Hey everyone!!!!
Ahhh this week was full of ups and downs!! I've learned a lot about what it really means to be a missionary. The week started out pretty crappy, on Tuesday we had another lesson with a family that are investigators, the Gaminos. We were pretty excited because our first lesson with them went pretty well and they seemed really receptive to what we were teaching. So we went into the second lesson super ready with the Restoration. The lesson started out well, Brother Gamino had lots of questions and we were able to answer them all and he seemed to like it a lot. Brother Gamino asked the question, in your opinion which is better: someone who is well read in religion and reads all the books and is knowledgeable OR someone who walks by faith and leans on their trust in Heavenly Father. I told him that I would like to imagine a 3rd person who is both knowledgeable AND walks by faith. Because, as we know, we can pray as much as we can but sometimes it takes action, and action often comes from reading and studying the scriptures but faith is the first step. I invited them to try to read the Book of Mormon because you can't dispute something until you've actually read it/tried it (including food, yes I know mom....) but Brother Gamino said straight up, no if we're being honest we aren't going to read it, and we aren't going to go to church. So we thanked them, left them with a prayer, and left.
Something good that happened though was that on Monday night we had FHE with the Morales family (sister morales is from Honduras!). It's kind of a sad situation, her husband got into some anti mormon stuff and is inactive now so she's struggling a lot. We played a game with them and talked about the importance of keeping our foundation strong through trials.
Anyways, we've also volunteered a lot this week at the animal shelter. On Tuesday we and the Elders helped Karen (the owner) get a sheep back up on its feet. Curly, the sheep, had been laying on his legs for so long that his joints got locked up so he hadn't stood up for about 3 months (can you imagine that??) so we went in there and got him up in a hammock and Karen massaged his legs for awhile, and the Elders have been going over there every day to help her do that. It's incredible to me that the elders make time for that, even though they're completely busy they make time every day to help this sheep! Karen's a less active, but the Elders cover that area so I think it's really good for them to be getting to know her. On Saturday we went back over there and mucked out horse stalls (haven't done THAT in awhile......) so my arms are basically killing me right now haha but it's all good.
On Tuesday we had dinner with the Berta family, who are from Uruguay and they are SOOOOO cool haha they have 5 kids I think and during the whole dinner they were cracking Nacho Libre quotes so I fit in well with them :) On Tuesday night we got a call from the STLs wondering if we could do exchanges that night, so I went to Lehi with Hermana DeJesus and Hermana Mills stayed in Eagle Mountain with Hermana Ricks, which she was super worried about cause she doesn't know the area very well (been there done that!). But it was super cool to go to Lehi. Exchanges are 24 hours, so I spent the night there on Tuesday and came back Wednesday night. Sister DeJesus was "born" in Eagle Mountain and stayed here for 7 months so she's super close to lots of the families here and knows the area super well and loves it so much, so it was nice being around her and telling her about how everyone was doing there. I also got a sneak peak of what it's like to be an STL...lots of drama and running around everywhere hahaha but we got Costa Vida (half off missionary perk!!) which was wonderful. It was weird being in a "city" again. But we taught a few lessons, it was cool cause we found a new investigator who seemed super interested in eternal families. We also had a Fellowshipper come with us to a few of the lessons which was cool cause she was getting ready to go on a mission and it reminded me of me a few months ago! I'm so excited for her! Anyways the cool thing was that we had an appointment not show up that evening, but as we were walking down the apartment steps we ran into this girl who was getting into her apartment and she saw us and said, oh you're missionaries! And we were like yeah, and started to walk away but she said "honestly I've been struggling a lot with my faith lately" like just out of the blue! Not many people would do that! It was sooo random but so inspired, so the Elders are going to start seeing her and helping her out. But if that appointment hadn't cancelled, we wouldn't have ran into her! Super chido. Anyways on the way home Hermana DeJesus and I talked for awhile about my struggles and she assured me I was a fantastic missionary and that if I ever needed anything to just text her and she could come do exchanges and help me out. She's such a sweet person so I felt a lot better going back to Eagle Mountain.
