It’s getting colder!
Secret Agent Missionary
Happy Missionary Life
Hola!! Translation for the title: festival of the nations–live life!
First and foremost: the Lord lives and has blessed us so much this
week! He is the anchor of my soul and my best friend. I love this work.
This week I have been the most tired than I have ever been (on my
mission)–so much walking and running after buses and crazy things
happening to our investigators and members, but miracles all along the
way.
This week our rapidly progressing investigator, Juana, accepted the
baptismal invitation (2nd time is a charm!) and is planning to be
baptized on November 15. I cannot wait! And I am fighting for her.
Daisy has kind of stopped progressing, as much as my heart breaks to
say that. Crazy things have been happening with her family–her son
having hearings and in jail, her daughter visiting and having tons of
friends over, her husband fell and is in the hospital, her building
almost caught fire. Just crazy stuff. We haven’t been able to meet
with her and have a lesson, just stop by and hear more news and then
head out for her to go to court or the hospital. Please keep her in
your prayers. Her heart is prepared, but her situation is trying her.
Juana is the bomb! She is a miracle–when we ask her to read and pray,
she actually does it! She asks questions and is so clear and patient
and consistent. She works as a home attendant and cares for a man
named Gino that has been living in a bed for 38 years after an
accident when he was 13. He is so smart and functioning in his head,
but his body doesn’t permit him to move, really, or to speak very
much. I am so excited for the resurrection! What a glorious day that
will be–for all of us–but especially for Gino. He is so sweet.
Juana and Gino
We had a miracle on Sunday. We were expecting a few investigators to
come, FO SHO Juana. We got there and waited and looked and greeted
and she wasn’t there and didn’t come. We were so bummed! We sat in the
back in case she came in late, but announcements and hymns came and
went and the sacrament ended and she wasn’t there. The door reopened
after the Santa Cena, and in walks Juana! She came!! We sat down
together and enjoyed some AWESOME talks–the last one especially,
which was about being perfected in Christ. It was beautiful, and
included tons of scriotures and very pure, simple doctrines. It was so
perfect. He closed with the last few verses in chapter 10 of
Moroni–which we had given Juana the day before to read, too. She
leaned over and looked at us and smiled, pointing her fingers at us
and gave me her hand to hold for a moment. It was so perfect. Hermana
Card and I looked at each other because during our last lesson with
her, we ended up reading together with Juana the chapter we were going
to assign her to read, and as we were closing our lesson we didn’t
have another chapter prepared. Moroni 10 came to my mind and as I
turned to it in my scriptures, Hermana Card leaned forward to Juana
and marked that same chapter for her to read without seeing where I
was headed! It is times like that on my mission that are most profound
to me. To be so much on the same page with your companion and to be
really united in teaching and directed by the Spirit. It is so
beautiful.
We had the festival of the nations this week. Oh my gosh–so fun!!
Man, our ward parties need to step it up! Ha, just kidding. I just
mean that it was crazy, and this is totally expected because our ward
is so diverse in culture and tradition and so forth. The only
Americans–born in the u.s.–are us missionaries and some of the kids
in the ward. So for this grand party, everyone gets together and
presents their home country–la República Dominicana, Honduras,
México, Ecuador, y Puerto Rico. Each country goes ALL out–you’d
think it was the Olympics or something! They bring traditional food,
dresses and clothing, music, flags–you name it. Each country sends up
a representative or a few people to present a dance and some facts or
stories or poems about their country and afterwards, it is a giant free for
all/fight for the best food you have ever tasted! Man, it was so fun.
I absolutely loved it.
Festival of Nations
Festival of Nations
It was especially cool and tender to see everyone so proud and so
engulfed in their homes–their Home Countries and family history and
culture. Everyone was so proud to be a Dominican, a Honduran, a
Mexican, an American, etc. It got me thinking of President Uchtdorf’s
talk when he referenced the ugly duckling and how, when he understood
who he really was, he realized that he was magnificent. What if we all
felt that way about who we really are–children of the most high and
all powerful God! The creator of heaven and earth and of YOU is your
father. Do we really understand that? That we are children of GOD? Our
bodies are temples for our spirits and our potential is infinite! I
wonder if we really did understand that, if we too would jump in the
middle of the dance floor in front of everyone and sing and dance and
bake delicious food and share it and laugh and praise all the live
long day. Boy oh boy!
One more miracle (of the thousands we see every week): we visited a
potential investigator named Minerva. She lives alone and when she
opened the door, she seemed a little confused or annoyed that we were
there. She let us in and immediately started telling us her story. We
listened and realized very quickly that she was harsh and to the point
and firm in her thinking. I was thinking that we’d have to drop her
because there would be no way for us to get her to read the Book of
Mormon or come to church (especially because she went off about
church and how she doesn’t believe in men–pastors or bishops–but in
the one true God). But as she said that, my mind went to the Bible and
all the prophets that testify of Christ in that book. She told us how
she studies the Bible and always has; how she taught her kids to
study, too. We started with a prayer, and when we finished, she
smiled (for the first time) at us and said, “I do that, too.” We
didn’t know what she meant, and she clarified, and said, “I end my
prayers like that, too. In the name of Jesus Christ.” Whoa! That’s a
first!
Anyway, so I asked her what she thought about prophets. She said that
there were prophets in the Bible like Moses and Adam and Isaiah, that
they wrote the scriptures, but that was then–in old days. I
looked at her and testified of Joseph Smith and prophet Thomas S.
Monson and it got quiet in the room. We explained that since God is
the same yesterday and today and forever, if there were prophets then,
then surely there are prophets now. She looked away and back at us,
and it was just incredible. I felt like I could really see the wheels
in her head turning and see her heart softening and her eyes being
opened and the spirit touch her heart. I felt humbled to be there with
her as the spirit testified of this simple truth. We explained more
about prophets and the conversation turned to her family. We testified
of the reality of the plan of God for us, and read in Mosiah 16:8-9.
She looked at us in disbelief–like she had just seen color for the
first time–then turned back and said, “la vida eterna?” And she
laughed. “¿Que significa es?” We taught about the plan of salvation,
specifically about the atonement, the spirit world, resurrection, and
judgment. She chewed on resurrection for a long time and got a little
fiery with us about it. “My parents are dead. You say my parents are
living right now?” We clarified that they aren’t on the earth right
now, but are living in the spirit world learning about Christ and that
they have the option to accept Him and His gospel, or not. She looked
at us and didn’t say anything. Her eyebrows moved a little and she was
thinking hard. We testified to her that she would live again in her
body and would see her family again in their bodies. She couldn’t
believe it! We could see her struggling within herself and trying to
decide to let herself open up and believe, or not. It was my first
time to have an experience like this–to be able to really bring light
and HOPE into someone’s life and to see it catch fire within them. It
was so beautiful. It was amazing to see the wheels turning in her
head and feel the Spirit working through us.
My heart is so full to my Lord and my God. I love this gospel with all
my heart and I love being a missionary and meeting these people that
really are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.
I feel so humbled that the Lord is using me to be an instrument,
hopefully, to “bring to pass much righteousness.” I know His gospel is
true and I know that it is hope and happiness and peace.
I love you all! Have a great week! Be good.
Hermana Boud
The Bronx in the Fall
Another yummy meal!
The Hermana Wears Tennis Shoes 