Called to Serve Him : Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We have seen so many miracles this week! We have been so blessed and I have learned and grown a lot!

Last Saturday, we saw one of our investigators and all was well. We went to see her again on Tuesday and everything had changed completely. When we got to her house, she began telling us that her step dad had gotten in a fight with their neighbor and was in jail, and her mom was downtown trying to bail him out.

She told us, "It's crazy how everything can change just like that."

After a while of talking to her, we decided to go get her some pizza to get her mind off of things. We were gone for about an hour and when we returned, things had gone from bad to worse. Her mom and her were both crying and she handed me a note. In the short time that we were gone, they received an eviction notice, and they are being forced to leave by January 9 because of what had happened with her step dad. Just like she had said, things could change in the blink of an eye.

We started visiting her a lot more because of the possibility that she will be moving out of our area, and a miracle has come from that! The person that gave them the eviction notice is the Relief Society president in our ward. Because of this, we learned that the mom of this girl doesn't want anything to do with our church, but she still continues to let us in! What a great blessing and miracle it is that we have the opportunity to continue to visit her daughter.

It has cooled down and been raining a lot here! Because of raining season, there are ditches on the sides of the road that get SUPER muddy when wet. Normally, we park in them because there is literally nowhere else to. We learned what a terrible idea that is if it has recently rained though.

We were going to visit an inactive family, and I drove and parked where we had once before. I couldn't tell that it was muddy, but we figured out pretty quickly that it was when our car stopped moving. Dryden jumped right out and started trying to push the car as I gunned it, but nothing happened. It was dark outside, it started to rain again, and we were in the country with not too much around. After about 40 minutes of trying literally everything to get us out of the mud, we had only managed to get ourselves even more stuck!

As I sat there, I quickly said a silent prayer just asking that someone would come and help us because I didn't know what to do. About 5 minutes later, a man with long hair, a beard, and a beer, asked if we needed help. He told us that his dog had wanted to go for a walk and so he decided to take it, although it was raining outside. Twenty minutes later, his truck had pulled us out of the mud and we were on our way again.

I know that God answered my prayer. He always does and He always will.

Sunday brought another GREAT miracle. The missionaries always stand at the door, welcoming people in. Sacrament was about to start, so we began shutting the door. All of the sudden three of our investigators walked in! We were totally shocked, especially because earlier that week, we had talked that same family and they had told us that they are happy in their church, and have no plans to change it. I don't know what changed their minds, but they came and stayed for all three meetings! It was really cool.

One of the inactives that we have been working with also came to church and is officially reactivated! He got up and bore his testimony which was so powerful. It has been such a blessing seeing him grow and come back to church.

We had some pretty funny things happen this week too!

One hermana in the ward invited all of the missionaries over for dinner. Dryden and I showed up early to help her out. Right when we got there, she took us to the sink and gave us a big bowl of jumbo shrimp to clean. I had the pleasure of decapitating, unshelling, and cleaning those bad boys with my hands and I almost died. Luckily, I am serving with some great people that didn't want to make me suffer more, and Elder Jorquera ate the shrimp for me later on haha.

We went to a members house with the elders to teach them English. They asked us what we had done on new years eve, and we told them we had gone to a party (no worries, it was at a members house and it started with a prayer haha). One of the elders told them that they had gotten sick that night from food that he had eaten earlier that day. He tried telling them that someone had given him a burrito that he had forgotten to refrigerate, but eaten anyway. Instead, he told them that a member had given him a PERRITO (a dog) and he had eaten it without refrigerating it. They were mortified, but we all had a good laugh once they realized what he meant.

I love serving in Oakcrest and I love being a missionary!

Love,

Hermana Rupp