Hermana Medeiros Texas Houston Mission: Week 64

Hey Mommy

This week was really good. We have a baptismal date! But now we just
have to woo with her to actually make it happen. She is fifteen and
when we talk to her she seems to really like what we share with her.
We need to get people in her family involved so that she has a support
system. And so she can get permission. It's set for the 14 of
November. We've had some really good lessons with her. So far she's
been taught the first two lessons and has told us that she loves it.
It's always super humbling to be a missionary, we got to go into her
house and her bed is a mattress in the middle of the living room
floor. And she has some decorations on the wall to make it hers. Being
a missionary just makes me even more grateful for all that I have.

Sometimes the hardest thing a missionary faces is when you think
you've taught something so clearly such as why we should keep the
Sabbath day holy and the things that are best to do on Sunday, but
then the person still doesn't get it. We were teaching a part member
family, the husband is not a member and we were talking about things
he can do to keep the sabbath day holy. It was a pretty good lesson,
but then at the end when we invited him to come to church he told us
that he had to go out and do other things. Sometimes you wonder if you
went wrong somewhere or if they didn't understand it or if they did
and they are just choosing not to care.

I love the English class that we teach. It's so much fun. All the
people that come just want to learn English, it's also super cool
because I'm used to it just being Hispanics, but in the English class
we teach at a school there is a lady who is from Iran and speaks
Persian. During class we were doing this activity where we had a ton
of words written up on the board and we would say it in Spanish for
the Hispanics and then they would turn around and have to find the
word in English and circle it. Well we really couldn't do that for the
lady who speaks Persian so we had to get on google translate and type
the word in their. The writing was just characters and it was so cool
to see that they are actually words. She really appreciated that we
did that for her. She said some of the words in her native language
and everyone was just in surprise. It was so cool! Being a missionary
gives you the coolest experiences!

We ended up having interviews last week, they were supposed to be this
week but something got mixed up and so we had them on Thursday. They
went really well. It's always nice to get advice from president and
listen to his council. We might be getting elders in the area soon.
President hasn't said anything to us but he's talked to the elders
already haha I wonder when he will let us know what's going on.

I got too to a Vietnamese restaurant on Friday. The food was pretty
good. They had probably the best lemonade I have ever had. It was a
cool experience to try food from another country.

So on Saturday something funny happened. So to say gender in Spanish
one word for it is sexo but it also means something else. We were
talking with a little girl and this guy and the girl had a dog and the
guy said something about where it didn't matter if it was a boy or a
girl that it was the same. Hna then said "si es important! Los perros
tienen sexo!" (Yes it is important, the dogs have gender/sex.) And the
girl turned to hna and said "como tienen perritos?" (Like how they
have puppies) after we walked away we just started laughing. It's just
in the context where you can really tell what the word is but haha it
was so funny.

So on Sunday we got some more callings, we have the relief society
president, young women and men president, primary president, Sunday
school president and we got a ward mission leader! Almost all the
people who have callings in presidencies right now have never had a
calling before so they are completely new to these things. Like our
ward mission leader has never had a calling and is almost blind, it's
going to be really interesting to work with all these new people. But
it just shows that this is the lords work and he knows what these
people can do for this ward. I'm just so happy that I get to help
participate as a missionary in building up this ward and getting it
started.

We found a really cool family. The first time we saw the dad was he
was outside cooking, he invited us to come back Sunday. So we went
back and at first they were all super cold and super shut off. We both
were scared to even go in because we didn't know if they really wanted
us to come in. But they invited us in and by the end of the lesson
they had completely changed. I could see it in their eyes. We got to
know them and ended up talking about lehi's dream. We introduced the
Book of Mormon and the lady was like "I need to go buy that book,
where can I find one?" We pulled one out of our bag and gave it to her
and told her she doesn't have to pay for it. We have a return
appointment and we are excited to see what will happen with this
family. The only thing is that they are only engaged, they have a
couple kids together but they have the exact date in 2017 when they
want to get married. When we asked why they are waiting till then,
it's because someone in their family is in jail and they want him to
be apart of the ceremony. So....that will be something fun to work
with. There is always some little stumbling block that investigators
have to get over. It's to test their faith like all trials.

On Thursday my companion cut my hair! I did part of it by myself but I
wanted it shorted but couldn't do it the way I wanted to, so she
helped me out and did it. It looks super cute we both think :)

I can't believe it's already the forth week of this transfer, it's
just going by super fast. It's really crazy, we've passed conference
and now we have Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve
and then I'll be home. Sometimes I wish I could extend my mission haha
I just love it so much! I don't want it to end!

I love you all so much!! Xoxoxoxoxo