This week should be an exciting week at home with all of the Thanksgiving festivities going on! Sadly they don`t celebrate that here, but every one of our lunches with members is about the quantity that one would eat on Thanksgiving, so I´m not too bummed about the food part haha. I think I am finally getting used to the food quantity by now. We eat so much for lunch at 1:30 and then nothing for the rest of the day until a snack when we get home at 10, so my stomach has been struggling, but I think it´s finally getting used to expanding and then shrinking everyday. Good news is that now that it´s basically summer here, there are little fruit and vegetable stands everywhere and the fruit is sooo good! It´s like the fruit we used to get in Mexico, so that makes me really happy!
Anyways, this week has been a really good one! We had our "ward conference" this week and there was activities everyday in the church which is prime for missionaries and bringing investigators. On Monday we had a family home evening in the chapel with the whole ward and we had 2 whole families of our investigators come! We brought Roxana and her family with us and then Claudia and her family came because one of the members, Margarita, invited them. Margarita was so happy when she saw that they came and she came over to us and was so pumped and was beaming with joy. Margarita is usually pretty shy, but one day we went over to her house and did a practice with her on how to invite her friends to activities and it totally paid off! That has got to be one of the best things - seeing how the members become the missionaries and the joy that it brings to them when they see their loved ones finding happiness in the gospel.
So we almost had a super cool moment this week. We had a mini-cambio and as we were just contacting the people that walked by, we ran into a mom and her two kids. We then taught her at a nearby park where her kids were playing and she just moved to Chile a month ago from Venezuela. It´s not normal to see a very dark skinned person here, so for a second I thought she might be from the US, but nope definitely not. Anyways, her daughter is named Shaneska (my favorite name I have heard here yet) and she accepted baptism and a date as well, but she didn´t remember her address and we have been trying to call her, but no luck. Super lame, but hopefully we`ll run into her again.
Also this week we found the sweetest girl named Nicole who is 16 and her mom who are super prepared to hear the gospel. On our first lesson, we talked a lot about families and they both had tears running down their faces. You can tell that they both want that happiness and unity in their family that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring. On our second visit, we brought a joven-cita member with us named Stacy and as we walked in Nicole was so excited to see Stacy and apparently they know each other from school! The spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was an instant connection. I am so grateful for the spirit and how it guides us to have inspired thoughts and make inspired decisions.
Especially this week I have learned how important it is to love the ones who are closest to us. The other Hermanas and especially our companions need to know how much we appreciate them and how much we love them constantly. I think sometimes I get so caught up in helping our investigators that I forget to think about the ones who are really close to us. Most of us I think can be guilty of this. We get so caught up in school or work or even our callings that we forget to love those who are closest to us. I encourage all of you if you haven´t done so recently to tell the ones who are closest to you how much you appreciate them. To slow down and take the time to do so because those are the people that matter most. Here on the mission we see so many examples of families who don´t do so because they are caught up in work or what not, but the deepest happiness really does come from the family.
I have been eternally blessed to have the family and friends that I do. I want each of you to know how much I love you and appreciate you. I know I don´t say that enough and I definitely didn´t before the mission, but you all mean the world to me. I love you all and remember to constantly stay rooted in the gospel of our savior Jesus Christ. He has given us the example and has shown us the greatest example of love. Have a good Thanksgiving week!
Hermana Romney
P.S. my trainer Hna Lovell has only one week left in the mission!! Crazyyy and I´m going to miss my "mama" so much! She´ll actually be going over to Argentina to spend Christmas with her parents since they are mission presidents in Neuquen! Sweet right?? We had an instant bond.
Pics: one from the newbie conference which was amazing! Another of a texas cow a member had in their house!
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