Headed into Summer... joooooopieeee!

 Feb 28, 2014

Happy P-day yet again! It´s weird to think that this is the last P-day of this transfer.... Where did the time go? It has seriously flown by. The days and weeks feel like hours and minutes. Monday night you close your eyes to sleep, wake up and it`s Sunday again.

Today has been a fun, full day! First, we went to visit the Familia Robles at the school that they own in San Juan. It was so great! We went from room to room, bore our testimonies of the church and taught them to say "I am a child of God" in english. The children were so happy, excited and eager to learn. I seriously love this family. They are so full of love and so service oriented. They are a true example of how this gospel can bless families and are a huge example to me. They`re also excited about spreading this gospel to everyone they know! Some of their students already want to have the missionaries over to their house. One even came to their baptism and kept asking, "and me?? when do I get to be baptized?" 

After leaving the school we headed to the Olympic Soccer Stadium in San Pedro Sula to have a multizone activity to get together and play soccer in a professional field. 

It was a blast! I personal can`t play soccer (shhhhh.....) but it was fun to relive some of my cheerleading memories on the sidelines.... a bunch of the sisters wanted to learn how to stunt and I got the courage up to do my backhandsprings again! I was super suprised that I could still do it. It was a hoot :) A couple of the elders were cheerleaders at their high schools and were tumbling and stunting too (safely of course... suuuuuuper basic so no one would get hurt....) 

Hermana's Roija, Bennett and Ramirez

It was a fun opportunity to unwind, though most of us returned super sunburned! It`s starting to head into the summer months and the sun is SUPER strong. People keep telling me that I haven´t even experienced heat yet, they say that once April comes along the heat is unbearable until august... :) Sonrisa!!! (smile)

This week we`ve been continuing to meet and contact new people and we`ve had some great experiences. The members in our ward are getting excited about the work and have been absolutely wonderful in bringing us to meet their friends and coming with us to visits! It`s incredible how much of an influence it can have when someone can hear the testimony of someone how lives just down the street, and not just these two foreigners that have come knocking at their door. It`s like what happened with Alma and Amulek in Alma 9 and 10! This week we met a humble grandma with one leg who was so happy and friendly - she said that she almost died, and that a miracle happened to save her life and now she spends her time serving others with a smile on her face. We met 3 wonderful ladies as we passed by their house and offered to help them wash some of their dishes. We taught them the first lesson and they were really excited about it. One of them talked about how she had met with the missionaries 10 years ago and came to church a lot, but since she had already been baptized in another church she thought it was a sin to be baptized again. We were able to help her clear up some of her doubts and she is excited to read the book of mormon again. To me it`s amazing how this work is. It`s truly a testimony that everything we do has a purpose! Every seed we plant can one day be harvested by others in the future. 

One thing that I have come to find is that the majority of people here are super willing to let you in, feed you, and talk about God and the Bible - so the challenge is finding the difference between those that are genuinely interested in our message and those that are just happy to talk about God and "learn" more about him. We can fill up our agenda with LOTS of lessons and lots of people to teach, but it`s trying to organize our time effectively and really seek revelation and inspiration on those that are going to progress and those that haven`t quite arrived to their time yet. Hermana Rioja and I have been trying to focus on being super clear and direct (with lots of love of course) so that our purpose is clear in the beginning. We learned in a zone meeting that our calling is not to make friends here, it`s to bring people to Christ and help them to find their own personal relationship with HIM. Making friends and growing to love the people is a obviously a natural consequence, but we have to be careful that the investigators are strengthening their relationship with God first and foremost! Because we won`t always be here. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week and enjoy this last little bit of February! I love you all :)

Hermana Bennett

PS - joooopiieeeee is a phrase that I have learned from Hermana Rioja... haha everything good that happens is followed with this simple shout of praise..... :) It helps to stay happy regardless of how the day is going