Thanks for the letters --Justin's, Mom’s, and Dad’s were all pretty sweet.
I want the talk that Dad quoted but I think its Elder Bednar from the last conference. I just got all the talks in the Liahona, but they didn't send enough copies in English so I got a Spanish copy...oh well it’s just another way to improve my Spanish! Justin talked about charity. I have been having a lot of thoughts about pride lately and what we can do to get rid of pride because somebody told me it is the first and greatest sin or something like that. But I think charity is the opposite of pride because when we are charitable we don't think about ourselves, but everyone around us. If we think about everyone around us then we are completing with the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. It’s all kind of complicated but anyway this all started because the other day I was thinking how humble I was...there is my first mistake. The minute we think about ourselves and we start having thoughts about how great we are even if the thoughts are about how humble we are then we have already stepped into the realm of pride.
Anyway this week was super sweet. I think I am reaping the blessings of working hard in week 6 of last transfer. On Sunday we had a member bring a friend to church. She was super cool-- she loved church, is 16 and has a kid that's 1 and a half. (Welcome to Mexico). We go to visit her and we found out that she is living with her boyfriend so we talk to her about the law of chastity and commit her to talk to her boyfriend about splitting up or get married. I left the lesson a little doubtful because these are the situations hardest to break up. Anyway we came back 2 days later and it went a little like this.
Um...Hermana did you have a chance to talk to your boyfriend about getting married.
Um.........no......but he hit me and then he left......so we are not together anymore.
Oh OK that sounds good is everything all right.
Yep better than ever!
It was super funny she acted like she didn't even care, and she had a big smile on her face so that's cool. She came to church this week and has a baptismal date for next week. We will see what happens.
That was sweet because we didn't really have anybody to baptize this week, but now we do. Our baptism this week fell through, but this week he promised us that he will come through. I think he will. He even asked us on Sunday what clothes he needs to bring to get baptized.
We had an interesting experience on Thursday as we were knocking doors. I knocked a door by myself. Elder Garcia was knocking another door on the other side of the street. Anyway I was trying to get rid of a stinky attitude because it was raining and kind of cold, so I just decided to change. I decided all the rest of the doors I was going to knock because I wasn't to help someone in their life through the gospel of Jesus Christ instead of waiting until we could stop because it was time to go home. I knocked my first door with this new attitude, and a little child opened the door. I asked him if his parents where home and he said yes and he ran back in to the house. Anyway this girl comes out like 12 years old more or less. She told me that her mom was busy and couldn't accept us right now, but I felt like I should push to get in the door. I told her that I wanted to talk directly to her mom and that we where missionaries and came to help them. She responded OK hold on a second and she came back after about 2 minutes and told us we could come in. By this time Elder Garcia was by my side. We entered the house pretty normal and entered a bed room where we found what looked to be like a 30 year old lady laying in bed. I could tell from her face that she had some sort of problem but I wasn't sure what. Anyway we start the lesson and everything is going well. She proceeds to tell us that she has an infection in her foot that is making her toe grow and she showed us her foot. It was pretty messed up and really inflamed. Anyway we start talking about her needs and how she has some surgery on Sunday and how she wants to go to church with us but she can’t because she has this surgery. Then suddenly she tells all her kids to go outside and play, and so everybody leaves to go outside and it’s her and us two. She starts telling us about how she has been kidnapped from age 5 to age 18 and when she finally was released from this old guy that kidnapped her she returned to her home and her Mom told her that she was dirty and kicked her back out on to the street. Then she started living with men -- Because she didn't have any money and she got pregnant like 10 times. The 2 men that she lived with just punched her in the stomach until the baby died or just let them live and that's how she has 3 kids right now. So basically she just lived like that until somebody left her with a house and 3 kids about 3 months ago when this thing started with her foot her boyfriend left her. Here is a woman from so much abuse, and so much trouble in her life she basically feels worthless. She proceeded to tell us that about a week ago she bought poison and during the surgery (this past Sunday yesterday) on her foot she was going to inject herself and kill herself. Then she started to tell us that she was also praying that somebody would come and rescue her and if nobody came then there is no God and there is no point to this life but suffering for absolutely nothing. Suicide became her first option. We told her that if God did send somebody it’s us, and talked to her about her family and the life that is ahead of her, and that killing herself is not going to help her children. She agreed with us, and with tears rolling down her face thanked us for coming. We left a Book of Mormon with a part separated for her to read. Actually it was Alma 34 or 36 anyway the part that talks about Alma's conversion story. She said that she would read it even though it’s hard for her to read because she never went to school. She said that she had decided not to commit suicide because God answered her prayers.. so all I could really say after that was HOLY SMOKES! That's crazy! I have never quite seen anything quite like that. What a terrible life.
I told her all of her pain and all of her sorrow would turn into joy through our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We left pretty content and she was as well. It was pretty intense….so Elder Hendricks and Elder Garcia along with the Holy Ghost saved a life this week. The sprit did it all that was my trick. So pretty much this week was pretty sick, and we almost baptized but that's all right our investigator will jump in the font next week. Anyway that's about it thanks for your letters and support.
Elder Hendricks
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