We
started off the week with Zone Conference, which was amazing. We talked
about genealogy and family history, basically the whole 6 hour
conference. The Lord sees the great need for the work to be done on BOTH
sides of the veil, so I invite each of you to check out familysearch.org
and see what you can do for your family waiting for the truth on the
other side :) Late Tuesday night, we received a call saying there was a
service project President Pingree (my mission president) wanted us to be
at 8 am the next morning. So Wednesday morning we got up and head out
to the address. Um, for those of you that aren't familiar with Houston,
the closer you get to downtown, the more hood it gets. And when I mean
hood, I mean dirt roads, and chickens running across the streets. Real
life. So anyway, we went to this place called The Heights, its pretty
gnarly, and made my area look like Beverly Hills, but I also finally
felt like I was really in H-town. I was excited and scared all at the
same time, just like I feel every time I go on Tower of Terror :) haha.
Anyway, there was the sweetest black baptist church owned by the same
family for over 65 years. It was completely run down, and needed a lot
of TLC, so with the help of a nearby school, we all got to work. It was
such a fun experience to do service for people in the community. I
didn't know them, but felt instant love for them. Um, also, it was
covered by the local tv station and guess who got interviewed... :D
hahaha. Click on the link. #imfamous http://newsfixnow.com/2014/02/26/community-joins-together-to-rebuild-old-houston-church/
Anyway,
that was Wednesday morning, after we went home and showered we decided
to go over to see a girl named "Sandra" (changed her name for privacy).
Sandra is the less active girl I talked about last week that we had a
really good lesson with. She's been struggling with quite a few
addictions for a quite a while but we are really starting to see a
change in her. Plus, we love her so we decided to go see her and give
her a make over :) She has like super low confidence and is suuuuuper
shy, so we wanted to make her feel good about herself, so we head over
with our beauty bags and had so much fun. She was so happy and we
probably spent like way too much time taking pictures. oh well :) We
also took her shopping with us on Monday, and helped her pick out some
modest clothes to wear to church so we had her put everything on and it
was sooo rad! I just loved it.
Friday
night, we went to see one of our favorite (semi) less-active member.
Hermana "Martinez". She's seriously the best, she always feeds us when
we don't have a meal appointment and she's a single mother to 5 kids.
She's the best. She actually really reminds me of my mom. She's super
hard working, and pretty strict, but its all out of love :) So, we went
over Friday night to say hi, and she was complaining that her HOA was on
her back because her front yard was a mess and she would be charged if
she didn't do anything about it soon. I didn't even know they could do
that? Anyway, we of course offered to help, and she was like GREAT! Be
here tomorrow at 7 am to pull weeds. (insert not excited face) yay!
haha. Just kidding, it was actually pretty fun, and the weather was
super nice. She took us to breakfast and we head over to Home Depot to
get all the supplies. It took all morning, but we pulled all the weeds,
mixed the soil and planted tons of beautiful flowers. It felt so good to
see her so happy and to have accomplished such a big task.
That
night was our adult session of stake conference and we felt impressed
ALL day to take Sandra with us. The only problem was that it was really
far away, Sandra lived super far away and we were basically out of miles
for the week. We tried so many other methods of getting around using
our miles, but nothing was happening. Then the Elders needed a ride,
because they are on bikes, so we figured it was just meant to be that we
needed to take Sandra with us because we needed a third person to drive
the Elders anyway. So we got over the fact that we were basically
screwed on Sunday and were going to have to walk all day, and decided to
do service unto our friends and take everyone with us. We got to
conference and it was great. All the missionaries with the youth of the
stake sang a musical number and Elder Pino of the Seventy spoke. It was
all about members and missionaries working together. So awesome, because
earlier that day at an appointment we felt impressed to share a
scripture about member missionaries, so obviously Heavenly Father was
giving us a heads up lol. Anyway, Sandra, like I said earlier is SUPER
shy, like painfully shy. She won't talk to anyone if she doesn't know
them and has a hard time being alone. These are things I didn't know
until we got there and I saw her in a sea of strangers. I was like, "oh
crap, she's going to have an anxiety attack", but my companion was like
its fine, this is good for her, which I really felt was true. After the
conference we come to find out she use to attend the ward that met at
the building we were at. So like TONS of people knew her. It'd been a
while, but they knew her and her family really well. I could see her
opening up and talking to people and it made me so happy to see her
coming out of her shell. I let her be for a while, because we were all
talking to people, but I would check on her every once in a while. It
had a been a few minutes so I went to look for her and I saw her
standing by herself, and I was like, "Sandra, are you okay?" And she
just starting crying. I was like, what's wrong?? And she told me that
she when she attended this ward she was a completely different person.
