Angels Among Us

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe it … I am an aunt! I am just so mad that I am not there; holding babies here is enough of a temptation. I told my brother to not feed baby Jackson too much so that when I get back he will still be little!

One day we were having lunch with a family, and the moms always offer more food and get sad if we don’t eat the food because they think we don’t like it. Its normal, but this week I swear I almost jumped out of my chair because one Irma, who was already a little intimidating, basically growled/ yelled at us to “eat more!" I was eating out of fear … it was hilarious. This week we have just been working like crazy! We have been praying to find families and have been just so hungry to have a baptism in this area. We are inviting people to be baptized when we first contact them in the streets. We are trying to weed out those who are really interested and those who aren’t … we don't have any time to lose!

We have found so many awesome families that are married! That is one of the biggest struggles here; no one is married. We know that salvation is a personal matter, but exaltation is a family matter, and we want to help families here enjoy the blessings of the temple.

This week we were supposed to baptize Irma Joselia, but then one day we passed her in the road loading up the things from her house onto the back of a horse wagon. She was moving back in with her boyfriend. Only missionaries can understand the disappointment felt when you know that you taught a principle and they go back on it. You have feelings of inadequacy, thinking that maybe you didn’t teach well or clear enough. Anyway, we started to talk to her and were pleading with her to open her eyes to the blessings that she could have if she waited until they got married. While we were teaching, men were still loading the stuff up and my companion and I wanted to throw ourselves in front of the door or take drastic measures to stop her from making this decision. So many people in the world today are lacking a perspective. They are so focused on the here and now that they don’t have the patience to wait for the blessings. Too many times our choices reflect our fears and not our hopes. Anyway, she said that she would live the law of chastity, and they are going to get married.

It is interesting here in the mission how fast things change. This same irma that I am talking about was completely against the church and was literally scary because she just looked at us with a face like she wanted to kill us, but then after a couple lessons she completely changed. She was completely against reading the Book of Mormon, and then the other day started opening it and said that she couldn’t believe she was actually going to read it. She even defended the church in front of her boyfriend when talking about living the law of chastity, and he asked why they couldn’t be baptized in another church because they don’t require that they live this law, and she said, "no, this is the only true church, I know it". I love seeing angels working on our side, softening the hearts of so many. Some people may wonder why God lets people talk bad about the church, and have evil chase after the good, but the reason is that opposition against the good will send truth seekers to their knees for their answers and they will receive them. I have such a testimony that my companion and I are not working alone. We feel comforted, lifted and strengthened in this work through angels among us.

Love you,

Sister Vance