We had a good week this week! Every single week we see blessings, so I'm not complaining!
We were in a trio for 24 hours (meaning Hermana Lewis and I were accompanied by another sister missionary). It was the weirdest thing. We were with Hermana Hernandez and we are all so different with our ideas but we also have a lot of similarities. It was also strange having to discuss who gets to use the bathroom first etc. But it was fun because we got to go on splits in our area and Hermana Hernandez and I found some potential investigators!!! :)
We also got to teach Erika and Alex three days in a row! (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!) Our ward mission leader is awesome!!! He's helped us out so much already. He has started up a volleyball activity for investigators and members to come and we are doing it every other Friday. So last Friday was our first one and we invited Erika and her son Alex to come. Alex was super excited to go but Erika was hesitant. She invited her husband Raul and other son Jeremy to go too so they could go as a family. We had them follow us there and when we got there there was barely anyone there. After a few minutes though, more people started to show up and it actually ended up being super fun! Hermana Lewis and I had to leave early because we had to be home at 9:00pm (missionary guidelines). So, we left Erika, Alex, Raul, and Jeremy there and we found out from the bishop that they stayed until they finished playing at 10:00. That means they stayed over an hour after we left. That's a miracle!!! They loved it, they told us it was super fun and they enjoyed meeting more ward members.
But, the icing on the cake this week was Church on Sunday. We had a lesson with Erika and Alex (Raul was there too for the first time) on Saturday and Erika told us she had a lot of doubts and confusion regarding the church. We invited her to come to church with us the next day to see if that helped her. Hermana Lewis and I were praying and fasting for Erika to get the answers she needed to take away her doubts and confusion. And, boy, were our prayers answered! She went to church with us the next day. In sacrament meeting, it was testimony meeting so people got to get up and share their testimonies or the things about the church they know to be true. And pretty much everyone that got up said something to the effect of, "If you are investigating the church, I invite you to pray like how Joseph Smith did because I used to be catholic because that's how I was raised but here I am now". And that touched Erika so much she started crying. But that's not all. We decided to have a lesson with her and the bishop after sacrament meeting right in the chapel. The spirit was so strong and the bishop answered a lot of her questions. And after that we had Relief Society class with all the women and the class was about Joseph Smith. It was perfect! The teacher asked me to stand up and recite the First Vision while everyone had their eyes closed. It was super cool because the whole time I could just feel the power in what I was saying. Half the room was crying and I think I at one point had the feeling to cry too. It was just an awesome church experience for everyone but especially for Erika. Alex and Jeremy loved it too. I hope they can continue to progress.
On Saturday, we went to Paulina's baptism. She just turned 8 and the rest of her family was baptized last year. She is such a cute little girl. And I think her family's testimony got a little bit stronger since right before they left their house for a baptism, their car didn't want to start at all and then they got pulled over by cops and yeah. A lot happened to them on the way to her baptism so that just shows that sometimes when we are trying to do something good, like baptism, and the adversary doesn't want us to do it so he pulls out all the necessary tricks to get people to stop. It was a pleasure being invited to the baptism though! :) Paulina is super adorable and her and I are practically best friends, haha.
All in all, it was a good week. We lost some potential investigators though and that kinda hit me hard. We have been trying to get an appointment with them for a while and they were all usually very nice. But the other day when we showed up for an appointment they had finally set with us, they had someone else answer the door and tell us they weren't interested and that we should leave them alone. I don't know why, but that rejection hurt me a little bit. It didn't hit me personally but I was just thinking how sad I was for them because they wouldn't even give us a chance to share the message we got. I set aside eighteen months of my life to share this gospel to others because I know it can bring everyone happiness if they allow it. So, that just kinda struck me a little bit and kinda confused me because they were super nice to us. We get all kinds of rejections every single day, but for some reason that one just made me sad. I guess I'm now realizing how happy the church has made my family and me that I just want every family to know about it too.
Okay, so let me tell a funny story. Last transfer, someone made this thing called "If Our Zone Was Still In High School". So, there were funny ones like "cheerleader", "surfer dude", "student body president", etc. Any guesses as to what mine was? Haha. For me, they put "Spanish club president, always hangs out with the Hispanic kids" hahahahahaha I thought it was hilarious. They added the "always hangs out with the Hispanic kids" part because apparently I always talk to the Hispanic missionaries, especially the ones in our zone. I can't help that I'm a Spanish missionary and just naturally gravitate towards the Hispanics hahaha. Plus, the elders in our Spanish distric are super funny and they are like my brothers. Plus, they don't make me feel so short so that's a plus haha. But yeah, I just wanted to share that because I thought it was kinda funny. I'm really sad that pretty much half our district is being transferred to another area. It's gonna be soooo different. But change is a part of life and I know we will all see each other again in mission meetings and conferences.
Hermana Lewis is being transferred to Layton and I am getting Hermana Dickson who's from Puerto Rico. I'm excited but sad. It's a weird feeling. But I am the senior companion so I get to take the lead so to speak even though Hermana Dickson has been out in her mission longer. She actually just finished training Hermana Reynolds in Layton so she and Lewis are basically switching places. But yeah we (senior companions)had a conference call this morning with President Jaggi and it was cool to discuss our responsibilities. Our president is really trying to help us be the best leaders and senior companions have a leadership role. I never really looked at it at way but I guess this is my first leadership calling in the mission. :)
I hope everyone had a great week! I love getting responses from people for these emails because I never know if people actually read them or just put them off to the side and not read them. Thanks for your continual support! :)
Love,
Hermana Pecjak
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