Hermana in Houston: Week 50: Feliz Navidad, Y'all!

December 15, 2014

This week was a ROLLERCOASTER. I am exhausted in every sense of the word, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

It all started last Monday when we called the immigration lawyer to try to help E--- not be deported. Only... E--- stopped answering his phone after noon that day. I was stressed out of my mind about him. No one knew where he was! I tried so so so hard to have faith, kept his name on the board, planned for him during weekly planning, knocked on his door every night to see if he came back... nada. Then Thursday night we got a call from a number we didn't recognize... but the voice I recognized in half a second. E---! He had just gone to help a family member in a different city and gave them all his money so he couldn't pay for his phone bill. He was like, "I'm still getting baptized on Saturday, right?" haha We decided to give ourselves one more week to let him come to church one more time and finish all of the lessons. So the next day we went to his apartment and taught him and went over the baptismal interview questions. He was so happy and excited to see us and felt so ready to be baptized... until we told him we needed his parents' permission for his baptism, and he would have to get a few hours off of work for the baptism. He wasn't super excited about either of those, but he said he would buy a calling card for Honduras and we could do it the next day. So that night right before we went to bed he called me crying and said, "Thank you for everything you've done, but I have to say goodbye." and hung up. Break my heart twice in the same week, I THINK NOT!! Knocked on his door the next night and no one answered, but I followed a prompting to contact a less active in those same apartments and ended up finding one of E---'s roommates on the steps of that apartment. He said that E--- was home! So I have absolutely no idea what is going on with him right now. Going to keep knocking until he answers, and the entire consejo de barrio wants to come. haha We all love him so much! So... that was my week.

BUT the miracle of this week was when we were walking through the apartments and my recent convert's girlfriend comes running up with a marriage license in her hand! Ahhh! Their wedding is next Saturday and they put me in charge of... everything. hahahah good thing that baptism isn't happening! It would have been baptism ----> wedding -----> ward party. STRESS.

One night we had just pulled up in the car and our investigator F--- popped into my mind and I decided to check and see how he's doing... and then I opened the car door and there he was! hahah So we started walking over to some benches to teach him and we ran into a member! He let us into his house and his wife's nonmember sister was sitting on the couch! We got to teach them both and they both loved the lesson! WOW. I love being a missionary!

Hermana McOmber

Funnies of the Week:

The zone leaders called to check in on our investigators, and asked about L--- and why we didn't see her this week. "Well, a car blew up in front of her house, Elders."

Our new investigator was saying his first prayer and was really nervous {picture a blushing lumberjack}, and he commanded me to close my eyes. haha

Another investigator was saying his first prayer as well, and made sure the door of his apartment was closed nice and tight and whispered so his roommates wouldn't hear him.

Saw a guy working on his car and asked him if there was anything I could do to help him. He said, "I'm going to need you to marry me." & I told him he was going to need to go to church for a LONG time before that ever happened.

Little E--- loves to jump off the couch and yell "Gironimo!" {sounds so funny in Spanish!}

Our investigator brought a menos activo AND another investigator for the other missionaries to church this sunday. That's what we call a dry member, ladies and gents.

Our investigator Laura told me if she ever had a baby girl she would name it Courtney. YAY!