebra missionaries to see how things are going and how they can approve. Everyone agreed that having 2 Spanish speakers teaching Spanish and English would  be ideal. So! They might be changing things up again this transfer. We find out on Saturday. If our predictions are correct, I'll be staying and Sis. Behr will be leaving, and I'll get a companion that speaks Spanish! Hopefully better than me! That would  be great, because I'm definitely not old enough for this job. Some days I feel like a 30-year-old business lady, and other days I feel like a 12 year old. The Lord definitely has a better picture of what's going on, because it's a MIRACLE that this work is run by 18-25 year-olds. This is the only place you'll find a world wide organization like this, I'm pretty sure. It's NUTS!!! But it does work. I'm telling ya, A MIRACLE!!!!!!

Well, this week was pretty good. Here's the best part: There's a part member couple in the Spanish ward that we go see every now and then. The wife has been a member for like 30 years, I think, but her husband has never been a member. He's had the missionary lessons multiple times, but doesn't like the commitment of coming to church every week. We saw him a couple weeks ago, his wife has been in Cuba. I just asked him what he believes, and what he thinks about baptism. He knows it's something he needs to do, and he was baptized Catholic, just because his friends were doing it. Jaja.  So I asked him to just think about being baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God. He said he would. He's been challenged to baptism many times, so I didn't really think much of it. But there's also that hope! So this week we saw him again, and I asked him if he remember what I asked him about the last time. He remembered. He asked when people get baptized, and I said whenever people are ready. He asked if people get baptized on Christmas, and I said I'm sure they can. Then he said he thinks he could be ready to be baptized by Christmas. WHAT THE!?!?!? I had to ask him a few times to make sure I understood. He said no promises, but that he thought he'd be ready. SO..... WE MADE A CALENDAR WITH HIM!!!! AND WE WENT OVER THE BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!!!! He needs a testimony of Jose Smith, refresher on the commandments, give up cafe for real, and he'll be good to go! I'm trying hard to not get my hopes up too much, but I'M SO EXCITED!!!! I might die if this goes the way I hope it does ;) OH BUDDY THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!! We pretty much couldn't believe it, and of course Sis. Behr didn't even know what was going on. I turned to her and asked her what she thought about a baptism on Dec. 29th, and she said "uhhh, yeah, that feels pretty good." When we left she said "Did that really just happen?!?!" I was just as lost as she was. Totally unexpected, and totally miraculous!

We also met up with a less-active and her non-member family. Her husband has also had the lessons many times, he thinks he's had about 200 missionaries. The member seems really excited to have us teach her family, and talks about "our church" and says they should be able to come to church in a couple weeks, when they figure out work schedules. Lots of potential built up there! Maybe we'll be the missionaries that break the camel's back ;)

This work is awesome, but it's also really hard. Se que no pude hacer esta obra sin su apollo. Les quiero MUCHISMO!!!! Estoy muy agradacida por los oporunidades en mi vida, especialmente los personas en mi vida.

Feliz Navidad! :D

Con amor siempre, 

Hermana Despain