Emily - Vigo Week 20

5.18.09

Hello Everyone that I love....
Wow I sure hope that this letter makes sense. My head is REALLY confused right now. Ive been kind of disappointed at how hard it was for me to flip back to full on Spanish. Luckily it only took me 3-4 days to get back on track. Im grateful to have a native for the finish.
Her name is H. Maquieira and she is from Uruguay but has lived here for about 5 years. She is older because she had to wait for her papers here in Spain before she could turn her mission papers in. She is very kind and patient and will be the perfect companion to finish with. She is calm but hard working, my favorite type.
We had some really neat experiences this week. Like always I can only tell a few of them until I get home and then I will bust out my journal and have a good chat with you all. We found a lot of people this week that had contact with the missionaries YEARS ago. They told us that we are good people but they are Catolica. They invited us in and we had a nice visit with them. Its hard on the mission to LOVE people so so so much and watch them not accept the truth because of tradition.
We kind of got out of the city this week and knocked some houses. I really felt like we were guided there because we usually always stay in the city and where we found these women was kind of random. It was like Heavenly Father sent us to them to remind them.
The greatest miracle of this week is that Hugo came to church. He is the non member father of the daughter that will be sealed this week. I fasted for him a couple Sundays ago and Ive been praying for him. I can tell that he really wants to learn and change but he is afraid to let go of his old life. He started smoking and drinking when he had 14 years old. We ran into his daughter and son in law a couple days ago. I asked them what they thought of the lesson and what her dad said. She said that they had talked to them about eternal marriage right before we came because of some questions they had and then we came and retaught and said everything they had just talked about. I felt SO guided in that lesson. It was a miracle to see him at church and his family was so excited. He told Karina and Karina told me that he wants another lesson and he is going to teach me how to make something too because I taught him brownies last time. I told him that my mom wants me to come home with some new recipes.
We visited Vitoria again this week. She is the wife of an Evangelica pastor. She is truly a Christian. She invited us again to go help serve at the homeless shelter. We had a good time and found some members again, that always hurts. I think we need to talk to Vitoria because we enjoy going to help but I think it could seem like we are going for other reasons. We always find like a less active, members, or people from their church that want to know more about us. The center is sponsored but their church so its kind of weird when we go and find people for our church. I love the people that we work with and I wish we could just all join together. They are good good people and Ive enjoyed getting to know them but I dont want to cause any problems either.
Miracles do happen even in the smallest ways. I think its hard to not look for the big ones but its been through the little ones that Ive realized how much Heavenly Father loves me personally and watches over me. Im so grateful for the gospel in my life. Im grateful for each one of you. Thank you for your prayers and love.
Love,
The Sister