WEEK 38 "Ramon(a) the ferret"

Hola todos!

Well, this week was filled with lots of exciting moments. And Ramona the ferret is right at the top of that list. jaja our incredibly amazing ward mission leader who calls us every night to account with us recently got a ferret. Ramona is the smelliest little rodent.. it is so bad that we could smell her from clear across the church gym. However, it is strangely worth it because he is a really good MPL. Our friends that we are teaching right now love Ramona!

This week with Ramona we had a lesson with Marcos. Marcos told us he wanted to be baptized at the beginning of this week and he will be entering the waters of baptism this Friday! woot woot we are so excited. Marcos is from Cuba and he is the biggest teddy bear. The sisters knocked on Marcos' door in August and they have been teaching him ever since. He has so many life challenges but yet he remains upbeat and positive. I cannot describe how happy I am for him. He has moved forward with unshaken faith and I know he will continue to do so. 

Another highlight of this week was going on exchanges with my favorite person and soccer idol, SISTER JACOBSON. She covers our area but is in charge of the English congregation. It is a little crazy to think that there is an English branch here because in the past two weeks  I have only come across two people who only speak English. I am beyond excited to be finally working closely with her. We knew each other a little bit from studying at the U but I really just knew her as Sam Tate's cousin who is on all the soccer posters at the U. It was so fun to be her companion for a day and learn so much from her. The last time we saw each other was in the MTC and I cannot believe the progress that we have both seen since then. We talked to people all day in the hot sun and loved every second of it, I even taught her how to say 4 phrases in Spanish:)

Okay, so I'm going to give you a little more background on Miami... The smell of Miami is latin cologne, the sound of Miami is Ragaton (Latin Pop Music), the sight of Miami is a lot of traffic and everyone is always on the streets. I have never talked to sooo many people on the streets my whole mission and I have only knocked on one door so far in Miami. It is quite a different speed of pace down here and we are loving it. This past week we have loved hanging out by a super small latin Mercado and talking to people coming in and out. One of the friends that we are teaching right now who lives really close to the Mercado has a pit bull. He likes to escape his backyard and follow us everywhere. Rollie is super nice and is basically our guardian angel at this point. Whenever he sees us he runs up to us and then follows us for hours. He is super friendly, don't worry dad! One night we were hopping into our car to go home and right as soon as I opened the door Rollie jumped into the back seat!!! He wanted to come with us. Oops

 This week we found some awesome people to teach but it is hard to find the genuinely interested ones. Latin are all so nice and love to hear us out but it is hard to gauge their level of interest. However, one of our favorite friends that we are teaching right now named Enrique told us yesterday that Cubans have the prettiest Latin accent out of all of them. I had to try sooo hard to not burst out laughing. I am slowly getting better each day at the whole Cuban accent thing... But when we talk to any other person that is not from Cuba, man is it a nice break on the brain. I love the diversity down here! We have members from almost every Latin American and Central American country!

The work is moving forward here in Miami. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and spread His light and love. "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." -1 Nephi 21:16 Remember that Jesus Christ has written you on the palms of His hand and your trials/walls are already overcome through Him who loves you infinitely. All we need to do is reach out to Him and He will help us. 

Les Quiero mucho!

-Hermana Richards