Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Cordeiropolis

So mom and dad, I love you guys so so so much! We´ve spent the last week being marriage and family counselors and let´s just say that I will be following your example and not the example of so many others. We have these two people who were recently baptised, but they still aren't married. They´ve been together for 10 years and have 3 kids. We spent 2 hours working with them last night. Trying to help them progress in the gospel. It didn't go so well (an understatement!) Gosh, when you don´t keep the commandments, it really doesn´t work for you.

As well, we´ve been working with another woman. Her children are members. She has a testimony but she also has a `husfriend`` aka a man she´s living with. She´s married to someone else and is waiting for divorce. But, she also has stomach cancer and a 95% chance of this cancer killing her...so, we´ve been helping them out with cooking and cleaning. I made dinner for them the other night. It was good. Her husfriend is a very strong Catholic, but he´s not smoking or drinking any more. That's progress.

The hot dog activity went well, we had a ton of people there. Life is life, we are trying to work with people who are inactive. Transfers are in a week so I´ll get my package from the mission home then. Thanks for the camera! Mom and Dad, thank you for giving me faith and hope in marriage. Love you all-

S.Stapley

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cordeiropolis

So baptism...yeah! Now just add in a ton of complications. What type of complications you ask? We´ll let me tell you...

First off, the girls' aunt wanted to change the baptism date to this Saturday. She told the girls that their grandmother wouldn´t be able to go, and then the grandma said that yes in fact, she could, and so the girls wanted to get baptised on Saturday...and so, we went ahead with it. But on Thursday, when the elders came to do the interview, one of the other aunts came and the girls started crying, and then everyone said, "no, no, of course you can get baptised on Saturday." The other aunt didn´t come to the baptism because she wanted it changed, she is refusing to come to church, and she says she is going to beat us up...staying very very far away from her.

Then on Saturday, the only men with the priesthood that came to the baptism were Garcia and one of the branch presidency who would baptise Jana. We began to get worried because we can´t baptise without two witnesses, and thankfully at 7:55, the other member of the branch presidency walked in, watched the girls get baptised and left. Eyeroll. As we were leaving at the end of the night, Garcia said..."wow, Sisters, you don´t have any other investigators, you need to be working harder." Are you kidding me?!! We taught 9 intro lessons and not one accepted baptism. We have literally been talking to almost every person who lives in this small town. Urg. The leadership is not helping the branch, not taking care of the members, why do they think that God will bless with new members who will only fall away?

So, we´re not really excited, because we know that probably God isn´t going to bless us in our contacts. The only people who have been baptised here who are still firm are some of the family of Maria Jesus. But just keep working. Work, work and work some more.

We had a good district meeting, it was about how the book of Mormon answers every question and problem in our lives. I got to be the investigator twice. Once was with Elder Manyring (my dl and friend from Itatiba) and his son, Elder Maclain (from Eastern Washington) and it was quite funny. We then had to practice with Elder Edwardo, my zone leader. We then all talked about the atonement and baptism...inside joke, because E.Edwardo was teaching the Plan of Salvation, about our purpose in this life...and the investigator had a ton of problems, and instead of going into a lesson about the atonement and how Christ knows all of us, he went into baptism...afterward we were all like, "Baptism or the Atonement?" I won, atonement works every time!

So, think that´s it. Love you all-

S.Stapley

Cordeiropolis

We´ll baptise this week. We´ve been working with Jaque and Jaina and they´re ready for baptism, which is wonderful. Still, we´ve been going through a rather tough time with this branch. When we had lunch at the 1st councilor´s house we asked how we could help this branch, to which he replied with tired shoulders, "I don´t know....this branch truly has given up hope." The only person who is helping us is Irma Maria Jesus and all of our investigators are her relatives. Two of her daughters are eternal investigators and one cannot get baptised because her husband doesn´t want to marry her (when asked if he loved her, this man said no, but that he is staying with her because of the kids) and she said roughly the same thing. It´s hard because she is feeling miserable but is not willing to change.

The other daughter is one of those investigators who are difficult. She knows the church is true, because if it wasn´t, she wouldn´t be attending church for 5 years, but she says she hasn´t received a response, that the Holy Ghost hasn´t told her yet. Well...when she said this we gave her the most amazing lesson of faith I have ever given in my life, and the spirit was strong and we promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon sincerely, and then prayed and asked God, she would receive a response....well, she said she read but didn´t feel anything. She is very hard hearted, she wants a sign from God or something, but what she doesn´t seem to want is to be baptised. She goes to church, sings in the choir, and she does what she wants, when she wants. I have learned so much about patience and about humility from her. Truly, we need to follow the will of God. He will not give us the response we want, but rather, he will give us the response that we need.

Then last night after we taught Jaque and Jaina, their mom asked to talk to us. She told us that she is having suicidal thoughts...which led to another lesson about love and about how God knows us. He knows what we are feeling, He trusts this woman because he gave her four wonderful children, she is amazing and a warrior. Out of everyone in the world, God chose her to take care of, to love, four of his choice spirit children. We then hugged her and talked some more, I hope that we can help her.

We have not been having the best of luck with finding people, before us, the branch was closed for missionaries...so we´re trying to find anyone. In this town (I think) of 19 thousand, most everyone has a church. We gave 3 first lessons, where we teach about Joseph Smith and no one wanted to know more. It was quite disheartening. We can´t really plan, because we have nothing to plan for...other than the baptisms of this week and helping the part member families.

With everything that has been going on, with a branch that´s breaking, and everything else, truly I have come to see the Lord´s hand in everything. I think that before we came to this life, we had an interview with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. They showed us everything that we would go through, sins, heartbreaks, we saw every single tear that we would shed in this life. And then at the end, our Heavenly Father said, "Do you accept this life?" And I hope that I said fearlessly, Absolutely! I will go. I knew that this life wouldn´t be easy, but it was the only way I could have happiness forever with my family.

I honestly do not know why we were called to this branch. No idea. The members don´t seem to be able to believe that they can grow. Some take care of themselves and if someone else goes inactive, it is only because they are weak. I love how President Hinckley taught that we need to care for those who are new or who are weak in this faith, because the gospel is not easy, but like I´ve said before, it is worth it. The hymn of come come ye saints...Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, our God will never us forsake...and the immortal words of Bruce R. McConkie...And while I strive through grief and pain, his words be heard, Ye shall obtain. I believe in Christ, so come what may.

Truly, come what may. Come what may. Give your all, and God will take care of the rest. Everything will be alright in the end, if it´s not alright, well then, it´s not the end. And to end on a totally irreverent thought, always look on the bright side of life.

S.Stapley