So, this week we had some extremes. Namely, snow, and fire.
First,
we had snow. It snowed this week. We got six inches of snow, in april.
What? Who does that? Well, it happened. Weird eh? so we broke out the
snowshovels and had ourselves a second christmas, shoveling everyones
snow. :P But, that was alright.
Other than snow, this week was really good! We've
been finding a lot of potentials over the bast two weeks that we never
really managed to get anything set up with... until this week! We saw a
lot of the " fruits" of our labors. That was neat. :) Probably the
coolest guy we found was Akre. Akre was a testimony to us of the
principle of Talking to EVERYONE. We saw him in the street, headphones
in, and on his cellphone (multitasking), powerwalking towards us.
Sometimes it's easy to just ignore people like that, because They
obviously won't be happy to meet with us, but Elder Murphy and I had set
a goal that week to contact like mad men, so we stopped him anyways. He
gave us around four seconds total, so we didn't even tell him who we
were we just asked for his phone number and told him we'd call him. When
we called him it turns out that He actually had recognized us because
He's seen us before in the Ivory Coast where He's from! That was neat.
our first visit with him was short and not too exciting, but when we
came back we found out that his sister had just died that morning. Right
there, we felt the weight of our calling a bit, as he looked at us and
said "I'm sort of in denial... and I don't know what to do..... can you
help me?"
Akre's doing a lot better now, but feel free to keep
him in your prayers. Speaking of keeping people in your prayers, I
almost forgot to tell you about the other extreme part of our week.
Fire.
There's a family in the ward that just showed up
here from Mexico a month and a half ago, the Mendoza family. Br. Mendoza
was released as a bishop in Mexico to come here, and him and his wife
are some truly amazing people, as are all of their children. They showed
up with next to nothing, except a hope and some Faith, and Br. Mendoza
set to looking for a job while the ward outfitted their family with all
the love that Latter-day saints can provide. (That makes for a lot of
love!) Then, misfortune struck, and Br. Mendoza slipped on the ice and
broke his leg. They just showed up, so they don't get the whole "free
health-care" thing yet, so that was quite a challenge... but! The whole
family of six faced it with a smile, and they've all been doing
wonderful anyways. I look up to this family a lot.
Yesterday we got a phone call from the relief
society president saying their appartment had burned down. We ran down
to help them right away, and saw the last thing I could have expected
from a family that's been through as much as they have. When Br. Mendoza
saw me he came hopping up to me with the one crutch he'd made it out
with.... and his same huge warm smile and said "my friend! It's good to
see you! Did you see my appartment? I think the devil doesn't like me
very much." Then he laughed at his own joke. What a guy.
I never stop learning from that family.... even the
kids were the most positive people in the world. They're a family that
truly realizes what is important in life. Family. They all made it out
alright, noone was hurt, and even though they have to start again from
ground zero, None of them seemed the least bit affected by it. Just
another trial. Just another opportunity to grow. Anyone remember Finding
Nemo? Just keep swimming? It's like their family motto. They're
awesome. :) I think we could all benefit from the attitude and the
mindset that they have. How often do we let the little things in life
turn into a big deal? how often dow e let ourselves get taken out of the
action because something material has been lost? How often do we lose
sight of the big picture, of what's really important? Please, I'd like
to ask all of you to pray for the Mendoza family, and to remember them
and their faith the next time you find yourself getting upset or
discouraged. With the gospel in mind, nothing is all that bad.
I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week! Keep on keeping on!
Love,
Elder Christensen
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