WEEK 66 "Lice, Cow Tongue, and a Bathroom Scare- Still Living the Dream in HIALIT"
Wow this week flew!!!
Well, the caption sort of tells it all. We had quite the adventurous week. I am proud to say that everyone in my house got lice except for me! You may ask how did I manage it? well at the beginning of my mission I thought I had lice... I didn't but I still bought the lice shampoo and kit. I have kept it with me for the entirety of my mission just in case someone needed it. One night one of the sisters in our house was brushing her hair and found 5 huge lice in her brush. I immediately gave her the shampoo treatment and I did it as well just as a protector. wow was that just the best miracle ever. haha it may seem in my weeklies that everything on the mission is basically a miracle just because the mission is the best, but seriously what are the chances that I save those little bottles for over a year. I AM TELLING YALL THIS IS A BIG TIME MILAGRO. I SURVIVED THE TOXIC LICE INFESTATION.
Anywho moving on to another story... this week I had the honors of hanging out with sister Spencer for the day and man was it a blast. I love that human. We rode the bus talking to everyone on the way... I finally found my Venezuelan blonde bff who appeared to be just like tiff! She just moved here 1 month ago and was super interested in our message.
Sister Spencer is very in tune with seeing the hand of God. Her grandpa who passed away loved pennies and rainbows and those are her little "hellos from heaven". Let's just say it was the best day because we found 4 pennies and we saw 1 rainbow. At one point we met these men that seemed a little too nice and so we didn't assume anything of it but we left pretty fast. then we needed to stop at the supermercado super fast to go to the restroom and we saw them coming in behind us. Then As I was in a ghetto one-man restroom I hear... "RICHARDS" in a thick Latin accent and knocking on the door. I was straight terrified. I didn't know what to do... it was the voice of the man who we had just previously met. I didn't know what was going on but fears flooded my brain of all the possibilities that could be going on outside the door. I had two choices: stay inside the bathroom while my companion was outside, or go try and save my companion. I thought that if I walked out of the restroom something bad would happen. After saying a couple of prayers I decided I needed to go out and help my companion. Little to my surprise, sister Spencer was perfectly fine and was laughing at the top of her lungs. The man that I was terrified of was just trying to use the bathroom and was doing the potty dance for five minutes. wow what a close call!!!
wow Hialeah is something else... every day until 4pm it's sunny and then the craziest tropical storms come in. One evening we all met up to knock and then, of course, the worst lightning and storm rolls in jaja. we decided to pray and while I was praying the lightning stopped and the rain held up. It was so cool I truly know that God is on our side and with Him we can do all things. We later found the cutest Columbian family who kindly let us in and invited us to come back.
Yordano took us out to dinner this week. It was sooo good to catch up with him after two transfers of doing missionary work with him in my old area; he is nowhere in hialeah! He is the strongest member and is doing great things.
MY FAV KID Kevin was interviewed for the priesthood and will be getting it this upcoming week. After his interview he ran into the room and said at the top of his lungs "I PASSED." then he went on to teach me about white holes in space... yeah he's the coolest 11-year-old kid who is obsessed with astronomy. I cannot wait to see where his future takes him now especially that he has the gospel as his foundation for the rest of his life. His mom who has been recently coming back just got a calling in the young women too!!! we are so pumped
OKAY, THIS IS A CLOSE SECOND TO LICE... our sweet Colombian ward mission leader took us out to dinner to celebrate sister Pacheco finishing her mission. We show up and you will not believe what is on the table waiting for us. LENGUA DE BACA yup.. cow tongue. ewwwwwwwwwww!! okay, I was about to puke the whole dinner. We could see the taste buds and little hairs and I swear half of the esophagus. I was DYING and he was watching us eat the whole time. He kept asking us, "Le GUSTAN???" and choking down the food we tried to put on a smile and said "si hermano!" Yeah, that was the biggest lie of my life. oh, it was by far one of the worst dishes in my mission. I wouldn't recommend it, but it was very sweet of him to pay for our food. Mom I cannot wait to have you try it!
Okay now getting to the good stuff, This week we had the best restoration lesson with our favorite Elizabeth! in the beginning, we had a member who was sharing how she had received her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the restoration before she had to run off. But Elizabeth was very concentrated on the word testimony. She was very intrigued and wanted to know how and if she could have a testimony for herself. Halfway through the lesson with her I just finished sharing numbers 12:6 that explains how a prophet is called of God. God manifests himself to his prophets through dreams and visions. And immediately she stopped me.
She said, "wait, I think I had a dream two days ago." She told us that she was reading the Book of Mormon and then decided to do as we invited her to do... she prayed and while she was praying she had a dream. She told us that she couldn't really remember what was in her dream but she distinctively remembers that as soon as she woke up she had an overwhelming spirit touch her heart and tell her that these things were true. We then explained to her that that was her testimony. She responded with tears in her eyes and a gaping mouth, "Esta experincia que tuvo es mi testimonio?" We told her yes and she couldn't stop crying. At that moment My testimony was reconfirmed that the invitation at the end of the Book of Mormon is truly the words of God. He does want us to gain this testimony. we only need to act on our faith and ask HIM. It's that simple!
I love 2 Nephi 33:10 "All ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good."
The Book of Mormon is truly the sign of the gathering of Israel and He is fulfilling the covenants that He made with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob that Christ talks about in 3 Nephi 21:1. We truly are using this precious testament of Jesus Christ to gather the children of God on both sides of the veil. If it wasn't for this precious record the promised Gathering that Peter and Paul talk about would not occur
"All things must be restored in Christ" - Ephesians 1:10
"When the times of refreshing shall come- restitution of all things" Acts 3:21
I am so so grateful for the Book of Mormon. This morning I had a quiet hour to just read the Book of Mormon and there is an undeniable power that comes straight into your life as you begin to read. I love the happiness and JOY that truly comes through coming to know Christ better and better each day. I know that I am nothing without Him. He gives me the light and energy and gift of tongues that have carried me through every hot sweaty day out here in Miami. I love Him and I truly feel Him working through me and my words to help bring to pass this great work. I love Him and I challenge all of you to read these amazing talks on the gathering of Israel. It truly will help you understand who you are and your potential of what you can become. I know our prophet is called of God and Jesus Christ is directing this work through Him.
Yayyy happy studies:)
Covenants- Russel M Nelson October 2011
Gathering Scattered Israel- Russel M Nelson October 2006
xo,
hermana Richards
