God has a purpose for you

 Large Plates 

Good week! Nerf wars and a ferris wheel with the best district in the world. Wendy is on date for baptism! Honduranean food, volleyball, and our wards first baptisms of the year!

This week went by SO FAST. It genuinely feels like we lived one week of our lives in 2 days. Here are some of the highlights:

Pday is always such a good time. I genuinely love my district so much. I couldn't ask for a better group of friends and a better group of missionaries to work with. We started off the morning with pickleball, and then had another epic nerf war in the chapel. I'm slowly becoming known throughout the mission for my stealth and my spot-on gun shots. I'm not sure how to feel about it haha. We went to Icon Park and rode on the ferris wheel to end pday and it was seriously so fun! There's a way to hook up your phone to the Bluetooth speaker that's built into the ferris wheel, so we hooked up Sister Storm's phone and jammed to the youth album music haha.

Wednesday! We put Wendy on date!! She's been sick so we haven't been able to see her in a while and I genuinely missed her so much. We had a lesson with her over video call and we brought up baptism and asked her if she had thought any more about it. She was just like "yeah I'm thinking the first part of February would be good." And we were like: ahh!!! Ok! And yeah she's excited and we're excited. I'm so excited for her to not be sick anymore because I miss her!!!

I tried baleadas this week and they are so tasty! It's like a Honduranean breakfast quesadilla. That's the best way I can think to describe it haha. Adony is from Honduras and his sister works at the restaurant he took us to. Adony's a super sweet guy and he seems to like church a lot! 

On Thursday our friends Adony, Omar, and Julio came to ward volleyball! They liked learning the sport and they seemed to get along well with the ward. I see a lot of potential in each of them:)

And Saturday the Elders baptized 2 of the sweetest ladies I have ever met in my life. I'm so happy for those two women and also for the Elders! I can tell the Elders just have so much love for these people they taught. It was seriously just such a good day. Also I'm kind of the designated piano player around here cause out of us 4 missionaries in the ward I'm the only one who plays. So I played at their baptism. Also the Elders asked me to write their names on the chalkboard so that was fun!

Sunday was so so so so good! Our ward has a lot of covid going around right now so numbers were few, but the spirit was still there! And man oh man were there miracles. See the small plates ;)

Small Plates 

God has a purpose for you. 

Okay so I told you guys about Erick a while back, the week before Christmas. And wow you guys, God's hand is so evident in his life. If you don't remember who Erick is, he's our friend from Ecuador who had a really hard life and made some poor choices and ended up in rehab for drugs. He found God there and found himself too. He ended up coming to America a while back and now he's divorced but still living with his ex wife because they have a kid and they're trying to do the best they can for her. 

In our first English class with him, we ended up talking about his whole life story and how he has such strong faith in God. He was told once by some stranger on the phone that God had a purpose for him and that was kind of his motto for a while. So when we told him that same thing in one of our messages he knew we were servants of God.

In one of our later lessons we showed him a video of a testimony of a member of the ward. He was very touched by that testimony and recognized this member at church the following Sunday. We introduced them and it turns out they both came from the same neighborhood in the same city in Ecuador! And our friend told him: God has a purpose for him. It was seriously like a sign from God. It's not an uncommon phrase, but you don't hear it everywhere. People only say it when they mean it. It was just a cool experience. It was like God was saying to us "Hey hermanas. He needs to be in this ward. With these people. Help him get there."

Unfortunately, shortly after that we found out that he is out of our area. Of course that doesn't mean we can't teach him, or that he's not allowed to come to our church. It just means that when the day comes that he chooses to be baptized, we have to pass him off to other missionaries and another ward. And that just never goes well…

We've been trying to think all week about how to have a lesson with him and the other missionaries, so he could get to know them and start progressing with them and their ward, but we've come up with nothing. I mean, we've come up with ideas and everything, but none that we feel good about. And the thing about missionary work is that the most important rule you follow is Follow The Spirit. And the spirit keeps telling us not to let him go.

So yeah. We've been wrestling with this idea for a while. And to add to it all, this week has been really hard for Erick. He's been working at Doordash so he can have a flexible schedule and be at home with his daughter when he needs to. He used to work construction too, but he's not doing much of that right now. So money's a little tight. And then his ex wife decided he's not allowed to live in the house he pays for them to live in. So he got kicked out. He's been working pretty much non stop to make ends meet this week, so we didn't see him all week.

But he and his daughter made it to church on Sunday!! He went to Elders quorum for the first time and he told his story to them when he introduced himself. It took a minute (or 15) but that was a good thing because 1) it brought the spirit, and 2) it meant the Elders didn't have to make their impromptu lesson last as long. They got put in charge because everyone's home sick with covid…

Anyway! Apparently while he was there he got to know Hermano Parraga, and they found out they're literally cousins. What?! They got along like 2 peas in a pod and Erick really opened up to him. And you'll never guess what Hermano Parraga said to him. "God has a purpose for you." I got chills. I almost started crying right there in the church hallway. It's so obvious that God's hand is in Ericks life right now. And get this: Hermano Parraga works in real estate. 

You're telling me that our friend who lives outside the area, got kicked out of his house the same week that he met his cousin, the realtor, in the ward where we feel so strongly he needs to be? Tell me that's not a miracle. 

Now, we're still in the thick of things, but there is so much evidence of God's love in this situation. We're genuinely thrilled. We can tell Erick loves this gospel. And he loves this ward. And the ward loves him. Everyone just rallied around him the moment he got here. I don't know exactly what the future holds for Erick, but I know it has got to be good.

Our Heavenly Father is so aware of each of his children. Don't forget that. He is opening doors for you the moment He knows they need to be opened. And maybe He's leaving some shut because He knows you're not ready to walk through them. Or maybe whatever is on the other side of that door isn't ready for you yet. Trust in Him. Trust in His timing and in His methods. He knows everything. He knows you. And He loves you. 

Lots of pictures from this week! The ferris wheel at Icon Park, some candids courtesy of Sister Jordan, my chalk art featuring Elder Jensen's thumb of approval, all the food our newly baptized friends sent us home with, sunsets (and me being excited about them), Jeremiah's (thanks mom), and the love of my life: a soft pretzel.