It´s scary how fast the weeks fly by. My first companion from the MTC will be going home in 2 weeks. Weird. It just makes me very grateful for the time I still have to serve. Throughout the mission, we´re always told to aprovechar (take advantage of) the time and opportunities we have. It just seems even more urgent when people start counting weeks for you or using the T word a lot. haha
December is such a crazy month! That probably seems funny since you know we´re not all caught up in the materialistic issues and parties that are so characteristic of the season. Even so, we have the normally busy missionary schedule, plus the chior, and activities and such with two wards as well as the mission. It has left us thinking, "When do we just get to work in December?" We´ve heard that another seventy will be coming down around Christmas time, as well as Pres. Shurtleff, the mission president from the MTC in Bogotá, Colombia (who actually happened to be in my branch presidency in the MTC in Provo). I´m excited to do something that is an idea of Hna Merback´s; do living Christmas cards with the members. First, we´ll visit the members and then we´ll go out to visit their neighbors and friends. Not only will we be able to spread Christmas cheer as we carol and visit, but we´ll be able to contact many people with their friends, the members, at our side. Good deal. I just love caroling and new ideas for contacting.
Last night we had an awesome lesson with Irlanda and her girls. Well, Belén, the youngest ended up falling asleep when we were getting the dvd set up the watch the Restoration, but all the others were very attentive. The other two Marias are Guadelupe (10) and Gabi (8). They are so pilas (literally, that´s batteries, but it really means that they´re smart). We explained very carefully the importance of prophets, what they do,and the differences and similarities between the Bible and Book of Mormon. It was about then when Gabi just up and said "I want to get baptized" and we started discussing the goal date (which of course we already had in mind). Her birthday is the 23rd, so she was very excited to hear she could get baptized the 22nd and have even more to celebrate the next day. Of course, we challenged all three (those two with Irlanda) to prepare themselves for the 22nd. I just wanted to start laughing (or crying for joy) when Lupe said "I would get baptized tomorrow if I could!" I´m grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord, especially in times of trial and difficulty.
I really enjoyed the zillion (okay 7) hours at church yesterday. In both of the sacrament meetings, some hnos just started talking about the importance of missionary work. I thought it was great, especially as their topics were really values and service. I also felt so, so grateful for member missionaries. Did I mention that a mission leader was finally called in Cotocollao? Well, that was about a month and a half ago, I think. That´s a good sign in the first place, when you consider we hadn´t had one for real in all the months before. So we planned out this open house to try and get some new investigators that actually live in the ward. However, when we planned it, we didn´t know the mission chior schedule and, as it turns out, we need to be an hour away singing just at the hour that we had planned it. Now with some leaders, that would be reason to just cancel it, but Juan Carlos just assured us he and members would be there to take care of it, so we don´t need to worry. I love it when people assume responsibility. We just need to get cracking and invite the whole world to come out so they have someone to show around and bear testimony to.
Then, in Condado, the bishop wanted to talk to us. They´ve formed 8 new missionary couples (pretty much all the leaders are involved) to be trained and to do mission work. They will be trained this Saturday by two RM sisters on the lessons from PMG and how they will go about doing the work. Each missionary pair will be assigned to one less or inactive family and work with them consistently to help strengthen them and also get references from them...then the same people that give the references (I know, it´s really referrals in English, but that just sounds funny to me) will be in charge of helping their friends in the conversion and learning process. I was very happy to hear about this new part of the ward mission plan. I know that the wards will be blessed as the leaders and members make missionary work a priority. I´ve already seen it. Yay for working with the members!!
I know the Church is true. I love having the certainty that we do have a pupose here as children of God. We were teaching an atheist taxi driver this morning that obviously didn´t want to pray and ask God about His existence, since he didn´t believe in God. It made me grateful to be in a country where we can usually at least start on common ground as Christians. I just hope that his disillusionment that came from Catholic education (and abuses therein) will someday clear up to an openness of mind that will help him to seek and accept the truth. He´s already gotten over a huge hurtle for many here-that of caring more about traditions and what the family or friends will think. Oh! On that note, I just want to send you all to Moses 7:32-33. I liked the clear idea/command/expectation from our Father that we prefer Him above the cares and opinions of the world. Think about it.
I love you all and am very grateful for you. Share the light within by opening your mouth and sharing your testimony!
Love,
Hna CS Henrichsen
Ecuabit: This one´s for Hna Merback, because it´s been bothering her...If you are white and happen to be in Ecuador, you shouldn´t be surprised to be stared at as if you were an alien. This is something that bothered me at first, then was amusing, and then just became so normal that I don´t really pay much attention to it at all. The funny thing is that if you start staring back, people will normally turn away, but that may only last for .7 seconds and they will continue staring. I like using it to contact people or at least get them smiling. Anyway...this reception from people on the bus yesterday made my companion want to start singing and dancing, just so there´d actually be some reason for the stares...maybe "hello my baby, hello my darlin´, hello my ragtime gal"...but she didn´t really do it. I finally figured out that the real reason is that people generally see gringos in movies, just as we would only see aliens in movies, and who wouldn´t stare at an alien in real life? Exactly.
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