She was diligently attending church, and had never even smelled alcohol
or seen drugs, and now has a serious addiction to both. She was like, I
don't even know why I'm crying???! I'm not sad, I feel really hot and I
just want to cry!! I grabbed her and hugged her so tight and told her
what she was feeling was sorrow. Sorrow!! Sorrow for the sins she now
knew she had to repent of. The spirit was testifying to her right then
and there that she needed to repent!! It was AMAZING. She was like
uncontrollably crying by this point and she was like I need to repent!
I'm ready to get help and be better! We were surrounded by tons of
people in the stake and we were just hugging and crying in the middle of
the room. I don't think I have ever been so happy in my entire life
than in that moment. Then an hermana came and tapped us on the back and
she had just spoken to Sandra and found the church addictions counselor
who just happened to freaking be there at THAT moment and asked Sandra
if she wanted to meet with him!!! I mean, are you kidding??? I was like,
holy crap, Sandra needed to come today so that THIS would happen!! She
would not have sorrow or remorse any other way, it had to happen like
this. So she went off with them and I ran up to my companion and just
started crying telling her about this MIRACLE. Because it was, it was a
miracle. I mean, this girl up until a month ago didn't even want to
speak to the missionaries, and she was slowly being prepared but still
hadn't felt that impression for herself, until night. Anyway, it was
getting pretty late, and we had to be home like 30 minutes before, but
we didn't want to rush Sandra, because we knew how important this
meeting was for her. But we were exhausted and we still had a long way
to go and we still had to drop off the Elders. We were actually getting
kinda stressed because it was 10 pm and we didn't even know where Sandra
was. The Hermana that had taken her came out and told us she was still
talking and was making lots of progress so she didn't want to interrupt
her and offered to take her home. It sounded like a great idea, but we
literally couldn't leave her because we had to drive the elders and we
couldn't be alone with them without permission. All of a sudden,
freaking President Pingree pops out of NOWHERE, and he's like, uhhh you
need to go home! We explained the situation, and he approved us to drive
home without her. We walked out of the building and we all just started
screaming. We literally had just had like a zillion miracles happen and
we couldn't explain it. I'm still ecstatic about it. When you are being
obedient and TRULY trying to do what's right, the Lord takes care of
you 110%. We had no idea why we kept feeling impressed to take Sandra
with us, or why no one would freaking pick her up, or why she HAD to
come with us. Heavenly father knew!!! He knew what needed to happen, and
we were just instruments in his plan of Her happiness. oh man, Im still
so freaking stoked. She's seriously the best, and I can't even describe
my excitement for her.
Besides
that we have 1 baptism next Sunday, and 3 the Sunday after. The Lord is
here and he is getting it done. I am so excited about my work here. I
am beyond exhausted and am already counting the days until I can sleep
again :) I can feel all your prayers and love and miss each of you very
much <33333
P.s. we didn't end up going over miles. We actually had like 10 left over!!!!!! #thechurchistrue #tendermercies
p.p.s. My mailbox is still sad :( Next week I'm sending a pic of my sad, EMPTY, mailbox (insert crying face)
p.p.p.s. Watch the link!!! He picked the worst possible angle ever but yeah, that's me. Also, the other girl is my compa :D
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Carbajal
Charity Is Just LOVE With It's Work Boots On :). So... iworkboots.blogspot.com
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