This week has felt like a long week, so many things have happened. Everything before Christmas day is kind of a blur. So I'll start with that. Thursday the 25th was a glorious day! It started out with Santa Clause. 2 Elders, Elder Hernandez and Elder Hayes had served in my area a year ago, and they know a family that we are teaching now. They wanted to do something special for this family so they talked to their local church members and asked them to donate any extra toys they had so they could give them to this family. We asked around for extra sheets/blankets for them because they didn't have any. We wrapped them up and on Christmas morning went to go and deliver them. The Elders dressed up as Santa Claus and an elf. We went at 8am and we woke them up and gave them their presents, it was so great! The kids were happy with their new toys and shoes and candy.
The day got even better, we studied for a little then we got to skype home with the family. That was the shortest 40 mins of my life. It was great to see their smiling, yet tired faces (because they partied all night.) I didn't open presents that day, because I opened them the night before, technically it was already 12 am in RI :) After the skype with the family there was a dinner for all the sisters at the Battalion, it was super good. Then we went to the temple that night. So many people and we gave away some Book of Mormons. It was a great Christmas. Unfortunately because of the holidays and our schedules we didn't get to really teach people but the Lord still blessed us!
Friday we had a baptism! Joyce was Baptized! She is very overweight and very weak because she has no cartilage in her knees, so it's very diffucult for her to stand and bend, we were worried about that. We made sure that some other Elders were in the front to help lift her up and give her support. I was a little worried but with the Lords help she was baptized easily and she said she had no pain at all! It was great!
On Sunday we went to contact some referrals that we got. We knocked on the address we received and asked if Maria was home, the girl who opened the door told us that no one named Maria lived there so we walked away a little disappointed. There were a couple of kids playing outside and we asked if they knew a Maria that lived in the complex? They said, "you mean Doña Maria in number 8?" We said sure, so we went to go knock on her door, it was slightly opened so we could see inside, she was in one of the rooms talking on the phone. She signaled us to wait, so we did, it felt like we were waiting for about 5 mins, she came to the door and let us right in! We hadn't even introduced ourselves and she let us in! We told her we were missionaries sharing a messege of Jesus Christ. It was her and 2 kids, Yenia(9) and Irving(7). We sang a song and before we started we told them to listen to the words, we sang "famlilies can be together forever", once we stop we hear someone crying. We look to Irving and he is in tears. It was silent for a minute then Maria started explaining that the parents of the kids aren't with them right now that she is a distant aunt and is taking care of them. Everyone was in tears at that moment, but we were able to testify of the Saviors love for them and how he knows what they are going through, and if they have faith they will be united as a family soon. It was a powerful moment. Maria said that she knew we were sent by God to help them. We set a return appointment and will be seeing them this coming Saturday!
Monday was another miracle! We went to contact more referrals, we couldn't find the address to one of the referrals so we asked a man who was washing his car, he said he didn't know. We introduced ourselves and he knew who we were, he said his wife used to study with missionaries and she got baptized! He isn't a member and has no interest but he said we could go talk to his wife. So we went to knock on the door, her name is Hilda. She welcomed us in and we got to know her. She still knows the church is true and says she wants to go back so we invited her to church and watched "He is the gift" with her. She said the we came on the day she's felt the most sad and she was happy we found her. We will be seeing her next week and most of her family are non-lds so we've got lots of work! It's crazy how everything works out. Even though we didn't find the referrals we found people that really needed us. We find what we want the most from where we least expect it.
Hope you all have a great new years!
-Hermana Recinos
pic- Joyces' baptism!
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