Sorry this email is getting out to you a little late! We had a meeting this morning over in the city that took up most of our morning. But it's okay because they fed us. Go senior missionaries!!
HOW THE HECK IS EVERYONE!? How was your birthday, dad? Is there a firepit in the backyard? I knew there would be. I know how long you have been wanting one:) But I hope everyone is happy and not getting swept up by tornadoes.
This week was our first week since Sister Barnes and I got put together where we didn't have meetings or exchanges or trainings to do, except for zone meeting, so we straight up went to work! Both of us just kept looking at our schedules and said "we have so much tiiiiiiiiiiiiime!!!" so we set some high goals and went to work. Unfortunately, satan is a JERK and decided to work extra hard in our area this week. I have never felt so persecuted my whole mission, haha. I feel like the majority of people that we talked to has just yelled at us or said awful things to us about the church. Managers not letting us into their apartment complexes, people yelling at us from across the street to "stop trying and go home", stuff like that. I've been pretty blessed to be surrounded by nice people my whole mission so I guess the majority of the haters were getting all saved up for the end haha. I was so glad for the lesson I learned about opposition last week! So instead of getting down, Hermana Barnes and I just get stoked, because if satan is working this hard, there must be some amazing things coming.
I feel like these past few weeks have been a major refining period-I've been more frustrated and tired than I ever have been, I've been on my knees more in prayer and the answers aren't exactly coming as we expect them too (doesn't that always happen?), and I feel like we are working as hard as we can and being as obedient as we can, but things are kindof at a stand still. I'm not gonna lie, there have been moments where I have questioned if God really wants to answer my prayers, or if He just says "You're on your own with that one". It's been humbling, thinking "you've been out for this long and you're still figuring out if God can actually hear you??", but just goes to show that there must always be growth, even in the fundamentals. Sometimes we think-especially those of us who've been members our whole lives-that if we question the basics, if we say "holy crud--can God hear me??", we don't have faith and we freak out a little bit. But I've learned that our testimonies of the basics always need to be reevaluated, and we have the ability to question everything, no matter how simple they may seem. With honest questioning brings strengthened faith, which is always worth it.
Anyways, I feel like that was a whiny paragraph. This week we street contacted this lady who told us that she was a Pentecostal, and after we told her a little about what missionaries do, she was so pleased that she put her hands on our heads and literally shouted out a blessing for us in the name of Jesus. I had to try to hard not to laugh, but at the same time I just wanted to shout out to the people passing by that "THIS IS NOT WHAT MORMON MISSIONARIES DO!!!". So that was a fun experience.
AAAND we have to have the obligatory Gonzalez family paragraph:) OH man, I can't believe how much I love this family. And we love them so much because I don't think we've ever worked harder for a family before. We stopped by for dinner the other day, and after we had a "faith through opposition" lesson (which, by the way, we have taught to almost every member and investigator we teach no matter what we had originally planned. Santee is going through some challenges....) and after we had a SOLID lesson with them, Arturo asks his kids to leave the room, because he had something to tell us. We were terrified....we were thinking "are they gonna drop us? are they breaking up?? whats going on??". He ended up breaking down crying and told us that his little brother who lived in San Antonio was sick, and that no doctor knows whats wrong with him. The minute he found out he was ill, he wanted to call us. He said he knew that we had the power to call down miracles, so he asked us to pray for his brother and he had the faith that if we did, he would be okay. We had a great conversation, and when Arturo offered the prayer, it was the most powerful and sincere prayer we've ever heard! He said "I have been praying to know what direction I need to take in my life, and these missionaries keep coming back, and I know that this church is where I need to be.". All throughout this prayer, big, tough, Arturo was crying. The spirit was so strong and WE LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!! So keep his brother, Pablo Ambriz in your prayers, along with the rest of the family!!!!
HEY! I LOVE YALL! I hope this week is the best!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermanita Hess
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