Hello family! How´s it goin´? I hope you are all doing well! Today is
going to be a great day for la Zona La Molina. We´re going to go climb a
HILL! WOOOO! Can you believe it???
Sometimes our P-days are kind of lame.There´s not a ton of stuff to do here, but we always manage to have a good time.
So
this week has been absolutely amazing! My companion is the best. I
literally feel like we´re just best pals. We laugh all the time, and we
just have so much fun. We´ve been working really hard and we´ve been
super tired the past few days. Everything´s funnier and more fun when
we´re tired. Honestly, I haven´t laughed so much or so hard in so long.
The
cool part about that, is that along with all of the goofy, happy
moments, we´ve had so many moments of complete awe this week, when we
have felt the Spirit so strongly, and felt that the Lord was literally
right beside us.
I just finished writing my
mission president, and I´m going to send you part of what I wrote him,
because it´s part of what I wanted to tell you too:
President! Buenos días!
I hope you are doing well. I am going to write you in English today.
This
week has been amazing! It has been so full of beautiful experiences. I
have felt the Spirit everyday, and I have felt so much love for the
people here. My companion and I are like best buds, and that really
helps. We laugh a lot and are growing and learning a lot as well.
The
other day, the same day that we went to the temple with Hermana
Maribel, she took us to her friend´s house so that we could teach her.
President, in my whole mission, I have never met a person that was as
ready as she was to receive the gospel. Her name is Maria Julia, and she
has lived such a rough life. She has 3 kids - 2 daughters and 1 son.
Her son (Flavio) has down´s syndrome and is SO COOL! We love him. A few
years ago, her husband left them all, and went off with one of Maria
Julia´s cousins, who was also already married with a family. When he
left, it left Flavio heartbroken and completely scarred. He used to be a
happy kid, who ran around and played and danced and loved life, but
when his dad left him, even with his severe mental disability, he
understood that his dad wasn´t coming back and it left him with severe
depression. He started trying to kill himself, and sat in the same spot
on the same couch day after day, not wanting to move or eat or do
anything. No one could leave him alone, because if he was alone he tried
to take his own life. The interesting thing is that when the dad found
out about his son, they all realized that he had to return to the house.
So even after all that happened, Maria Julia had to accept him in her
house again so that her son could be okay. Now, things are better, but
Flavio still has serious depression and still tries to hurt himself. The
whole day, he just sits on a big couch, waiting for his dad to come
home. He doesn´t get up to eat or go to the bathroom, he doesn´t talk,
he just listens to the same music over and over again, and when he dad
gets home, he finally stands up, goes to a different room, goes to the
bathroom, and gets ready for bed and everything. He lives an empty life,
just going through the motions. These are the things that Maria Julia
told us....that night, when we met her, we also met Flavio. He didn´t
want anything to do with us. We were trying to talk to his mom and
sister (also named Maria Julia), and he was just spitting all over us
and trying to kick us in the face. It was kind of funny, but it really
made me sad, because he obviously still has some of those feelings, even
though his dad is there now. He doesn´t know how to accept people or
adjust to new situations. We went back again to visit her a few days
later, and Flavio recognized us. He didn´t spit at us as much, and it
seemed like he was a little bit more comfortable with us. Hermana Maria
Julia was telling us about how her biggest problem was being able to
forgive her husband for all that he had done. He has never really asked
for forgiveness, he basically just came back because he had to. She said
that she couldn´t feel happiness or joy, because all she feels is hate.
She talked about how she, too, feels like she just goes through the
motions, living a life without purpose. We talked about the Atonement of
Jesus Christ, about repentance, and forgiveness. She understood the
need to RECEIVE forgiveness, as well as the need to GIVE it. She also
talked about how she realized she needed to do something different to
help Flavio. We talked about the priesthood, and about how someone could
come and give her and her family a blessing of health and comfort. She
was so excited, and the next day we went with the bishop. President, I
can´t even explain to you how amazing that lesson was! We had no idea
beforehand, but the bishop also has a brother who has down´s syndrome.
He knew exactly what to do to win Flavio´s love. He was laughing and
smiling and singing and talking! The bishop gave Maria Julia and Flavio
blessings, and I´ll never forget the moment when he said in the blessing
"I bless you to be calm and to be able to feel your mother´s love,"
Flavio got really quiet, and sat still for the rest of the blessing,
listening. It was incredible. Everything changed in that moment. When
he finished the blessing, Hermana Maria Julia was so happy, a little
choked up with tears in her eyes, and the power of the Spirit was
undeniable. We feel like this family has just been waiting to receive
the gospel.
I
really don´t understand the Lord sometimes. There are some things that
happen, and I find myself looking heaven-ward thinking, "What´s this
supposed to mean?" But I feel like He always helps me to understand.
He´s always there, and in this time of my life, I get to feel the
guidance of His Spirit in every moment. We are so blessed as
missionaries, there is no one as blessed as us. We get to teach the
truth every day.
We
don´t know what will happen with Maria Julia and her family, but we
know that God has put us in their lives for a reason, and we are going
to do all we can to help them accept the Gospel in their lives.
We are so excited to keep teaching them! I´ll keep you posted on what happens with them in the next few weeks.
Something
really strange/scary happened to us yesterday. We were walking to a
lesson, and we saw a girl running across the street, but something was
obviously wrong with her. Her body moved like a puppet, and she looked
crazed. We decided to go to see if we could help her, and as we were
jogging to catch up with her, she fell flat on her face and scraped up
her knees. We caught up to her, and noticed that she had an empty bottle
of wine in her hand and was super drunk. It was kind of scary, because
her eyes were blurry and she had this blank stare on her face. We were
trying to get her to tell us where she lived, but she was completely
incoherent.(that's a word, right?) She just started walking, so we
followed her. She was telling us about all of the horrible things that
she had been doing the night before, and it made me think that she was a
prostitute, or that someone had convinced her to do all of the things
she was doing. She actually offered that "service" to us,and tried to
lay a big fat kiss on my companion. It was so strange, and we were super
freaked out. She stopped at a house, and tried to open the door, but
she couldn´t do it because of the state she was in. We tried opening the
door for her, but none of the keys worked, so we thought she didn´t
live there and were about to call the police. But thank the
heavens,someone who lived in the house passed by right in that moment,
and told us that she lived in the house, but she always forgot her keys.
So they let her in, and she walked up to her room, and they told us
that they were going to take care of her. That moment left me a little
freaked out, but as we walked to the lesson, my companion and I started
talking about it. I kept thinking "Why her? Why do such horrible things
have to happen in this world?" But all of a sudden I felt the Spirit so
strongly that I wanted to cry. I looked over at my companion, and she
had the same look on her face, and she smiled and said "She´s going to
get baptized."
Miracles happen! God leads us to
where we need to go. We don´t need to doubt Him, we literally just need
to trust in Him. There are so many people that need Him. I feel so
blessed to be able to talk about Him, His Son, and their church every
day of my life.
I hope you have a wonderful week. I love you so much, you don´t even know!
Also, this video changed my life this week. You have to watch it,and remember that all we have and all we are is because of him.
All my love,
Hermana Scott
