Hello there everyone!
Southerners definitely do not know how to drive in snowy or icey weather! Haha, we actually had a day where there was so much icey sleet that we weren't allowed to drive or leave anywhere. For a day and a half! But it was a pretty neat experience and we still did a lot of missionary work by calling people from the area book (using my temple square skills, of course)! Haha... it was good though because I made some cute visual aids for our teaching because it was driving me crazy just using the little pamphlets that we have.. I'm a happy camper now though for sure! :)
On top of all of that, I was out for almost a day because I got the stomach flu. It really wasn't that bad at all... but our mission nurse told me I had to stay in for at least half of the day.. but instead of just staying home... we went on exchanges with some members and Sister Wily went to the appointments we had and then Sister Sant took good care of me with crackers! Lol. She also altered some of my skirts that needed to be fixed. (sidenote - mom -- she's the one who sends you pictures of me and Sister Wily every week:D )
We also had some interesting experiences with a particular religious denomenation -- they are the only ones who are very passionate on telling us we are going to hell. Here's a short little story for yah... We were leaving an appointment that we had and before we got in the car I heard a family playing basketball. The dad was just there with the 3 little girls and I thought it was super adorable. I felt prompted by the spirit to go speak with them but I was like, that's kind of awkward... i would have to walk up their long driveway for them to even see us... so I'm ignoring the prompting and then I feel it again.. but then I'm like, I literally have no idea what to say to them, but I told sister wily we should go talk to them and she was all for it except she was like "You can talk first!" haha... so we walk up and then this man is super nice! I was so excited. He was just smiling and we were talking about basketball and then he recognized our name tags and was just a really happy person. We were happy he didn't yell at us or tell us to get off his property and i felt a huge sense of relief.. when then he is like "Let's just cut to the chase here" and then goes off on how we are not Christian and that we are a cult and that we are going to live in a hopeless, miserable, Christ-less, eternity because of what we believe in. Then he continues to tell us how we are faulty and on and on and on. Sister Wily and I were like "whoa".. it was like the largest 180 I had ever seen. Long story short, he has never really spoken with missionaries before and goes off of what he learned in his religous school where he got his degree, has never read the book of mormon or even attempted to hear us out. I left him with a Family Proclamation because that's all I really wanted to give him and thank him for playing with his daughters, and invited him to check out mormon.organd to read "Our Search for Happiness" (Which is a book completely centered onunderstanding our faith). I have ABSOLUTELY NO idea why I was prompted to go talk with him, but I trust that there had to be a reason behind it somehow and maybe I will find out after this life. I'm just thankful that I was able to be patient and try to figure out how to help him.. We went back to the car and just prayed and drove in silence for a while until we were able to feel the spirit again & Then got back to work. That's what this is all about - losing yourself in the service of others. <3
Onto the miracles though! --
Sister Wily and I were on our way to the library to do some things when we both felt we should go visit this lady who was a less active member. We went to her home and she was in her room not feeling well her cousin, a 55 yr old man (also less active member), answers the door and lets us in. He was SUPER nice and was such a chatterbox. He talked to us for quite a while giving us advice on all kinds of things and telling us his life story. Sister Wily and I were so amazed at how willing he was to talk to us when we had never before met him. As we are almost preparing to go we ask him if we could share a quick message with him that in the morning we had prepared for the lady. Turns out, Heavenly Father knows us much more than we ever think we could. Which I've realized that especially for me, things like this always happen. Before hand he was telling us about how he has been super succesful his whole life in the career world, he accomplished all of his dreams, worked at places he thought he would only work in his dreams, etc... but that at this moment in his life he feels extremely depressed. We couldn't believe that this man, super happy and nice and welcoming could be depressed, but we share the message that we had for him and it was so perfect! Beyond perfect, actually -- this man started to CRY (not bawling, but tears were definitely coming down)! We are bearing testimony & sharing scripture and he just thanks us over and over again for coming to visit him because it was exactly what he needed and had been praying for. WOW! Basically, it made my entire day. That's what we are here for. To be the answers to prayers of those that are in need of feeling the Lord's love. I totally believe it & I am determined to continue to live it despite those that try to tear us down.
I just know that as we continue to let oppostition slide past us, we will see the blessings and miracles that God wants us to see and experience. We are here to testify of our Savior and bring people closer to Him & no matter what -- I will stand firm in my faith in Him.
I hope you will too.... stay strong!!!
Love always,
Sister Corina Selene Cuevas
p.s. the members of our ward (or congregation) are feeding us dinner EVERY DAY this week! WOOHOOO!!!!! :D :D
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