I have been called as a spanish speaking missionary, but I guess I forgot to consider the language gaps between families. While the majority of our families speaking dominantly spanish, there are some families that have a language gap. We have one family of investigators that has a solely spanish speaking mother, solely english speaking father and bilingual kids. Do they go to the spanish branch or English ward? We have a mother who solely speak spanish and a daughter who solely speaks english. Where do they go? We do not want to split families when they go to church, but whichever ward they go to, it will be challenging but worth it. This also means that we may lose some of these investigators to the English speaking missionaries, but on the plus side, they will learn the doctrine in the language they feel most comfortable in and they will be edified.
I had an emotional rollar coaster this last Saturday. It began at 4:45pm when we ran into this women walking her dogs on our way out of an apartment complex. She and I started a pleasent conversation about dogs and weather and then she inquired about our religion. I told her we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She began expressing all sorts of misinformation about our beliefs. She is very well versed in the bible. I was able to clear up most of the misinformation like that we believe in the Trinity. We believe in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe that we have an opportunity to live with Him again for eternity. It was so wonderful that she was open minded enough to realize that we have aligned beliefs. However, she was very adament about the impossible versimillitude of the Book of Mormon. She believes that Joseph Smith wrote it when that is not so. I tried to explain, but there Spirit was not there to help me so I knew anything I said would not convince her. She says she has been praying to know the whole truth of the gospel. I firmly believe that we can be the answer to her prayer. Even though I did not have historical facts to back up everything I know, I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost is real. I know that the Gospel was restored to the earth because Heavenly Father loves us so much. We gave her our emails and maybe one day she will contact us to learn more about the truth we hold. We may not have physical evidences but that's the beauty of a testimony. We don't need those evidences to believe the Gospel. God has confirmed it in our hearts with the Holy Ghost and that is something no one can disprove.
We were late to our dinner appointment from that impromtu discussion, but once we got there, we had more teaching to do. I have learned on this mission how much parents do for us. Our happiness pleases them and our ingratitude hurts them. A child rejecting a gift which a mother has worked so hard to give breaks my heart. This is the only family we ever get and if we do not take care of it, we will not be with them forever. During this lesson, we were also trying to coordinate a ride for an investigator. Finally, someone called back and agreed to drive them. Thank goodness! Next hour, we visited one of our investigators. She is such a lovely person and she believes the Book of Mormon and everything we teach her through the Holy Ghost. However, she does not feel ready for baptism yet. I tried asking her again if she would commit to baptism. She said she had great faith in everthing she's learned from us, but she is waiting for an answer and she knows without a doubt that she will get one. How foolish I was to doubt her faith. Over the timespand of 4 hours, I had experience love, excited, anger, frustration, desperation, happiness, motivation, remorse, anxiety, sadness, and hope.
On the plus side, I know that we were were the answer to that lady's prayer. I know that the Gospel is going to help bring that family closer together like I have seen in my own family. I know that our investigator will recieve an answer of confirmation today, tomorrow, or next month. I can't convert people but the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ and God can. " If any of ye lacks wisdom, let him ask of god"
-Hermana Zamora
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