Hermana Carbajal's Texan Adventure: Heavenly Father answers prayers!

Well.... I know my posts have been a little Debbie Downer-ish lately, but it's because when you are a missionary and literally no one ever wants to talk to you or come to church, or even cares about you, it can kinda get to you. BUT, our prayers have been answered. This week BOTH less active families that we have been working with non-stop for the past 4 weeks that I have been here, and BOTH of our investigators CAME TO CHURCHHHHHH. Ahhhhhhhh!! It's just crazy because these are such small things that I totally took for granted in my last area. I honestly have no idea why this area is so much harder, but in my last area people just made commitments and kept them! So it was like normal to me, you teach, them come to church, they accept the gospel, and get baptized! Nope. It is NOT that easy. I was just in like the most prepared area of all time apparently. I know this is the reason why we have to change areas, to not get too prideful and lazy, and keep working. And boy, have my eyes been opened! Anyway, they all come to church, it has taken a whole month, about 8 dozen batches of homemade chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and serious stalking, but the point is, they all came!!! When I saw them walk through the doors, my eyes just filled with tears and my heart almost skipped a beat. It made me feel like we ARE making a difference, they ARE listening, and we ARE helping them make a change. So, yay!!! Please keep praying for our area so they will continue to come to church :)

Okay, so obviously yesterday was like the best day of my life, but that is not the only miracle that happened! Well, a little back story to this week, we had zone conference which was AMAZING, like seriously unreal, it was exactly what I needed :) But it was pretty far away, so we drove there and used a lot of miles, and we went to Marilyn's baptism on saturday!! Yeeeee! It was so so so so so good, but that was also SOOO far away, and basically used 90 miles in one day, and we are only allotted 275/week. So basically, yesterday we had 21.5 miles left for the day and our church is 8 miles both ways, so we were pretttttty stressed that we were literally going to have to walk the entire day. However, the Lord BLESSES His servants. He totally takes care of us :)

So, we went to church, everyone came, it was so rad, we arranged to have a lesson at the building after church so we didn't have to drive to their home, that was great. Then we had a lunch appt. that was kinda far away but we just planned on leaving our car there and walking the two miles to a trailer park to go contacting, so it was obviously going to be awful but I was mentally preparing myself for it. We had lunch, and the hermana's all, "hey have you guys ever tried the trailers next door?" "What trailers??" "The one's next door!" She walks us outside, and literally points to the trailers on the other side of her FENCE! I was like, what the heck?!?!?! That was my first time at this hermana's house, so I had no idea, but apparently my companion didn't know either!!!! So that was a freaking miracle. Instead of walking 4 miles in the 110 degree heat yesterday, we drove our car across the street to a trailer park no one has been to before #bendiciones. We prayed and began to contact. We knocked on like 6 trailers, no one was interested or even spoke spanish, so we were getting a little frustrated but then we found a trailer that seemed interesting. We went up to the door and knocked just once, and this huge guy covered in tats opens the door. I was like "uhhhh hi, we're missionaries.." "yeah, I know who you are..." "Oh good! well we're here to invite people to grow their faith in Christ." He pauses for a second and says, "is it okay if we sit down? Do you have time to talk?" (me in my head) I mean......YEAH!!!!! Duh! haha. So we sat outside on his porch and talked for two hours. We stated our purpose, and answered his questions on the purpose of life and bore witness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and of the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. Probably one of the best contacts of my whole mission. He was so intrigued and so curious and had so many good questions. He just got out of jail, and found an old Bible in his cell. He had never even opened a Bible before and he said he had a feeling like he needed to read it. He read it non-stop and since he's been out he has been looking for more. He says he believes God helped him get out of jail, so that he could serve Him. Welp, I mean, a miracle??? I'd say so. He is so precious and just wants to learn like crazy. We are coming back this week to start the lessons. He is amazing and we are excited to see what is going to happen :)

I know there are people that are prepared to listen in this area! It's been a little tricky finding them but they are out there! Please pray for this area so that we can find those people that are searching for more truth :) Transfers are this week already! This transfer is shortened by a week because of a Worldwide Mission President conference. I'm pretty sure we're getting our Ipad's after it X) pero vamos a ver!

I love you all so much and hope you all have a wonderful week full of love and service!!!

Les amo con todo mi corazon!!
Hermana Carbajal xoxoxo

So I forgot to mention this in my email but...something else happened this week. On wednesday, I was suuuper sick with the flu and I just wanted to cry because it had been yet another day of rejection, when we walked up to our door and there are ton of little handprints all over it. I was like, what the heck? Yeah, don't worry that one of my BFFS was in Houston, in Spring (where I live) and was visiting and found me! Ahhhhh #bestdayofmylife #tendermercies #everyoneelsecomefindmetoo ;)