Week 22 Trabajan Duro! June 16, 2014

Hermana Bennett and Hermana Ingram

¡Hola de la Cuidad de México¡

This week was pretty awesome!

We have been carrying around with us a list of about 100 less actives in our ward and every day we try to search for at least two of them. The majority of the people no longer live in the area but it´s good because we end up contacting the new families in the houses. They other day we passed for a less active that we have never been able to find but with a lot of luck she ended up letting us in her home. She had an afro of blonde curly hair and was wearing more gold rings, bracelets, and necklaces, than I have ever seen. We sat down, presented ourselves, and she followed by giving us her life story. She went on to tell us that she had left the church because she had started practicing witch craft and that she was practicing "magica blanca" (white magic). That was the last thing I expected her to say. When she offered to show us some of her magic....that's when we packed our bags and got out of there! Hopefully we'll be able to get the local witch to come back to church!

Every one thinks I'm from Brazil here! It's crazy! We contacted a lady sitting in the street the other day and she immediately started busting up laughing. I thought she would get over it but she laughed for a good 5 minutes straight. I guess she thought that we were from Spain and had really weird Spanish accents. The whole time we were talking to her, tears of laughter were streaming down her face. As we walked away we could still here her laughing for a good couple hundred feet...oh the people we run into... We also got followed by a drunk man on a bike yesterday. I knew he was drunk because he was all over the road and about every 30 seconds he would crash or just fall over like a stiff board and laugh really hard about it. It was hilarious.

The view down my street

We've been able to find a lot of less active families this past week; one of which is the Contreras Family. We had been stopping by their house everyday for a week without any luck when finally they answered and we were invited in. We got to know them better, presented ourselves, and taught about faith. We made another appointment for the next day and decided to teach them about keeping the sabbath day holy (they hadn't been to church in over 5 years). We came back the next day and the entire family was standing out in the middle of the street waiting for us. Usually we knock and everyone hides! haha Or a little kid answers and says, "My mom and dad told me to tell you that they aren't here right now..." haha We taught el día de reposo and tied it into faith...by the end of the lesson every family member was crying. The dad, with tears running down his cheeks, shook my hand and said, "Vamos a ir a la capilla cada domingo hasta que nosotros morimos. Gracias." It was really great to see the entire family at church yesterday with big smiles on their faces. Did I mention we had a full chapel again?? 30 menos activos!

We've been teaching a 14 year-old girl named Liliana and her baptismal date was for Sunday. Saturday we set everything up with the ward mission leader so that there would be water in the font and baptismal clothes and invited all of the members in the ward. Everything was good and ready to go. We talked to her Saturday night reminding her to bring her things and went back to the apartments. The next day, we left early and passed by for our investigators and walked them all to church. When we got there and looked to see who was in the congregation I immediately noticed that Liliana wasn't there. That's when one of the members walked up to me and told me that when she had gone to pass by for Liliana that morning, Liliana had told her that she had a sore throat and that she wasn't going to get baptized that day. My heart sank... Everything was prepared! I went and sat down with our investigators trying to act like I was happy. After the first hour I went outside and called my district leader to tell him what had happened. He told me that I needed to go to Liliana's house and get her to the church and to do whatever it took to get her there. When we got to Liliana's house we knocked on the door and her little brother answered, telling us that Liliana couldn't talk to us because she was sick and asleep. We told him it was SUPER important and he went back in the house to try and get her up for us. Two minutes later, the mom came stomping up to us....ANGRY. (The mom is practically anti) She angrily told us that Liliana was sick and to never come back...EVER! I wasn't even going to try and reason with that lady! I called the district leader again and he told me not to worry..Liliana was going to get baptized. After church the elders came to the church and we went back to Liliana's house....I was scared out of my mind! We knocked on the door and Liliana answered. The elders gave her a blessing to help her feel better and we started to talk to her and her dad about her baptism...for WHOLE HOURS! The answer was the same...no, no, and no. I thought that there was no way she was going to get baptized...we all knelt down and said one last prayer. When we ended the prayer, her and her dad both said, "Let's go...right now...Liliana is getting baptized...today." I have no idea what changed...but we gathered up all of the neighbors and friends possible and took 3 taxis out to the church and had a baptism. What a miracle! Stressful but awesome!!! You know what I'm looking forward to most about being home in a year? Peaceful Sundays! haha

Liliana's Baptism

I'm feeling a little bit like an outcast here right now. I'm pretty sure my comp and I are the only people in all of Mexico who aren't watching the world cup, wearing Mexico soccer jerseys, and drinking beer. Every house and every store has their TV showing the world cup at all hours of the day. Have you ever tried to ask a Mexican to turn their TV off for a lesson about God? Well, if you haven't...I wouldn't suggest trying it!

¡Es todo por esta semana pero muchísimas gracias por toda! Continúen a seguir adelante! ¡Trabajan duro! ¡Les amo!

Adios!

Hermana Ingram