Dear Ya´ll
Remember when one guy told me I had a Russian accent? Thank
goodness that went away! I was talking to another man, and he started laughing.
What? Do I sound Russian? No, of course not. I sound Japanese. Yes, I have a
Japanese accent when I speak Spanish...? Hm, I don´t believe him, almost
everyone else says I speak great.
So, we had a really great lesson the other day. And as we
were leaving, Hermana Kennerely and I were talking about how well it went. And
then something happened to me that happens quite a bit in the Book of Mormon- I
fell to the earth, being overpowered by the Spirit. (Alma 19) That´s what I try
to tell people what happened. You could believe this story or the ´other story´
where I just tripped. It was pretty embarassing. And I got a big scar on my
leg. Add this big red road rash to my chicken-pockish bug bites and you get
everybody distracted by my legs. Lessons are intererupted and disturbed by
them! I just keep saying ¨no miralos!! no miralos!¨
They´re starting to heal and it´s not as bad as the first
few days after I tripped- I mean was overcome by the spirit.
Missionaries always do the Watson Walk.
We got more copies of the Book of Mormon!! Remember we ran
out? Yeah, we got a few more. Whew. But now we´re all out of Restoration pamphlets.
Dang it. I found one in the closet that´s written in Creole (the language of
Haiti). I decided bringing that was better than nothing and told my companion
that I had faith we would find at least one Haitian to teach that day. And
guess what? We sure did. A nice Haitian lady invited us in and we had a good
lesson, but I´m not sure how much she understood. But at least she has the
Creole pamphlet to explain everything. We also have a Creole Book of Mormon in
the house, and we´ll bring it to our next lesson later this week.
I made a pun!!! All by myself!! In Spanish!!!!!!! I was so
proud, and I think this is the moment that I can say I´m fluent. Here´s how it
happened-
When of the members, Lillybeth, came to a lesson with us.
The investigator asked where she´s from, upon learning she was Dominican, he
was like ¨oh, Doesn´t she look a chinese?¨ And I said ¨un CHIN-O.
JAJAJAJA¨ Because in Spanish, ¨a bit¨ is Chin. and ¨Chinese¨ is Chino. hehehe
That akward moment when 2 Jehova Witnesses show up at the
same house at the same time as 2 Mormon Missionaries. I thought it was funny.
The Jehova Witnessess looked annoyed. Like, we both walked up to the gate at
the same time, and they´re like ¨oh, are you going in here?¨ and we´re like
¨yeah, are you?¨ And they´re like ¨yeah¨ And we introduce ourselves and ask if
they belong to a religion, and then they reveal that they´re the Jehova
Witnesses and then it got a little akward like in Old Western Movies when the
cowboys meet in the middle of the square and say ´this town aint the big enough
for the both of us¨ And then the investigator walks outside and sees us. And
who´s she gonna choose??? Us of course. The Jehova Witnessess left first, (WE
WON) but then we left too because the investigator said she was Catholic and
had no interest in changing (Nobody won!!). Hehe
We also had an akward moment when knocking some doors at an
apartment. We knock the first door, wait a minute, and decide nobody is home.
We shift a couple feet over and knock the next door. Suddenly Door Number 1
opens, so we shift back and start to introduce ourselves. But then Door Number
2 opens too!! so we stood akwardly in the middle and introduced ourselves and
asked if we could set up a lesson sometime. Door 1 was interested, Door 2 wasn´t.
Whoo!
Our investigator that came to church in the rain, Hairoli,
is so amazing. We began teaching her little brother. And when we got to Book of
Mormon, we asked Hairoli if she could explain what she remembered. And then she
proceeded to explain the whole thing perfectly, even remembering Moroni´s name
and that he was the son of Mormon and other little details like that. My
companion and I were stunned and so impressed. I feel like missionaries picking
a favorite investigator is like parents picking a favorite kid, but oh well.
Hairoli is one of our favorites.
And so is Bienvenido. He´s a favorite too. Okay, I mentioned
him last week. He´s a pastor of another church? We´ve had a few more lessons
with him and it´s absolutely awesome. When we taught Plan of Salvation, he kept
saying ¨wow...we didn´t know this..Thank you for teaching me this.¨ My
companion did most of the talking in that lesson, but at the end I bore my
testimony that the Plan of Salvation is also the Plan of Happiness. And I just
spoke about being happy in this life and in the next life with our families.
And the Spirit was so strong, and Bienvenido recognized it too. He looked at
Hermana Kennerley and I and said that he could feel the Spirit when I spoke
about happiness. It was so cool.
At another visit later on, he and Hermana Kennerley talked
and talked and I was really struggling to understand what was happening. But
then he looks at me and says ¨how are you?¨ I give a big grin and say ¨happy¨
and then he said this is something very special. That everytime he asks me, I´m
just happy, even when I have no idea what´s going on. he also says I´m a good
listener and don´t talk much. But honestly, I don´t have a choice. I don´t know
what´s happening.
We gave him a tour of the chapel and he was so respectful
and reverent and kept saying he felt underdressed, even though we were just
walking through on an empty Wednesday night.
Later in the week, we talked to him again, and he began
telling us about a meeting he went to with the other Pastors in the area. He
went to the meeting with his Bible and Book of Mormon in hand. They all began
getting upset at him, claiming Mormons don´t believe in Christ or the Holy
Ghost. And then he began defending us and the Book of Mormon. He testified that
the Book of Mormon is indeed a testament of Christ.
Hermana Kennerley are so excited for him. He gave us a
little tour of his chapel too and said ¨I want to give my church to your
church¨ and he mean everything. He wants to be baptized. He wants his entire
congregation to come too. He want to donate the very building to our Church. He
testified that he knows he doesn´t have the authority to be a Pastor and that
he loves how the Book of Mormon and Bible testify of eachother. He excitedly
asked us when the next baptism is. He came to church last week with his entire
family and a few members of his congregation. We´re going to have a big lesson
with them later this week.
President Nelson gave a talk in the last General Conference
about an African tribal King who expressed if he was baptized, he would bring
his whole tribe with him. This certaintly reminded us of Bienvenido, and we
gave him the same response President Nelson gave the king- That conversion and
salvation are individual and personal. He said he understood, but he´s their
Pastor (in spanish, this also means Shpepherd), and that he felt responsible
for them. He didn´t want to leave anyone behind.
I am so excited for Bienvenido and to be participating in
this marvillous work and wonder.
I too testify that the Book of Mormon is a testament of
Jesus Christ, and that because of it, we have addition knowledge about our
Heavenly Father´s Plan of Happiness for us.
With happiness and sunshine
Hermana Pollard ☀
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