Stress-Induced Pruny Fingers

Hola Familia!

I am so happy that you made contact with Hermana Haymond... I love that woman.  When she comes to the house make her spaghetti and curry.  Yes, I know that makes absolutely no  sense to eat spaghetti with curry but after living in this country for 18 months eating spaghetti with rice and tortillas she won't even care. Plus it is her two favorite foods.

This week has been crazy, but really good.  We are working hard and definitely seeing some miracles coming out of it.  Our stake president has set the goal that every ward here in A baptizes 8 people... For the elders in the district that means that they need to baptize 4 each because they share a ward... But here in P1, we are the only companionship.  We know it is possible to baptize 8! Please pray for us to reach the goal!!!

We had a week of faith-building experiences.  We had to drop a family that we thought would be baptized this week because they decided to start working Sundays... It was hard to have to let them go.  But, when we showed our faith the Lord definitely blessed us.  By some miracle we had 8 investigators in church on Sunday.  It was a MIRACLE.  We had people who we had talked to in the street just show up at church and the members brought non-member friends.  Wow, we are so blessed to be working here. 

Hermana C is doing great! Training is hard, and so is being trained but we love each other and we are plugging right along. 

For the past few weeks my fingers have been all weirdly pruny (even though it isn't even raining here yet).  But then some crazy blisters started forming so I took advantage when we saw the doctor at Zone training and I asked him what it is... 

The answer?  Stress-Induced Pruny Fingers. 

Okay, that isn't what it is actually called.  It has some type of scientific name but the moral of the story is that my fingers are pruny because I am too stressed out.  But don't worry! I have some finger cream that he gave me and it is getting better. Just one more weird thing to add to the list.

Okay I wanted to share an awesome conversion story with you guys... My district leader is named Elder P.  Elder P is from El Salvador and entered the mission the same time I did.  Although his whole family are members he was only baptized 2 years ago (one year before leaving on the mission).  I guess his mom got baptized with his older siblings when he was 3, but later when his parents divorced everyone went inactive.

Ten years later, the missionaries found and activated his mom (at this point Elder P was 17)  But Elder P wanted NOTHING to do with the missionaries.  He tells us that he would always tell them

"VAYAN AL INFIERNO, MORMONES!" (use google translate)

and tell them other horrible things until they would go away.

According to Elder P the story goes:

"Well... And then some stuff happened.  I made some bad decisions and ran into some problems.  Before I knew it, I found myself in a dirty prison cell in El Salvador.  It was at this point when I was humble enough to actually read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and really have the desire to know if it is true.  I got my answer, got my act together and got baptized.  A year later I left on the mission."

Wow, people.  The Gospel is so true.  It really does have the power to change people and help them get their lives on track.  I really love the promise in the introduction of the Book of Mormon:

¨Invitamos a toda persona, dondequiera que se encuentre, a leer el LIbro de Mormon, a meditar en su corazon el mensaje que contiene, y luego a Preguntar a Dios el Eterno Padre en el nombre de Crist si el libro es verdadero.  Quienes pidad con fe lograran un testimonio.¨

I love how it says TODA PERSONA  that means everyone, people.  The Gospel is true and it is for EVERYONE.  I have seen this Gospel change so many lives of so many different people.  It has changed me, and I testify that it can change anyone.

I love you guys! I hope everything is well.  Please pray for me and for Hermana C and for her family.  Her mom is really struggling with her health.

Love you people!!! Pray that we can baptize here in Palin!

Con amor!

Hermana Wise