Cápitan Bermudez

The Bus ride to Cápitan Bermudez was pleasant, I took the opportunity to share the gospel with the woman who was sitting next to me.  When we got there, I was dropped off in the middle of the city on the main road.  I hailed a remís and went to meet my new companion.  She was from Utah and had been there for 3 weeks.  We sat down and talked about her experience so far.  She said that they didn't have any appointments scheduled, so basically, we were starting from scratch.  We made a plan and got to work.  I have to admit, I was scared every day.  I didn't know the area, I barely knew the language and she knew much less.  But, we trusted that the Lord would be with us and help us.  We started knocking doors and talking to people in the street.  On day two we taught a first discussion.  It was her first one.  It wasn't great, but we did our best.  We taught another first discussion that week and invited about 20 people to church.  

I really liked Hermana Ireland.  She was very humble, eager to learn and brave.  She was very loving and her desires were in the right place.  She was great, but she was also very slow...at everything and wanted to sit and talk about her feelings a lot.  For example, it took her 10 minutes to make her bowl of cereal each morning.  She would get out a bowl, set it on the table.  Get out the cereal, set it on the table.  Get out the milk, set it on the table.  Get a banana, get a spoon.  Everything was one thing at a time.  Then she would pour a little cereal into the bowl.  Then peel the banana cut a few slices and set them one by one on top of the cereal so they wouldn't overlap.  Then another layer of cereal and another layer of bananas etc. and all at the pace of a sloth.  It drove me a bit insane.  To fix it, I just made her breakfast every morning while she was getting dressed.   

I also made a rule that we would only speak Spanish which really limited her ability to talk about home and her feelings.  I tried to be sensitive to how she was feeling, but I didn't feel like talking and dwelling on it was going to help.  We just needed to get to work.  So, we did.  During that time, I decided to refocus myself on getting certified in the discussions and I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish.  

Within a short period of time we found some people to teach.  However, the couple we were teaching were living together and waiting for one of them to get divorced before they could get married.  They had no idea how long it would take for all that to happen.  Another woman said she wanted to get baptized, but she was in a wheelchair and wanted to wait until she could walk.  We found another man, Aroldo, who had been reading the Book of Mormon.  We had the first discussion with him and he came to church with us.  We went back for the second discussion, but his wife wasn't home, so we couldn't go in.  We met another man who said he had been praying and fasting for answers to his prayers and we showed up the next day.  We talked and testified of Christ and he said that he believed that what we were teaching was true.  He agreed to come to church with us on December 22.  None of them continued on with the discussions.

We were doing all the right things.  We were being 100% obedient, doing all of our studying, opening our mouths, but we weren't having much success and went through a bit of a drought.  I was getting frustrated and starting to doubt my testimony, so I talked to the district leader about it and he gave me a blessing.  I struggled for awhile and one day, I just couldn't get out of bed, so we stayed in that day. 

It was Christmas time while I was serving in that area and it was so different than in the states.  There were no decorations, no lights, no Christmas carols and it was summertime.  It didn't feel like Christmas at all.  On Christmas day we got to go to Rosario for a special zone conference where President Ontiveros spoke, we shared testimonies and we sang lots of Christmas Hymns and then to the mission home for lunch.  I really felt the spirit that day.  Then I got to talk to my family, which was good.  

The mission President had a Christmas tree

One decoration

After Christmas we got back to work and I got certified in the discussions, hooray!  Our area was split so we had to move in with a new family, the Becerra's.  They were wonderful.  We started reading the Book of Mormon with them every night after we got back from working each day.  Norma and her grandson, Christian were interested in learning more, so we started teaching them the discussions  Oswaldo sat in on the discussions too, but didn't seem as interested.  

notice the toilet, no toilet seat
that was normal and common

This was the shower in our new apartment
the bathroom was out behind the house.
There were lots of bugs and only a partial door.

Painting in the backyard for service.

During January we were on fire.  One week we taught 6 first discussions and had 2 investigators at church.  I was feeling better.  Norma and Christian had a goal to be baptized in February and we were so excited!  At one of our district meetings the zone leaders came to visit and called me up to teach about Joseph Smith out of the blue.  I nailed it and the zone leaders were impressed.  A few weeks later Norma and Christian were baptized.  It was a beautiful day.  

Hermana Ireland's first 2 baptisms

In February, I got a letter from my mom who was in the hospital.  She wasn't doing well.  She had been  diagnosed with seizure disorder and had lost a lot of weight.  I was worried that she might not make it.  She hardly ever wrote me, so this must have been a big deal.  I tried not to dwell too much on how things were going back home.  I also got sick that month.  I had a fever and sore throat.  Norma brought me heated potatoes to put on my head and my tonsils.  Not sure it helped, lol.  

Using potatoes to heal my throat.

During summer, we got lots of bug bites

My 3 months with Hermana Ireland were full of ups and downs.  Together we braved the world.  Some weeks we were on fire, while other weeks we struggled.  All in all, it was a good experience.  Mid February, I received a new companion, Hermana Cejas, she was a dream come true.   She knew the gospel and the language which gave me a huge burst of confidence.  We worked really well together and started teaching a bunch of families and visiting a lot of less active ward members.   7 of the 9 less active families came to church one week, which was cool.  We also had an investigator there that week.  

One Sunday, we decided to fast for Oswaldo Becerra.  We had been reading the Book of Mormon with their family, Norma and Christian had been baptized, but we really wanted Oswaldo to progress too.  That very day, he came to our room, knocked on our door and told us he wanted to be baptized.  It was a miracle.  There was a little issue with his baptism though, the water was shut off in the church that day.  We asked the neighbor if we could get water from their house to fill the font.  It took us a couple hours, bucket by bucket, but we finally had enough water to move ahead with the baptism.  

In April we were tracting in a very poor area.  I was tired and it was about time to head back home, but we saw a family outside and decided to give it a shot.  The dad came over and told us that he wasn't interested, but the mom invited us back.  They were the Ursrpung family and had 10 kids!  We taught them the first discussion but only three wanted to continue with the discussions.  They were a very poor family.  Horacio, the dad worked for the city, but they hadn't been paying him.  The family often went without food.  We took them some clothes and shoes that we didn't need.  We worked with their family for about 2 months and Estér, Flavia and Debora were all three baptized.  It was amazing! We were hoping the rest of the family would come along eventually.    

Estér, Flavia and Debora

During that time, a young couple, Maria José and Rodolfo Astore and their son, Josúe showed up at church one Sunday.  They had met the missionaries before and decided they wanted to start going to church.  We had the opportunity to teach them the discussions.  They were an amazing family.  We set a date for baptism, but I got transferred a few days before.   I found out later that he was called to the bishopric within a few weeks and called to serve on the stake high council before I left the mission.  

There was another woman that we taught in the area.  Her name was Gloria.  We had invited her to read the Book of Mormon and had gone back to see her several times, but she was never home.  When we finally got to to talk to her again, she had read 350 pages, knew the Book of Mormon was true and wanted to be baptized.  The problem was that she worked on Sundays, so she was going to need to find a way to adjust her schedule so that she could go to church.  I found out that she was baptized a few months later.  

This is Ubalda.  She was less active.
She lived in a tiny house with a dirt floor
but loved it when we would come sing hymns with her.  

During our time in Cápitan Bermudez, Hermana Céjas and I were asked to teach a workshop in zone conference.  We had never seen any sisters asked to to that so we were surprised, but honored.  We taught about Abish and how to help the members get motivated to share the gospel.  The President and zone leaders said we did a very good job.