Week 13

Anyways, this last week has been crazy crazy! 

I met my new companion. Her name is Hermana Pisconte, age 22 from Peru. And taa daaa! She doesn´t speak any English. She can understand a little in context, but other than that, no. It was the weirdest thing when we had our first day together. My last companion, Hermana Rajapakse, spoke English. So I always spoke English with her while we were out working, but I spoke Spanish in lessons. But I knew that I wouldn´t be able to speak English with Hermana Pisconte and it was sink or swim. So suddenly, Spanish just came on like a light switch. I understood the jist of what Hna. Pisconte was saying, and I was able to communicate back to her in understandable Spanish. I told her right off the bat that I don´t speak or understand perfectly, but sometimes we´ll be talking and then she´ll start talking really fast and I have to ask her to slow down. This happened a couple times in the first few days and she laughed and told me that she keeps forgetting that I don´t speak much Spanish. Hahaha

The gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues is real. It´s amazing. Totally amazing. There´s a promise in Doctrine and Covenants that if missionaries will just open their mouths and not worry about what they´re going to say, their mouths will be filled with the words that they need to say. I´ve been amazed many times by what I´ve been able to say when I just speak and don´t worry about it. And sometimes it´s like, “Where did THAT word come from?”

Keep praying, guys. It´s working! =D God has blessed me so much. I wouldn´t be able to do this without Him, or without the enabling power of the Atonement.

In other news, two days ago, Hermana Pisconte and I were working in San Juan de Dios and all of our appointments had fallen through, and we didn´t really know exactly what to do other than contacting. But in the same moment, we had a name come into our heads - Josefa - She´s 19 years old and I only met her once about a month ago with Hermana Rajapakse while we were contacting. But we didn´t teach her.

So we went to her house, and she was there. She was SUPER receptive and SUPER willing and she listened to the message of the Restoration with real interest. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted, and she said that she wanted to come to church, too. She told us that she feels something good when we teach. Something different. I know that the Spirit was testifying to her and that God prepared her to be taught. The feeling that I had after we left her house was amazing. This intense warmth that stayed with me for the rest of the day and I couldn´t stop smiling. Oh my goodness the work is so worth it. SO worth it. It´s indescribable. =) 

The work is tough, but it is soooooo worth it.

Love you all!!!!!

Keep praying and keep the faith! =D

-Hermana Darley

P.S. Fun random fact! “Brea” means “tar” So when you´re saying ¨The La Brea tar pits¨, you´re literally saying “The the tar tar pits.” Hahaha!