Hey! How was your Thanksgiving? We were a little worried about ours but it ended up being so fun. We didn't recognize the name of the family we were giong to be eating with, la familia Toscano, so we starting worrying that maybe they didn't even realize that they signed up to feed us on Thanksgiving and forgot. So we found their number and called to see if they were planning on having us eat with them lol. They were like yes! and very excited about it, so we didn't end up eating at Wendy's or home ha. So we went to their house, which was soo nice because Hermana Toscano is an interior decorator, and we sat down and started talking to them and what not while Hermana fishined preparing the food. So, we ate with hermana; her son David who is 19 and getting ready to turn in his mission papers!; and Miguel and his daughter Iris who rents a room in their house. We had turkey of course, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, and salad for dinner and for dessert we had pumpkin pie (yum!) and flan. I never liked flan before and just thought it was nasty but I've had it quite a bit here because they all love it and I've really come to love it too; weird huh? lol. So it was fun and after we asked if we could share a message. We had a talk por President Monson from one of the General Conferences but I can't remember which one and I can't even remember the name of it at the minute.... yeah I can't remember ha. Anyway I picked out some parts of it that talked about having gratitude and it was just wonderful. Miguel read a lot of it and after I shared a thought about what was said. Miguel had a question and so Hermana Toscano answered it and so I threw in my 2 cents too and them I bore my testimony and told Miguel that I knew he wasn't a member but that through the Gospel he can find more joy in his life, that he could know for himself that it's true and if he'd just give it a chance to find out more and if it's true he'll truly be blessed and some other stuff that I can't remember. After I was done Hermana Toscana said pero Miguel es un miembro, or in english Miguel is a member. I looked at her and said mande? or what? Oh my goodness I was so embarrassed haha, but then she said but Miguel is not active so it's ok. I look at Miguel all embarrassed and said sorry and said so do think you'll come to church again then? or something like that. He kind of laughed and said it's ok what you said is true and then it was a little silent and awkward after that and the subject was switched which I was so happy about haha. So apparently I don't understand english either ha because before we ate dinner we were talking to David, the son of Hermana Toscano, who told us that he is a member but inactive; which was all in english and somewhere along the way I had missed all of that ha. Anyway that was a little embarrassing but it was a really great Thanksgiving. Hermana Toscano even already signed up to have us over for Christmas Eve dinner which I might not be here for that which I'm sad about, but we shall see next Monday if our mission president will transfer me somewhere else or have me stay, I can't wait to find out! So that was my thanksgiving dinner. That day before dinner we cleaned the house and went grocery shopping, ya know typical P day stuff and then we went to a park to find that the Elders left and went to the institute so we left the park and went there too and ended up playing ping-pong, some pool (I don't know how to spell it but you know where you hit the balls in the pockets with sticks ha), and played some horse and knock-out which I'm amazing at ;-) I could barely make any baskets ha. Then we came home and relaxed which was soooo nice. There was a very long description of our Thanksgiving, I know you all enjoyed that!
So this last Sunday only one of our investigators came to church when 5 said they were going to. Family members ended up coming over so they didn't go =-/ But wonderful and independent Maira came to church with her sweet little girls, Leslie and Elisabeth. Maira Bravo is getting baptized this coming Saturday, yay! We still have a bit to teach her but it'll happen. We commited Josefina and Josefina to baptism and they very excitedly excepted to be baptized Dec. 26! We'll see if it actually happens that date but they'll get baptized for sure. Josefina, who is pregant, needs to get married to her boyfriend Chris so we'll be discussing the law of chastity quite soon. Speaking of the law of chastity, oh my goodness. We were gong to teach Silivia the plan of Salvacion but it turned into the law of chastity. That is not the funnest topic to suddenly need to talk about without preparing for it, yikes, especially in spanish lol. So let me tell you how this came about. We assigned her to read 3 Nefi 11 which she read and continued to read into chapter 12 and 13. In chapter 12 around verse 30 or something, Jesus Christ tells the people that a man that putteth away his wife (pretty much because he wants to marry another woman) is sinning (claro que si) and whosoever marries the divorced women is commiting adoltary and so is she. That's roughly what it says because I don't have my scriptures. She had very big concern with this because she is divorced and didn't like the fact that if she remarried she'd be commiting adoltary. In so many words we explained that she wouldn't be if she was remarried but we really did not know how to explain this scripture. If you'l like go and look for it and let me know what you think. So then she asked if men in our church can have more than one wife, because her boyfriend said he heard we did, but we explained that we don't and then we asked if she had anymore questions and so she had one more. She asked us if it was bad that she had a boyfriend. We were a little puzzled and said no and then Crystal Torres, a member from the ward, asked if she was asking if it's ok to have sexual relationships with him. So that started the big conversation of the law of chastity. We shared some scriptures, explained why it wasn't ok, and bore a lot of testimony. At first Silvia told us that she thinks it's different now days and that it's not bad but by the end they admitted that she did feel bad about it and knew it was a commandment. She told us that she wanted to stop and would but didn't know when because it's hard and she doen't know if she wants to give it up yet. She also doen't want to marry her boyfriend. So this is definitely a problem but I know she can stop and Heavenly Father will help her, she just needs to be commited and pray and seek for help. We're thinking we need to be a little more blunt with her that it's going to be so much harder if she procastinates repentance and she can't return to Hervenly Father or join His church. This will be tough but she can do it. She also needs to receive a firm testimony that the gospel is true because once someone knows this they will do all in their power to withstand Satan. We're teaching her tonight and so I'll keep you posted on everything with her and our other investigators.
Oh something funny and cute. Hermana Lowry and I have been passing around a sheet for the members to sign so that we know who and when members can come with us to our appointments. When the papers came around in Priesthood Jose Gonzalez, one of our investigators, signed it haha. At the last lesson we had with him, last Sunday, he brought it up and wanted to know when he could come with us. We weren't sure what to say ha. I don't know if it works to bring investigators to lessons to teach other investigators ha. We'll see if he still remembers and maybe we have him come with us to something, I don't know what though. Oh also on Sunday Militza was telling me something cool about her mom. We taught Militza sometime last week and her mom is never very happy when we come over. She gets mad and mumbles not very nice things about us under her breath, most the time I can't understand what she is saying but Militza does so it bugs her a lot. Any way we came over and I started talking to Militzas mom. She was making salsa so I asked how she made it and what she put in it. She was surprisingly nice and even smiled. I think she was just shocked that I was talking to her. After we taught Militza I went over and said bye to everyone in the house including her mom who I gave a hug. I didn't think she it would do anything but I figured why not be nice and try to express that I care since we all are children of God. So on Sunday Militza told me that after I hugged her and we left she was smiling and said did she just hug me? Militza told her that that's how we always are, Militza is so sweet she thinks we're way more amazing than we really are lol. But I guess as of now Militza's mom has been nicer and hasn't said anything rude about us or complained about us coming over Militza going to church. That really helped me realized how much I think I misunderstand people and I need to be more like Jesus Christ and always express my love to others no matter how mean someone may come accross or be. I don't know how like it will last that she has good feelings towards us but I will continue to be as nice and serve her as much as possible.
I love you all and I just want to say thank you to my family and friends. Thank you sooo much for you support and prayers. I really really mean it. I'm praying for you all and hope all is well!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
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