Hermana Medeiros Texas Houston Mission: Miracles are happening!

This week has been pretty great. So many miracles and my companion and I have been working hard. The normal goal for contacting and referrals is 175 a week or 25 a day well this week for referrals we got 175 and then for contacting we got 191!! We got 36 just yesterday!! We totally kicked butt she told me that she has never gotten 175 before on her mission. When we do our nightly planning she always asks me what I think our numbers should be and it used to always be oh lets just get 25 but the past week I have been saying 27 or 30. Our goal for this week is to get 200 contacts and referrals. We have 9 new investigators! 1 reactivation! 1 person with a baptism date. He is nine and his dad is the reactivation that we have this week. He will be getting baptized on October 11th. We are so excited! We hope that we can help the mom become active again and that they will be able to get sealed as a family one day.

We had a lot of miracles this week and the first two were with English speakers. On Wednesday we had exchanges and so our STL (sister training leader) came with us and we went around these trailer parks and after we had talked to some people we found these English speaking guys outside and so we talked with them for a little bit and when we asked them if they knew anyone who could benefit from learning more about Jesus they pointed to a trailer that was a couple down from theirs. We thanked them and left. With out saying anything we all walked towards that trailer even though we had planned on leaving because we had appointment in 20 minutes but we all just walked to the trailer and this guy opened up. He let us in after telling us that his wife was home. (he spoke English as well) But we sat down with him and started talking with him. He was golden. We shared some scriptures and we talked about the book of Mormon. This guy was smart he knew so many things about religion. We ended up giving him a Spanish and English book of Mormon and when we were promising blessings about reading he started to cry. He asked us "so do I call myself Mormon now" we laughed and told him if he wanted. Hopefully we will go visit him this week and teach him an actual lesson and then the next lesson if he agrees to it we will be doing a hand off where we give him to English speaking missionaries. But we will still visit him.

Then the other day we went to the dollar tree to find a birthday present for Edgar (the one getting baptized) and we started talking to this couple. (Hermana Carbajal had me start the conversation with them. You can imagine how scary that was) but we talked with them for so long and they are so golden too!!! they don't go out and party, smoke, or drink, they raise their kids on good principles and values. They even told us they would love it if we came and talked to them sometime. We talked in the middle of an aisle at the dollar store for about 40 minutes. The spirit was so strong and it was amazing. I hope we go visit them this week!

So we also finally had a few Spanish speaking miracles.

We were at the lavandaria where people wash their clothes and we started talking to this guy and he knew so much too, while he was talking and answering the questions that we had for him I was feeling the spirit. I didn't talk a lot because I really didn't understand much of what he was saying but the spirit was strong. We have his address and phone number and he told us he wants us to come talk to him sometime. :)

The next one is with a less active. it was my first time visiting him and Hermana carbajal said that they really don't care or know anything about the gospel. We taught him OLA orar, leer las escrituras y asistir la iglesia (pray, read the scriptures, and attend church) We had him say the closing prayer and he prayed that we would keep coming back to teach him again. We got him to commit to coming to church on Sunday with his son. Hopefully this time he will want to start coming back to church. :)

We then started teaching two new investigadores. Last night we taught them about the restoration and they were just soaking it all in. They were so interested. The spirit was so strong and I knew they felt it too. We left our extra book of Mormons in the car and so we told them we would be right back. We got them and the wife ran down the stairs to get the books. She was so excited! That lesson was amazing.

I am so grateful for all the miracles that we have had. Sometimes it is difficult because I really can't understand people and its really frustrating not being able to express myself the way I want to. Hermana Carbajal keeps reassuring me, I know I will learn it, I know it will come but its just frustrating not being able to communicate with people. Sometimes I feel like an awkward teenager. One that doesn't know how to talk to people. It will come, I know I just need to work hard and trust in god and it will come.

Yesterday at church I played the piano in relief society and then I got asked to play in sacrament meeting next Sunday. None of the other missionaries play the piano so I will probably be playing in some way each Sunday.

I am so tired by the end of each day. Trying to concentrate on Spanish and trying to understand it takes a lot of brain power. I just need to keep working and I know it will come soon. Its only my second week, I don't expect myself to be fluent but like I said its just frustrating not being able to express myself.

I love being here in Texas and serving the lord. Our STL said to me while we were planning she just looked up and said "God loves you" then she paused and looked at me "he really does and this place is being blessed because you decided to serve" I am so thankful for her. Our STL is really amazing.

I love working hard. It is so much fun. I just want to keep pushing myself in any way possible. I love setting goals higher than normal and trying to do all I can to make those goals happen.

I am glad that you guys got the package :) and I am glad you all liked the things in it. Yeah some of the messages didn't come through till later and then I didn't even get some until I opened up my email today. that stinks that emails are so slow on Mondays. I want to be able to talk to you :)

Oh man I hope ava is ok! Tell her I am sorry that my bike was so mean to her! :( (Avery has been riding Shalyn's bike and had a nasty fall this week)

It's definitely a blessing that you don't work right now. That way you can be there for them when they were hurt.

Haha that is so cool that he travels here all the time for work! We will have to go check it out sometime (Pappacito's Cantina--recommended by a man in our ward who travels to Houston regularly for work)! It's cool one of our less actives works at chick fil-a or how ever you spell it and he gives us free meals when we come in :) The grilled chicken sandwich is so good! It's so nice of him to give us free food :)

YAY!! I am still in the newspaper!! That is awesome!!! :)

Mom-it's going pretty good, sometimes it's hard to find the Hispanic people to teach but we are finding them slowly. :) it is definitely a blessing.

We are trying to talk to this guys wife, he is a less active but wants to come back to church and she isn't a member and they already have it as a goal to be sealed int he temple! But they keep having to reschedule ugh!!!!!! we just want to meet her and teach her so they can be sealed! WE should maybe..hopefully have another bap date soon.

We are teaching another 9 year old girl and we just need to figure out what is up with her dad and get him to talk to the bishop and set up a date and then we will have another one!! Everyone we teach is really nice. I feel bad that I really can't help out much in the lessons but soon I will be able to. I have one thing down. When we tell people about our English class I always say what day it is, and all the other stuff. So I have one thing memorized to say to people when contacting :) Now just have to work on the other part that we are missionaries and want to teach the gospel.

Our ward has a lot of people but I think a lot are inactive. It was interesting going. I didn't understand anything and then we had ward counsel afterwards and so for about 6 hours it was just nothing but Spanish and I was only picking up a few words here and there, my brain was tired after those hours. it was nice to hear English again after all of that.

All the dinner appointments are good, so far we haven't been served anything nasty or weird. I have liked everything but I feel really bad because I have been trying all the salsas no matter how hot and one of them was really hot and the lady we were eating with kept apologizing and told me that next time it wouldn't be spicy and she told me to go eat tums or what ever they are called. I kept trying to tell her that it was fine and that I liked it. On Sunday she came up to me and asked me how my stomach was and I had to reassure her again telling her I was fine and that I liked it, it was just a little hot. Yeah while I am here I am trying to get used to spicy food so I have been putting salsa on a lot of things when it is offered.

My Spanish is coming a lot. Hermana carbajal says it is really good but I can' wait till I can understand what people are saying. Yeah she told me she was going to send a shout out :) I don't drive at all thank goodness. She does all the driving :) I just help her out by setting the GPS when we don't know where we are going. we are going to hang out with some other sisters today :) last week we found a SWEET TOMATOES and we ate lunch there! It was so good!! I miss sweet tomatoes.