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I have terrible self control

You know when you just get the giggles and nothing in the entire world can stop them? Even a sweet old lady's feelings? I tried real hard. I really did. We visited a member who lives in a residency home this week and I just gotta say, most entertaining day ever. We decided to take a picture and send it to the relief society group chat so that she could say hi. Before we took the picture she had to go change her shirt real quick because she didn't want to be "Sonia, the one who always is wearing the same shirt." that is what started the loss of my self control. And then I completely lost it when she couldn't quite get her hand facing the right way to wave for the photo. But on the 6th or so try, she eventually did get it (pictured below). And then she decided that she just really really needed to kill the fly in the room, which she proceeded to do with some magic spray stuff. Now picture this: a 90 something year old lady with (not so) amazing reflexes, wielding a spray bottle and a "ready to kill" look on her face. I hope you understand why I could not keep it together. And if you don't, we'll, you had to be there. 

This whole week went really well! Yesterday we just saw miracle after miracle. Manuel and his menos activo son finally made it church! So we're right on track for the baptism on the 22nd! And Manuel has gotten into joke telling; let's just say I'm building my arsenal of Spanish dad jokes. And he really loves knowing people's heights, but he measures heights by the shoulders. And since we don't know our heights in centimeters, he always comes and stands next to us to compare. And every time he stands next to me I shrug my shoulders up to make myself "taller" and he gets quite the kick out of that. 

We also had a bunch of random people show up to church this week and declare that they were investigating the church. We'd never met them before, so we're not sure how they figured out that we call it that, but we're excited to start working with them! The best of all though was that our recent convert brought her mom to church! When she first got baptized, she didn't even tell her family about the church because she was scared; and it's been baby steps, but she showed up to church yesterday and we were ecstatic. And when the meetings were over, a bunch of the members were urging us to go talk to the mom. So I went over and the first thing she said was, "how can I get baptized?" like whaaat? I didn't quite know what to do so i just told her we could come over and visit her and talk more about it the next day. And she was like "and that's when I'll get baptized?" and I was like "hehehe not quite."  but it was incredible! So we're excited for that cita tonight! 

We also had the puertas abiertas this week! And it went so well! Lots of people came, friends of members, random people off the street, and a few of our friends! We have a lot of new potential now from that so I'm super excited about that! As missionaries, our part was to show the baptismal font and talk about our role here in spain and what baptism means in our church. Afterwards, the famous Adela came up to me and told me I need to speak louder. I laughed and brushed it aside because that's only like the 674th time that somebody has said that to me in my life. But she continued to tell me a story and explain that we're the Lord's servants. We're not speaking for ourselves, we're speaking for others; so we need to speak up and make sure everyone can hear us and understand us. That was a powerful learning experience for me. 

Funny part of the week; on Sunday last week, a member family signed up to feed us lunch on Friday. So we showed up on friday excited to eat and share a message. After visiting with the family for a few minutes, it became very apparent to us that they had completely forgotten about the "eating" part of the eating cita and they only remembered the spiritual message part. We didn't really know quite what do because we had only prepared like a 5 minute message and we had no way to communicate without the family feeling awkward. But don't worry we made it work. And the family is super cute and we got to know them better so it all worked out. We didn't get to eat that day though haha. 

Today for pday we had to go to Madrid to get my residency card and it was actually the best day ever! I got to see my district from the MTC and then spent the day with my MTC companion and it was the best ever!! We visited the palace and a cathedral in Madrid and got some fun food. And it was so much fun to catch up with her and exchange our stories from the last transfer. And tomorrow we have zone conference and I'll get to see Hermana Kennedy Frame!! I'm very excited for that! 

This week as I was studying up for the puertas abiertas, I found this scripture about baptism and it is now one of my favorites. Mosiah 5:7-

"And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters."

I just love that so much. What does it mean to have our hearts changed by faith on His name? That's something for everyone to think about this week. But I can also feel God's love for us so strongly in those words- we are his sons and his daughters. Everything he does is for us. 

I've been reading a talk from Lawrence corbridge, and this is one of my favorite parts: 

"Trust him who knows all things. Trust him who  has all power. Trust him whose love for you is perfect. Trust him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins and for your weaknesses as well. Trust him, that he will make of you, immeasurably more, than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God."

If we turn everything over to God, he will create something incredible. But he can't do that until we let him. We can allow our hearts to be changed by faith on his name and that is what I am hoping to do. I know that he knows me better than I know myself and if I align my will with His, I will truly be a part of His unstoppable work. I know that God has something amazing planned for all of you and is hoping you'll let him in to allow him to start that change.

I love you all so much and hope you're doing well!

Hermana Pendleton






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