Cioa Cari!
Well the rain continues. I'm about ready to chuck my boots and umbrella out the window just as an act of faith that maybe one day it will stop raining. However, when the Lord tries you, he also blesses you. Last week (I think I already mentioned this) we found a sweet peruvian family when we took a bus going in the wrong direction. We have now taught this family two lesson's and we invited them to church this week. They called us the night before and assured us that they would be coming. Sunday morning came, and we waited for them in church for a while and relief society started and, elders quorum started, and primary started, and our sweet peruvian family was no where to be found. So we gave them a call, and they told us that their youngest was having some stomach pains and that were having a hard time getting out the door. Usually in missionary speak that translates to we don't really want to come, and we will not be there. So under normal circumstances, Sorella Worsham and I would have gone to class and tried again next week, but we both felt very strongly that we should wait just a bit longer for them.
Fifteen minutes before sacrament meeting, they came. We took their two children to primary. (Seeing the look of shock and excitement on the primary president's face was really wonderful. We only have 6 kids in primary) and went to the last ten minutes of gospel principles. Then ten minutes later we went to pick their children back up, and they had had a wonderful 10 minutes in Primary, their oldest refused to leave, so they promised him he could come back next week. (YES!!!!), and then we went to sacrament.
Literally half of the ward descended on them. Sorella Worsham and I didn't even end up sitting next to them, and at one point one of the sister's in the ward took the kids out into the hall so that their parents could focus on the sacrament. At the end of sacrament the dad told me that he was impressed by how many people in the ward could speak spanish. (Not me, we have spent a lot of time with Spanish speakers these last couple of weeks and so far I have learned to say good evening my slow cat, and where is my goat? neither of which are very useful.) and then he very sincerely thanked us for inviting them. Both the husband and the wife are very open, but I can tell that the father's heart has been incredibly touched since we have started working with them. Also their little girl is a standard two year old, but she loved the music is sacrament meeting. She went completely still and tried to sing along. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
They have started an Italian course for the foreigners in the ward who cannot read or write Italian, and we supervised that this Sunday (they need someone to lock the church after course and we contribute a spiritual thought at the end.) It was really funny, because the whole course was specifically designed for a new convert named Awad, and he did not enjoy it at all. The woman teaching it is very very structured, which is not the kind of teaching that Awad responds to. So at one point he left "to go to the bathroom" and about 5 minutes later we noticed that he hadn't come back, so we went to go look for him. We found him in the foyer, playing on his ipad and we told him "awad corso Italiano!" (he only speaks arabic, and he spent about 2 minutes trying to get out of it. He told us "Italiano bad, English good, and please Spencer no italiano, no." Finally he said ok, ok Italiano good. So we sent him back to Italian course, and then went to go get drinks, and two members came and found us to tell us that Awad was in the foyer skipping Italian course. They were upset because I guess they had tried to reason with him, and he had told them no no Italiano bad. So we went back to Italian course, and did kind of a one on one to help him with Italian, but he was miserable the whole time. He will eventually learn to read, and he will be grateful. I hope eventually.
Also I have been studying the old testament this week when I have a little extra time, and it has been really interesting. I have a learned a lot about the priesthood, and about sacrifices. It just makes me understand how great of a teacher our Heavenly Father is. I can imagine how difficult it would be to make people understand the atonement, years before it happened, and he used sacrifices as a teaching tool (for my animal lover friends they also sacrificed a lot of fruit.)
So one thing that I have learned on the mission is that our lives really shape the way we see the world, and it's hard to work with people who see things, and people, and Diety different than you do, but we really can learn something from everyone. Also the way that other people see the world doesn't have to change the way you see it. I spent a lot of time fighting people's opinions at first, but I'm just learning that it only closes their minds more and more. I'm trying to remember that anger and hatred, won't eliminate anger and hatred. I just want all of you to realize that at the core people are the same. We are all children of God, we all hurt, we all love, we all cry. We may do it in Spanish, or Bengali, or English, but at the root it's all the same. I think that sometimes we search for things to make us different, but in the end we are all children of God, he designed this gospel for each and everyone of us, and that makes us more similar than we ever realized. I love you all. I hope the Lord is blessing you in your daily lives, and that you can feel that you are wonderful and important to Him, and to me.
Lo prosimo (till the next time)
Sorella Madyline Spencer
(Also I have learned how to say where in arabic, and hello, and I have good morning written on a piece of paper but whenever I try to say it, I get some very very blank looks.)
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