"They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ"

Another great week in Lakeville!

Orlando told us we both got 10/10 on our talks.
He's gonna get baptized in two weeks
and he is so so excited!!😄😄

Hermana Bryson was sick one day this week, and the mission doctor told us not to leave the house for 24 hours because she had a fever, so she slept most of the day, and I got like 8 hours of personal study in and read the entire Book of Mosiah and lot of other church books. But I did finally put it all together in my head how the three peoples in the book of Mosiah fit together. It also was striking how eager and willing the sons of Mosiah were to go share the gospel with the Lamanites when they had been personally persecuted by them just a few chapters earlier. I learned a lot of good things, but it was a really long day, and I was so excited on Friday to be able to leave the house again to go to missionary work.

We accidently crashed a bridal shower, haha, a member had signed up to have us over for lunch, and she called us and said "Actually can we meet at this other members house today?" And we were like sure! Then we got there and it was a bridal shower for one of the girls in our ward. So we're just the awkward missionaries crashing everyone's parties. But we did get to stay long enough to get some lunch.

What would be missionary work in a Spanish branch if you didn't get a text two hours before church from the branch president telling you the speakers cancelled for sacrament meeting and he needs us to speak. Because that definitely happened yesterday. But it's ok, the gift of tongues is real, and we both gave presentable talks about gratitude and the holy ghost. 

Bike Day

Since we are taking over the Elders area, we cover twice as much area, and the mission office hasn't told us if we get more miles yet...so the other day we did the whole day on bikes. Good news, Lakeville is a lot nicer than St. Paul and no near death experiences, and it's a lot less hilly. Bad news is it was the first time biking in this area for both of us, so we got a little lost, just a couple of times. But it was fun and we had good experiences contacting when we were biking around a trailer park. People have a lot of questions as to why we're wearing skirts and riding bikes when it's so hot outside. 

Playing the violin!!🎶
(sorry can't get a full video clip)

People from El Salvador are so nice and they make the most amazing food. We met this couple from El Salvador last week, and they were super nice and let us in and were talking to us about the holy ghost and what they believe about the trinity, because he's the pastor for their apostolic church, so he knows a lot about the bible. We didn't get a lot of opportunity to teach them anything, but we might have accidently left a Book of Mormon on one of their chairs before we left...so of course we had to go get it back. We stopped by again yesterday, and they eagerly let us in, and fed us papoosas and agua de melon, and it was amazing. Then we were talking about music and I mentioned I play the violin, and they got really excited and went into the other room and brought back a violin that they randomly have because they love the violin but neither of them play. So I tuned it up the best I could, and played "Nearer My God to Thee" for them. It was incredible to be able to testify through music for them because nothing else we were trying to tell them was really sticking. And as we were leaving they gave us back our Book of Mormon, and he said he had started to read it and it was really interesting, and we told him he could keep it if he wanted and he wanted to, so now they're reading the Book of mormon, and they want us to  come back to talk to them about it with them, and it's really a miracle how it all turned out so well. 

It's a little frustating here right now as well, because we have 3 investigators who are prepared for baptism, and have come to church, one of them has been actively coming to church for 3 years, but they can't get baptized because they aren't married to the people they're living with. Ahhh it's driving me a little crazy, because that's just part of their culture and they don't want to get married and they don't want to move out and break out, or they can't get a marriage license because of legal problems.... But they are amazing people I love working with and I hope that we can help them progress and get to make those covenants at baptism.

A scripture I found during my personal study marathon this week that I really like is in Acts 5:41-42 "And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Through all the persecution the apostles faced after the death of Christ, they took joy in it, and never ceased to continue to share the gospel. It helped me remember to love and appreciate every day I have to serve as a missionary, even when people get mad at us, or tell us not to come back, and it's difficult to remember what we're doing here all the time, even in those hard moments, we should always count ourselves blessed.

Thank you for all the love and support, have a great week everyeone!

Hermana Meredith

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