Monday, February 7, 2011

In Case You Were Wondering, Rats Can't Swim!

Hola!!!!

Today is P-day and guess what we're doing?? Another zone barbeque!!! And just like last time, we had to sneak out and write our families on the fly because the food was taking FOREEEEVEEEEERRR and we were running out of P-day time. Hopefully when we get back it will be ready because we're really hungry. Okay.

Anyway, we had some good times this week. We found this awesome lady named Lucia, who HNA Bravo and I taught one time and then never found her again, but we went back this week and found her. She totally gets the Restoration, it kind of blows my mind because almost nobody gets it the first time around. She even said, this is really important!!! Yes, yes it is. In fact, it's the most important thing you`ll ever hear in your life. We asked her if she'd go to church and she said yes, so we told her we'd come and get her at 1:30 on Sunday. Obviously we were hugely excited!!

So then the next day we visited Jessenia. We had had an appointment with her the day before but when we went she wasn`t there. This time when we came she told us, I'm so sorry I wasn't here yesterday, I had to go do a school project, but when my niece told me that you were coming back today, I didn't move!!! Cool. We taught her about the Sabbath Day and asked if she'd come to church this week. She said yes but that she'd have to see if they got their house fixing project done on time. We said we'd come get her and left, very happy.

Then we visited Wendy, taught her the same thing and asked if she could come to church. She said she would try, which is better than a flat out no. We left happy.

Now we come to Lady, who was supposed to be baptized this Saturday but at the last minute decided that she wasn't going to be baptized yet. When she told us that I just sat there staring at her like, are you serious right now?? She was really excited and we have no idea what happened to unexcite her. We were thinking and thinking about what could be her problem and we decided that we were going to try a little experiment to see if she really was committed. We decided that we were going to pass by on Sunday morning and tell her that we would see her in the chapel at 2 and then wait there for her to see if she came. If she came by herself, we would keep on going, if not . . . . . well we would see what happened from there.

Sunday comes. We go out in the morning pass by Lady first, tell her to come to church at 2 and keep on going. Then we pass by Lucia, who says, oh yes, yes I'm coming, what time are you guys coming?? We say, 1:30. She says, 1:00?? No, 1:30. Oh yeah yeah, that's fine, I'll be here. Okay. We run up to Zamora Huayco, eat lunch and grab a taxi to go get Jessenia. She comes out and says, oh we just finished the project and now we're going to eat lunch. Okay. Well if you can will you go by yourself?? Oh yeah yeah I'll try. We go up to get some other people who say they're gonna come. They're not home. We run to Lucia, it's exactly 1:30 on the dot. We yell at the door for her and her son comes out. We ask, Lucia?? Is she here?? No, she went to the mercado. Me: .......blank stare, not believing what's happening. I almost said, ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?? But that would have been rude, and furthermore it doesn't translate to Spanish very well. So we just told him to tell her that we'd come and we left. As we walked to a phone booth we saw Olger walking to church with his little daughter Angye. We asked him where Wendy was and he says that she stayed behind with her little brother who was sick. We tried not to cry about it, went to the phone booth, came back and sat down in church with nobody. I was sitting there trying not to cry. I don't get discouraged very often but this week I was thinking, what more could we possibly have done?? We visited, we taught, we brought the Spirit, we reminded, we called, we reminded again, we went to get them, and nobody came. What more could we have done for our vineyard?? I was sitting there still feeling depressed when all of a sudden I saw somebody come in with two little kids and a baby in her arms. I thought . . . . . it can't be. But it was!!!! Lady had come by herself to church, and brought her two little girls and her little sister too, just like she did every Sunday. Immediately I felt amazing. I felt like even though no one else came, the fact that she did, and came without us going to get her, was huge. I know she'll be baptized-it's just a matter of when.

Time for a funny/gross story. Right outside our house there's a sink to wash clothes in and it has a deep tank right next to it. The drain on this tank isn't great so a lot of times it`s about half full of standing water. So Thursday night I woke up and was about to go back to sleep when all of a sudden I heard a splash outside. I thought . . . . what the heck was that?? Do I get up or do I just keep lying here?? I decided I was too scared to get up, so I stayed in bed listening to whatever it was splash around in the tank. It finally quit and I went back to sleep. The next morning I said to HNA Robison, I heard something splashing around outside last night, I'm gonna go see what it was. I went out, looked into the tank and found a large, dead rat lying at the bottom. EWWWWWWW!!!!!! We were so grossed out that we had no idea what to do about it, so we just left it there for awhile. We asked Elder Johnson and Elder Reuschmann if they wanted to do a service project, but after they heard what it was they said no. Pansies. So we put on our big girl pants and got it out today when we cleaned the house. Way gross. But at least it will quit smelling!!

Well family, friends, and randoms, love you all (yes even the randoms). I love this work, even though it's hard sometimes. I love my companion HNA Robison. I love Loja. I love my zone. I love life, life loves me. Everything in the world makes me happy (except for rats in the tank and people that don't come to church!!)

MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Chamberlain

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