A Despedido? Sure we'll go.

Hey y'all

Wow what a week! We had zone conference, Spanish Stake Conference, exchanges and many many miracles!! Also yes, I think it was the hottest week of the year!! 100 degrees and with humidity it feels like 115! The Elders on bike died hahahaha.

We taught Monica this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which was a great lesson! She told us she shared the Plan of Salvation to a friend of hers that lived down the street. She said her friend's daughter passed away as a baby so she told her where the baby went. It blew our minds that Monica was teaching someone else what we taught her!! Crazy!! I loveeee Monica she is incredible!

We had exchanges this week which was super fun! I learned a lot too! So at the end of the night we were invited to a "despedido." Which actually means "fired" or "to say goodbye," according to google translate. But anyway we had no clue what it was but we were invited by a member so we went. So we walked into this apartment where they had a picture of a man and candles everywhere. It looked like they were mourning for someone's death. So we just sat down quietly. After talking to them a bit about where they were from and so forth, one of them says, "Well now that you're here, why don't you start us off." What???? Hahahaha...we didn't even know this guy. So we were like well let's start with a prayer....then we shared a scripture and invited everyone to share some of their thoughts about their uncle we didn't even know. During all of this Spanish I became a bit confused...turns out that was his actual funeral and they wanted us there to share and conduct the entire funeral for him! [Oh the call today HC also said there was a vase up front that she later learned were is remains.] It was sooooo awkward! And meanwhile, while on exchanges in my actual area, the Hermanas found a part member family who wants to baptize their whole family. So they set 3 new baptismal dates and ...I conducted a funeral for a man I didn't even know! But hey, this family they found came to stake conference which was an hour drive so that was a huge miracle!!

Yesterday after a member dinner we had Finding for 2 hours and so we decided to pray to know exactly where to go and what to do. Right after we said amen our phone started ringing. It was a women who has previously worked with many many missionaries for lots of years. She called and said "I am home and would like y'all to come over." Hahaha it shocked us so much we went right over. Our conversation ended up being two hours long! Loco! Their family's whole life is pretty crazy but we really tried listening and seeing how we could help! They at one point said, "we know missionaries only want baptisms and that's all you're here for." That made me really sad to hear. After they had been telling us about their hard life we tried asking questions to really know what they needed. They have had some issues with some people of the church which has made them extremely angry. I started to speak and didn't really know where I was going with it but I said, "You have incredible faith and I know you have been wronged but you will be blessed for forgiving those people." I started crying as I spoke those words, not sure why, but I do cry a lot ;) They began to cry as well. I don't know if they really will but they eventually came to the conclusion and told us they felt they needed to come to church! So we are going 30 minutes early to their house on Sunday and plan on helping their kids get ready for church!

Anyway it was a great week!! I love Houston! It is a super cool place! I love you all & miss ya'll

Remember to be thankful to our Heavenly Father everyday! Les amo muchismo!!