Another week in Barrio 1

p-day at the bowling alley! 

the Hermanas on my lane

 

me and Hna. Aagard (she is one of my favorite hermanas in the mission and this bowling activity was to celebrate her birthday!)

Hola familia y amigos,

Well, things continue to go in Barrio 1.  Not much happened this week.  White washing is still hard, but we did baptize again.  We baptized little Rosalind.  It was an awesome baptism too.  The primary sang and because her birthday was just last month there was a huge Latin birthday party afterward.  We enjoyed the good food, but did not participate in the dancing.  We left to be home on time and the party was still going strong.

The baptism was really special.  It was so sweet to see a child so young with such a strong testimony.  I love the scriptures that tell us to be as little children.  Teaching Rosalind and seeing her baptism strengthened my testimony in that regard.  She is so sweet and so Christ-like.  

After the baptism all her family members shared their testimony.  Her parents who are not yet members included.  Her dad gave a great testimony and got super emotional at the end.  I am so excited for them to get married soon, because they are a wonderful family and I want them to make it to the temple!

Before the baptismal ordinance the primary children sang cuando me bautice (I don´t remember what it is called in English.  It’s the one that talks about the rainbow and the temple or something) and this was when I felt the spirit the strongest.  This is the song we sang when Armando and Denis got baptized.  The memory of their baptism and how Armando started bawling when we sang this song came to me and I almost started crying.

I KNOW this church is true and that I am in the work of Salvation.  There is no greater work to be in! I LOVE it soo much.  Every day is a miraculous miracle!  Is that redundant?

This week has been a bit rough.  White washing is hard.  A lot of the investigators in this area find out that we are not the other hermanas and don´t want to meet with us anymore.  So this week is going to be pretty much like starting from scratch.  I am very grateful for the 2 baptisms we had, and consider that a huge blessing.  But now we have nothing.

Which means we will be finding a lot this week.  Hopefully we can work mostly in finding with the members, but we will be contacting this week!  a lot.  Hopefully we can contact in an effective manner.  I´m not a huge fan of contacting.  I love doing it in the sense that I love to talk to people.  But in the 2 transfers I was with Hermana O´Keeffe we probably received 150-170 phone numbers.  Maybe 20 of those people had a lesson with us, and maybe 3 became progressing investigators.  It´s not hard to get people’s phone numbers.  But it´s not an effective way to find and retain people who really will progress.

We continue to have the occassional comida.  I LOVE when the members feed us.  It usually happens on Sunday. They will invite us over for after church.  Yesterday we had a great comida with a Brazilian family.  The best frijoles I think i have ever had!  I LOVE FOOD.  And Latins know how to cook!

I love my mission.  I love my life.  I love my Savior.  I love the Atonement and I know it is real.   I need it every day and I preach about it to others every day.  There is no greater call than to serve a mission!

con amor,

Hermana Olsen