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| Christmas Dinner, hahaha.... |
Ok so wow I learned and
felt a lot this week. Kurt and Mark passed their baptismal interview with
flying colors. They are adorable! They were so nervous. They have such an
incredible spirit about them. They are so willing to follow their Savior and do
whatever he asks. They are great examples to me. Joseph and Jericho are the
other brothers that were set for Jan. 4th but only Joseph will be getting
baptized. Ahh, Break my heart! Jericho is so sweet but he won’t pray and he doesn’t
answer our questions at all. Something is wrong, but he won’t tell us what it
is. So he will not be getting baptized yet, despite his desire. We will
continue to teach him though and encourage. When we were there at their house
teaching Joseph and going over the baptismal questions we were teaching about
prayer and Joseph just broke down in tears... he felt the spirit very strong,
probably for the first time in his life and it was a beautiful experience for
all of us. When we left his house which is wayyyyy out in the Boonies, we ran
into Jericho. He was standing over his father. His father was laying half way
out of the sugar cane field in the middle of the pathway drunk as I have ever
seen a person. He was laid sprawled out on his stomach with his face in the
ground...Ahh.. my heart hurt so bad. How grateful I am for the Word of Wisdom.
Jericho was standing over his father and spoke to us as if this was a normal occurrence
and I just wanted to cry.
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| THESE ARE MY BOYS!!!! How I love them |
Ok so we had another
crazy experience with this drunk guy. We were teaching these families of a
bunch of little girls and two teens in this house made of sticks and so little
protection from the outside. He just came into their house and could barely
stand. He ran into the wall and fell over and was a wreck. All the kids ran
toward the back of the house while one of the older sisters was screaming that
she would call for the police... yet another man who this was obviously a
regular occurrence for them. I was sitting on the floor by the door and he came
in and ripped off his belt and his pants fell to the ground and he was waving
his belt like a mad man. No one was laughing. Sister Turtal held the kids in
the back and I kind of pushed him out the door and wrapped the chain so he couldn't come in. It was pretty scary but I know we were protected. He ended up leaving
finally and just walking down the street. I am so grateful that our Father in
Heaven looks out for us.
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| Me and Santa |
Again,
another crazy experience happened this week. It was Saturday and normally we
study first and then go out but we had met some kids on Christmas that
specifically asked us to come Saturday morning. The whole morning I was feeling
blahhh! I didn't know why I just knew something was up. We went to this
neighborhood and the kids said that they were busy. So I felt super dumb at
this point and Sister T and I decided to visit our other investigators that
were nearby. So we did.... they were busy! AHH! What is it? I could not figure
out what I needed to do or why we were there or why I had this weird feeling.
We were walking back and Sis T decided to take a different route. 15 ft down
this different path and we ran into a house with a bunch of people outside. And
it was the weirdest experience. We just kind of stopped right in front of their
house and they stared at us and we were so caught off guard. Almost like we didn't see the house till our noses were touching the front door. Without us even
saying anything they invited us in their house. Two seconds later we see a
casket inside. Ahh! Once again! My heart dropped. Turns out their father had
died Dec 22, their mother had died the year before and now there are 9 kids
living alone there. Wow... The caskets always have glass at the top and so we
could see their father was still pretty young.
So we ended up sharing
the Plan of Salvation with this family and they were really happy to listen and
they said they felt happy and wanted us to come back. We really hit baptism
hard and they understood that it is so important. The oldest brother is really
receptive, and he is gay, so we are going to have that challenge to face. We
are excited!! I know that it was 100% the Lord’s will that we were there
at that house. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is in charge and despite
our many, many weaknesses and sins He still can use us as tools in His work.
Anyway, I am learning so
much. I am learning that ... more feeling, the reality of the true statement taught
to me by Sister Murphy that “there is no growth in a comfort zone and no
comfort in a growth zone”. I am learning to love this work more and more as I strive
more and more to focus on my purpose and focus on my Savior. How I love the
Book of Mormon, because I come to know my Savior through those pages and the Spirit.
I love being a missionary!
Sister Ralph
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