Someone who I needed to find during my mission.

Hello everybody! Only one week til Halloween. I have looked high and low for a pumpkin to carve but have searched in vain... I guess my companion and I will just celebrate by buying and eating our own candy and pan de muerto in the house. Today begins my last cycle/transfer of the mission ): That is all I will say about that. A few neat experiences this past week. First of all, my comp and I waged WWIII in the apartment today, her in the kitchen and me in the bathroom. We basically live in the Titanic due to old pipes and the leaky shower which means water and mold EVERYWHERE! Yuuuusssss. When we pulled a table away from the wall we found little uncooked frijoles all in a row stuck to the wall. I whipped out the good old broom and a fancy new anti-hongo (anti-fungus) spray I bought today and went ham wild in the baño, spraying and scrubbing and screaming in frustration at times, so much so that pretty soon I had a hard time breathing and had to run out for fresh air. Maybe opening the little window before fumigating the place may have been a wise decision. In any event, it is a little bit cleaner now. The water still leaks out of the bathroom and makes a nice puddle outside the door, but we will take what we can get. Also, we made brownies :)

Now to teaching. The week before last we met a sweet old lady named M outside of her business/house (the majority of people here have the two connected in the same building and multiple families live in the same house) while she was weeding. We finished the weeding for her and then began talking with her. When she mentioned that her husband passed away a year ago from cancer, we gave her a folleto (pamphlet) of El Plan de Salvación and sacamos una cita (made an appointment) for a few days later. When we went back, she first started out by saying that she didn't want to waste our time because she cannot change her religion. She said she cannot always come to Church and she is still learning to read and feels that she cannot read and speak as eloquently as other people; but she invited us to come in anyway. As we began talking more she told us of how much she loved the pamphlet we had given her. Although she is still learning to read and write and has partial facial paralysis which makes seeing out of her right eye even more difficult, she had read it little by little until she had finished the whole thing. She told us of how a day after we had given her the folleto, she received news that a dear friend had passed away, which was devastating in and of itself. It also brought back emotions to the surface related to her husband's death. She was going through papers on the table, found the pamphlet, and began reading. She was overwhelmed with peace and comfort reading about the Plan that God has for us and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She prayed and felt that it was true. As I listened to all of this, I was filled with so much love for this sweet woman. I felt what I am sure is only a little tiny bit of the love that our Heavenly Father and the Savior feel for us, but it was enough to bring tears to my eyes and want her more than anything to be happy. As I offered the opening prayer, I had tears streaming down my face as I pleaded that she could be healthy and strong and know that what we teach is true. After that I couldn't talk much and my companion took over for awhile. Maria continued to ask amazing, sincere questions and by the time we had finished she was wanting to go to Church. I said a prayer in my heart that she would accept baptism, and when Hermana Torres invited her to be baptized on the 26th of November she said yes because she wants to do what God commands us to do. It was so incredible. She is so powerful. I really felt that she is someone who I needed to find during my mission. Two elders will be coming back tomorrow and taking over the other half of the area where she lives but I am grateful for the time we spent with her. We have another new investigator named B who is also amazing. She is 34. Several of her family members are members of the Church but she and her 10 year old son are not. A little over a month ago she was on a motorcycle when she crashed and flew I don't know how far into the street and completely split her head open. She has been left with the left side of her body paralyzed, a severely fractured hand, and other injuries. She is looking for God in her life. From what the doctors had said, it is a miracle that she is alive. She has so much desire to do all that she can to come to know Him better. A Ward member is helping us take her to Church on Sundays which is wonderful. We are grateful that we can teach her during these next several weeks. Hermana Torres and I are finishing things off together this next cycle which I am so thrilled about :) We are going to bust a move in our half of the area while we are here.

We were protected this week. Last night we went to the home of a less active family to have a Family Home Evening and we were planning on just teaching the grandparents of the family. We were unaware that their son-in-law, who is an old investigator of ours, was there. We were in one room talking to the hermana as we started to hear a heated discussion outside. All of the sudden, the old investigator stormed into the room and started shouting and swearing, saying that he doesn't want anything to do with us. Then he stormed out of the room and started fighting, and throwing mirrors and movie discs all over. Then he stormed out of the house with his wife chasing after him. It was really sad because their four year old daughter didn't understand what was going on and began crying. We felt a strong impression to get out of the house, which we did, and a minute after doing so we saw the man storming back to the house. It was a very good thing that we were not there. We felt pretty badly because we don't want anybody to get hurt, while at the same time feeling thankful that we were kept safe. We had another similar experience this week where thankfully we were not in a certain place at a certain time or else who knows what could have happened. The Lord watches over and protects us. Well I need to go but I hope you enjoy your week and I love you all! My camera is being stinky, again, so I apologize for no pictures :/

Love Hermana Jones