Protests, Posadas, and Packages!!!

January 26, 2015

Hola!!!! Another week has come and gone and it was a bit of an exciting one!! I had to go to Posadas Argentina this week for traemitas. Once I arrived in Posadas after a LONG night in a bus and crazy train ride across the river I was informed I just had to cross into Argentina. That was the only reason I had taken a six hour bus ride in the middle of the night. Hey! but at the end of all of that I finally received my christmas package from my parents!! I was so happy!!!! Hurray! I may or may not have almost completely consumed all 30 of the Hot Tamales that were chilling at the bottom of the envelope. I have MISSED spicy things!! 

We headed back that same day to CDE. We got on a bus after eating at an amazing Brazilian restaurant that reminded me of America. About two hours after our bus got going it stopped for 3 hours. For the first hour I thought it was broken. Then two hours later when the elders finally woke up we found out it was because there was a protest going on that was blocking the entire road and that there were cars stopped for 10km behind us and more. We were at the front of the line. About 4 hours in total of waiting and we were finally able to start off again and finally arrived back home in CDE at around midnight. Crazy adventures for sure! 

The rest of the week was a bit of everything. I was sick for most of Thursday, Friday was just a hard day, then Saturday we mended some broken bridges because of offenses taken without our knowledge. Made some birthday cookies for our favorite Lauri Vera and sang Happy Birthday to her in English. It was great! We contacted into some great new people that we will be seeing this week. 

But the kicker for the week happened yesterday evening. It was raining and all our plans had fallen through. We were walking to an area to just go and contact when on the way we both had the thought to visit an investigator we hadn't seen in a while. The reason being her husband is a real creep and makes it very uncomfortable for me. So we stopped and prayed in the street that her marido <husband> would not be home. We headed there and after what felt like forever of clapping she answered the door. Even in the crazy rain. We caught up with her, and asked about her mom who died 9 months ago. She began to cry. We were able to share some scriptures with her. While we were doing this I was overwhelmed with the feeling and prompting that I needed to ask if she would be baptized. I was terrified. I kept trying to rationalize that my companion would do it and that she was probably feeling the same thing. But at the same time not really knowing and understanding deep within that, if my companion wasn't receiving the same impression and I left that lesson without inviting her to be baptized, I would regret it big time. So when the opening for me to share came I DID IT! I invited her to be baptized after asking her if she knew what she had read in the LDM <Libre de Mormon: Book of Mormon> to be true. She said yes to both. It was the best feeling in the world. She said she needs some more time to be absolutely sure of everything and know more but she has that as her goal. 

There is no way to describe the joy I felt after that lesson. It is moments like this that make all the hard parts of the week worth it. I feel that after some serious prayer the Lord has been lifting me up and showing me that I can in fact do this work. I can be truly led by the Spirit in the lessons to know what to say and do. This was my miracle this week. I love the feeling of knowing someone is close to accepting a plan that will bring them more happiness than they have ever known. 

Side note: Hna. Dance was going to invite her to be baptized at the end of the lesson so if I hadn't invited she would have. But it is so much greater knowing that I was an active contributor and the spirt was guiding me as well as our companionship. This gospel is so true and the spirit does testify of truth. I know that you can all share this gospel with others if you pray for experiences! Also give the missionaries references if you have them!! This work is truly done through that. Pray to know of someone that could benefit from this great message!!  

Love you all!! Be safe and remember who you represent!!

Hermana Albach