On Friday we had Zone Conference in Alpine! (Alpine has suuuuper nice houses by the way). Anyways it was pretty cool, President talked a lot about the importance of having the goal of going to the temple with our investigators. Because we don't just teach people to baptize them. It's just the first step in eternal progression. We also learned how to clean up our area books and learned how to do a chapel tour, which was awesome. Then the ward in alpine set up a cute Valentine's Day lunch for us and all the primary kids had made us Valentine's Day cards which was soooo sweet!! Then we left and drove the hour back to Eagle Mountain. That evening we ate with the Leon family, who are less active but starting to come back to church. I found out that sister Leon is from Puebla Mexico!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited I told her that's where my dad served and that I've been there and it was my favorite place in Mexico!
On Saturday we did weekly planning and volunteering AND we went around heartattacking people's doors. We did Presidente Perez's door, Alma's door, Vero's car, the Morales' door, the Torres, and the DelLago family's door. It was so much fun!! We had such a blast. We also did Karen's door at the animal shelter :) so we spent the majority of Valentine's Day doing service which kept us busy from thinking about the fact that we couldn't really do anything for Valentine's Day haha BUT for dinner that night Vero and Josue took us out to Saratoga to eat which was super fun, their little daughter Bryanna finally got my name right!! (Except she calls me Mister Segle instead of Sister Segle hahahhahahahaha) then we went and got ice cream. It was a good night and I'm so thankful for them, they could've gone out on a date for Valentine's Day but fed us instead. Except on the way home Josue began talking about how he thinks people who are sent on their missions out of the country must be stronger than those who are sent to the states. That seems to be a trend with people on the last few weeks. We love being told as missionaries that we aren't strong, but I wasn't offended because I know I'm in the best mission in the world right now.
The BEST NEWS IN THE WORLD though is what happened on Sunday. We had church, and we had all of our investigators there and lots of less actives came! Then we had dinner with Presidente Perez and his family and we had pulled pork! Haha I think she thought we didn't like Mexican food cause both of us are white now, but we assured her we love Mexican food. That evening we had an appointment with Vero. We were planning on showing her the mormon message, Testimony of the Book of Mormon which is basically Jeffrey R Holland bearing his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It is AMAZING. Go watch it right now. But anyways, when I was gone on exchanges they had a lesson with Vero and had her pray about March 7 for her baptismal date and she said she would try it out, but she wasn't sure. So for this lesson we were prepared to help her understand Joseph Smith more because that was her only doubt really. So we asked her if she had prayed about Joseph smith and she said she had. We asked her if she was ready to be baptized and she was like ahhhh I don't know, I feel like I have a lot of faults. So we decided to review the baptismal interview questions with her. She aced them all, and when we finished she looked at us and she was smiling and she was like well.....I think I'm ready. I was like REALLY????? SO VERO IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON MARCH 7!!!! She's been taught for months and months and months an pe she finally decided that she was ready. She's been ready all along though. She's an incredible woman and I told her she'll be my first investigator to be baptized and she was like awwww Hermana I am honored. She also said she's excited to do baptisms in the temple. Her husband will baptize her and she's still trying to figure out who she wants to speak. Gosh it was just amazing. I've never been so
happy for someone else since my best friend got baptized last year. It was an amazing feeling. It was one of those moments that was like OH okay I'm doing some good here and I'm a missionary for a reason :)
Oh, one more thing! That referral we got, they had a lesson with the family while I was away on exchanges and we have a lesson with them tonight!!! That's 6 new investigators!!!! SO AWESOME.
I guess my message this week would be about the importance of keeping your head up and looking for the good in every day. Some days are hard. Some days are soooooo so so hard. But there's always something you can learn from those days. And the sun will always come back up in the morning. The important thing is to keep your faith and trust in the Lord, and no matter what's going on to always smile. No matter how hard it is. No matter if you feel like your crumbling under the weight of everyone's problems. No matter if you feel like you can't speak the language. No matter if you feel like you're responsible for the salvation of every person you come across. It doesn't matter. As long as you stay positive and remember whose hands you're in, things are going to turn out okay.
I love all of you so much and I appreciate every email, letter, and package you give me. I miss you all SO MUCH!
Hermana Segle
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