The need to believe in something

Hello family! I hope you are well.

I don´t really know where to begin with this week. There are always weird and funny things that happen. For example, this week there was a little baby scorpion in our house. I was about to put my shoes on, and I see this little thing just sitting there. I don´t really know what I was thinking, but I thought it was a good idea to try and save it. So I´m there in the hallway trying to scoop it in a bag, using a fly swatter, just like a genius would do. My companion was genuinely freaked out (she doesn´t do well with bugs...bummer that she lives in Cienguilla), but anyway I was trying to get it the bag and it stung me. Haha imagine that! But it was just a little baby one, but it actually hurt for a little while. After it stung me, I decided to kill it. It wasnt worthy of being saved. But nothing happened, I still have two hands and I haven´t died, so it looks like everything is going to be okay! Another funny thing that happened was yesterday, we went to go eat lunch with some members. They have a son who´s 15 years old and he likes to try and scare us when we go into their house. He hides behind this corner, and it´s just dumb now because we all know that he´s going to do it. But yesterday, I was sneaking up to the corner, thinking that for once, I would try to scare HIM, but he got me really good..he went the other way, and snuck up behind me as I was trying to sneak up on him, and I screamed so loud. It was really embarrassing. Then of course I was embarrassed, and just like I used to do with Daniel, I went to go punch him. After I hit him a few times, I remembered that I´m a missionary. oopsie...hahah it was okay though.

OH. By the way, I didn´t get transfered! I´m still over here living the dream in Cieneguilla! It was the biggest relief in the world. That means I´m definitely getting transfered this time around. But that´s still far away, so we don´t have to worry about that just yet.

Well, I wanted to tell you about a really sweet experience we had the other day. For these past few weeks, we´ve been working with this member, David, who was inactive in the church for a really long time. I am positive I´ve told you a little bit about him. But he is an alcoholic, and that´s really the reason why he stopped going to church. He has been a member his whole life, he served a mission and his whole family is still active in the church. It´s really sad actually, his situation, but since the day we met him in the street that one day, we´ve been meeting with him regularly and he has come to church the past 2 weeks! Also, we´re pretty sure that during this time, he hasn´t been drinking again. So he´s doing really well. The other day, we asked him to come teach with us. We went to a lesson, and he taught almost the whole thing! Not necesarily because we wanted him to, but he was just on a roll, and he was so happy that we didn´t want to stop him. It was so cool. After the lesson, we were walking to the bus stop to go home and we saw a man walking in the street. My companion and I always stop the people when they pass us to invite them to church, but I was thinking that maybe this time we´d let this guy keep walking since we were walking and talking with David. But as the man passed, I looked at David and at my companion and we all had the same thought at the same moment - that we should go talk to him. So we stopped him, talked to him about Jesus Christ and invited him to church, and we all continued on our way. For us as missionaries, it´s somthing so normal, we do it all the time. But for David, it´s something that he USED to do, that he hasn´t done in a long time. He was so happy. The look on his face was so special, I can´t even explain it.

It makes me think that there are so many people that recognize the need to believe in something, but are afraid to act on that feeling. It could be anything that keeps someone from going to church, or from really believing in something. But so many people already know deep down. That´s what I see when I see David. He´s known his whole life that the church is true, and that only THERE he´ll be able to overcome his trials, but he was scared. It´s amazing to see how God works in our lives, and how He helps us to overcome the trials we have. Each and every single one of us, if we let Him.

I love you! I am super happy! And I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Here in Peru the population is about 97% Catholic, so we´re going to see lots of traditions. It should be interesting.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Have a great week!

All my love,

Hermanita Michelle Scott