Tender Mercies, New transfer!

Hi Everyone!

Wow, This past week seriously flew by! Does anyone else feel that way?

So, it's a new transfer, and these new changes have happened with our area, but something even more exciting happened... We didn't know this until the day before transfers, but we are now doing English work for the English ward!  Our area is now split, so we will do English and Spanish in Toppenish, and then Spanish work in all other parts of our area.  Wednesday we met with the elders and gave them the records for their area, and then we had 4 set appointments, which NEVER happens anymore for our area.  We've been so busy with appointments this week, and at the end of the night on Thursday we had plans to stop by someone we had a doorstep lesson with a few weeks ago, when out of the blue, this guy comes out at 8:30 at night to water his porch plants... weird, right? Well, we started speaking Spanish to him, and he spoke very fluently, but then switched to English. Well it turns out he's Hispanic but he has lived in the states for his entire life and understands more English now as a result of that.  He introduced himself as Jaime, (Hi-may) in Spanish, and then said, "Well, people call me Jamie, but you can call me Jimmy..." Uh, awkward again, but really funny for all three of us.  We jumped right into the Restoration while we talked about the Book of Mormon and about how we receive help and guidance from our Modern Day Prophets.  He LOVED the idea of the Restoration and Prophets, and it all started making sense.  We were able to talk with him about what he's been struggling with this past week, and for about a year of his life. He's started having health problems and has been quite lonely, as he only lives with his dogs and puppies. He really enjoyed talking to us.  Then we said a prayer with him before we left, and I said the prayer.  This prayer was one of the best moments I've had feeling the Spirit with someone new who we taught on our first time meeting them. I have never felt so much love for someone I never knew before.  As I closed the prayer (in which I asked Heavenly Father to help Jimmy have the comforting spirit of the Holy Ghost as he goes through a major surgery soon) we both looked up and we saw some tears in his eyes.  He quickly rubbed his eyes and said, "Sorry, I never really get emotional, but thank you so much for that prayer."  We never visited Eva that night, but I know we were sent there for a specific reason, and it was for Jimmy.

Sabino at his baptism in my prior location.

On the other hand, Eva who we had plans to see, has also been struggling.  We basically taught her the Restoration about two weeks ago and we've been trying to get in to see her since then. We stopped by last week and she expressed her feelings of loneliness while her husband is becoming sick with a brain tumor. She feels remorse and pain that her husband is suffering and not herself. She would rather have the pain than see her husband go through it. Well we roughly talked again about how we will all be a great big family when we return with our Heavenly Father after this life. She took great comfort when we told her we would see Heavenly Father again after our lives on earth. We also prayed with her for comfort and protection upon their family and her husband as he continues with his sickness. 

We met Berta while knocking doors this week, who has three kids and one grandson. Her grandson and her daughter were in a car accident, in which her son-in-law caused her daughter and himself to pass away in the accident.  Her grandson, who was only two at the time, and had his car seat turned towards the back of the car, which had completely saved him. Miguel, the grandson, is now left with a mental disability, but loves smiling and meeting new people. They want to put God more in their life, and Miguel loves being around us. We were invited in the door after teaching them on the doorstep about our loving Heavenly Father, and as soon as we walked in we both felt the Spirit so strong. Again, we've never felt such outpouring of love for these wonderful people we had never met. They showed us pictures of Miguel's father and mother, and his uncle who saved his life in the accident once he arrived to take in Miguel. We said a prayer with them and she graciously thanked us for coming and praying with her. 

We've had a lot of great little miracles in working out our schedules and traveling to and from city to city.  We've felt extremely thankful we are both staying together this transfer, we've sadly passed our investigators to the elders covering our area now due to bordering areas, but we are all on the Lord's Team. Are YOU on the Lord's team? 

I couldn't be more thankful for this Gospel and for the little, small miracles we've been blessed with this past week. I am extremely thankful to be a part of this wonderful church and to be a missionary. As a missionary, you see miracles every day and when we see and experience miracles, you can't get enough of them.  I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father to be serving in this area and we are so grateful to serve together. 

Paz afuera (our version of Peace out)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

A field after the hop harvest.