Hello to all!
Thank you so much for your love, encouragement, and emails; know that I appreciate it lots and lots and lots! I take pictures of the emails I receive and read them throughout the week, and I will respond when I can, so if I don't email you back immediately, know that I will as soon as I can!
Wow, what a busy week it´s been! I got full-on hit in the head with a baseball, witnessed two dogs mating (that was a scarring experience), and ate my first weird food here; it turns out that cashews have this super strange food that grows alongside them, and it looks like raw chicken. You can it and serve it with a cinnamon sauce and oh my it was interesting to say the least...the texture and appearance kind of freaked me out, but it´s a Christmas delicacy here, so cool beans:) Once again, I was notified less than 24 hours before church that I was supposed to give a talk in sacrament meeting, but it went really well so halelujah! I spoke about reaping the rewards of righteousness, an article Elder Quetin L. Cook wrote for the JulyLiahona.
I got a call on Saturday from my mission president´s wife, and she asked me to put together a musical number for the Ocoa Hermanas to sing in zone conference in less than three weeks...for HALF OF THE ENTIRE MISSION!! And a General Authority is going to be there!! Ahh freaky, but it´s going to be super cool because ''Be Still, My Soul'' isn´t a song in the Spanish hymn book, so I´m translating it into Spanish but am basically writing whole new lyrics because the words can´t perfectly translate and match up with the song at the same time. So that´s my new project:)
Also on Saturday, the other Ocoa Hermanas had a baptism for two Beehive-aged sisters, but the pump broke at the church! And our branch president refused to help us, so the Hermanas were going to have to fill up the font by hand. Thank goodness our ward mission leader is a firefighter and that his boss let us use the firetruck to fill up the font hahaha it was awesome, the truck stayed in the church parking lot and they lugged the hose into the building. Miracle of miracles, and pretty darn hilarious:) We finally got more rain this week, so wahoo! AND we had four straight days of running water in the house!!! That NEVER happens! We even got some hail, what?!
Best day of my entire mission happened when I went on splits with my Hermana Training Leader on Tuesday! We surpassed our contacting goal, taught a whopping seven lessons, got a reference, I took the lead in every lesson, taught the majority of each one, Spanish was flowing, we set commitments with every investigator and less-active we met with, I followed my mission president´s advice and always brought the lesson back to how it can help the family and asked a ton of questions, and I was just so flippin happy!!!! Greatest, most perfect day EVER!!!
Our ward mission leader, Emilkin, who is basically our best friend and does everything for the branch, got his mission call!! He´s going to Ecuador in February! He is 21 and has been working on his papers and waiting for his call for 4 years...what a blessing that it finally came. Except the branch president opened it before Emilkin did, told a bunch of people where he was going, and wouldn´t let Emilkin keep his own call. How sad and super messed up. The leadership in our branch is a joke, so my mission president sent his counselor on Sunday to do a training; I hope it helps, because this branch is falling apart, and when Emilkin leaves, I don´t know what we´re going to do. Well, God will make things work!
We gave one of our investigators, Yasiris, her own Book of Mormon this week, and she was so incredibly excited!! And we committed her to be baptized in December!! We´re super excited for her. On the other side, one of our strongest investigators, Denia, told us that she doesn´t want us to teach her anymore. It was so sad, she´s come so far. She was ready to be baptized and loved the Gospel, but Satan got a hold of her. I know that trusting in the Lord and resisting Satan´s lies is essencial--we can´t give in to the tempations of he who wants us to suffer and fall. I know we can always rely on the Lord, obtain a strong testimony for ourselves, and always turn to our Heavenly Father of prayer. I love my Savior, I know He lives, and through Him, all things are possible.
Love,
Hermana Randall
Thank you so much for your love, encouragement, and emails; know that I appreciate it lots and lots and lots! I take pictures of the emails I receive and read them throughout the week, and I will respond when I can, so if I don't email you back immediately, know that I will as soon as I can!
Wow, what a busy week it´s been! I got full-on hit in the head with a baseball, witnessed two dogs mating (that was a scarring experience), and ate my first weird food here; it turns out that cashews have this super strange food that grows alongside them, and it looks like raw chicken. You can it and serve it with a cinnamon sauce and oh my it was interesting to say the least...the texture and appearance kind of freaked me out, but it´s a Christmas delicacy here, so cool beans:) Once again, I was notified less than 24 hours before church that I was supposed to give a talk in sacrament meeting, but it went really well so halelujah! I spoke about reaping the rewards of righteousness, an article Elder Quetin L. Cook wrote for the JulyLiahona.
I got a call on Saturday from my mission president´s wife, and she asked me to put together a musical number for the Ocoa Hermanas to sing in zone conference in less than three weeks...for HALF OF THE ENTIRE MISSION!! And a General Authority is going to be there!! Ahh freaky, but it´s going to be super cool because ''Be Still, My Soul'' isn´t a song in the Spanish hymn book, so I´m translating it into Spanish but am basically writing whole new lyrics because the words can´t perfectly translate and match up with the song at the same time. So that´s my new project:)
Also on Saturday, the other Ocoa Hermanas had a baptism for two Beehive-aged sisters, but the pump broke at the church! And our branch president refused to help us, so the Hermanas were going to have to fill up the font by hand. Thank goodness our ward mission leader is a firefighter and that his boss let us use the firetruck to fill up the font hahaha it was awesome, the truck stayed in the church parking lot and they lugged the hose into the building. Miracle of miracles, and pretty darn hilarious:) We finally got more rain this week, so wahoo! AND we had four straight days of running water in the house!!! That NEVER happens! We even got some hail, what?!
Best day of my entire mission happened when I went on splits with my Hermana Training Leader on Tuesday! We surpassed our contacting goal, taught a whopping seven lessons, got a reference, I took the lead in every lesson, taught the majority of each one, Spanish was flowing, we set commitments with every investigator and less-active we met with, I followed my mission president´s advice and always brought the lesson back to how it can help the family and asked a ton of questions, and I was just so flippin happy!!!! Greatest, most perfect day EVER!!!
Our ward mission leader, Emilkin, who is basically our best friend and does everything for the branch, got his mission call!! He´s going to Ecuador in February! He is 21 and has been working on his papers and waiting for his call for 4 years...what a blessing that it finally came. Except the branch president opened it before Emilkin did, told a bunch of people where he was going, and wouldn´t let Emilkin keep his own call. How sad and super messed up. The leadership in our branch is a joke, so my mission president sent his counselor on Sunday to do a training; I hope it helps, because this branch is falling apart, and when Emilkin leaves, I don´t know what we´re going to do. Well, God will make things work!
We gave one of our investigators, Yasiris, her own Book of Mormon this week, and she was so incredibly excited!! And we committed her to be baptized in December!! We´re super excited for her. On the other side, one of our strongest investigators, Denia, told us that she doesn´t want us to teach her anymore. It was so sad, she´s come so far. She was ready to be baptized and loved the Gospel, but Satan got a hold of her. I know that trusting in the Lord and resisting Satan´s lies is essencial--we can´t give in to the tempations of he who wants us to suffer and fall. I know we can always rely on the Lord, obtain a strong testimony for ourselves, and always turn to our Heavenly Father of prayer. I love my Savior, I know He lives, and through Him, all things are possible.
Love,
Hermana Randall