I keep forgetting how much kids/youth look up to missionaries, but it's true! For example, there's a 9 year old kid in the branch named Armando Jr. (also one of my piano students). He looks up to us missionaries (sisters and elders) so much. Most sundays he has a little "future missionary" tag on his shirt and just this sunday, he gave me (and my companion) a letter with a cute drawing telling me that I'm the best sister missionary he's ever known. :) It's stuff like that that renews my commitment to do my very best, seeing how much we impact people's lives. I can totally see Armando 9-10 years from now as "Elder Corona". He's going to be an awesome missionary.
As for what else happened this week, it was kinda crazy! This last week we've been doing a TON of biking since we're really low on miles with the car. I never thought I'd say this but I really enjoy it! I don't know if my companion enjoyed it though since I bike a lot faster than she does. Luckily the town is pretty concentrated and is composed of neat little city blocks so it's very bike friendly and hard to get lost.
This week has also been a huge exercise in forgiveness. I thought I was a forgiving person that usually gives people the benefit of the doubt. But the Lord expanded that ability this week. For example, the branch president visited one of our former investigators Yolanda, who we thought was ignoring us. We found out that the story is almost the opposite of what I thought. We found out that she wasn't ignoring us, she had a huge tragedy in the family (she watched her mom die in a house fire), and was super busy with work and was constantly commuting between Belton and Dallas to help out family. We called Yolanda and she was happy to talk to us! (which is new since she would hang up every time we tried to call her before.) I still don't understand everything that happened, but I'm glad I did my best to give her the benefit of the doubt and forgive even though I felt like I was going through a breakup. That experience really opened my eyes and helped me to see the best in people even when they disappoint me and forgive them. Hopefully we'll be able to see her today!
And then another example: We were trying to visit a less active member, and we had an appointment with her (she wanted to teach my companion how to cook). We biked all the way over there only to find out that she wasn't there. One of her nurses answered and made it look like she was there but didn't want to talk to us. I was a little ticked and very hungry (we were supposed to come over for dinner)... And then we found her the next day. I tried my very best to act like yesterday didn't happen. And it was for a very good reason. We found out that she was almost sent to jail for something she didn't do. The policeman was bullying her and trying to force her to plead guilty and she nearly lost everything. If she was sent to jail, she'd lose her house, her son (he has major mental/physical disabilities and there's no one else to take care of him), her right to live in the US (since she has permanent residency not citizenship she'd be sent back to Mexico even though she's lived in the US almost all her life). Yep. Reality is crazier than fiction and this is why you can't assume about people. I just keep remembering "what would Jesus do?" even if I don't know if I have it in me and things work out so much better.
All of this is really profound for me since my patriarchal blessing has a whole paragraph on forgiveness. I have a feeling that my journey of forgiveness has only begun, and I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had that have increased my capacity to forgive and see the best in people and almost ignore people's ulterior motives. I know that every experience on the mission has shaped me in the direction that the Lord wants me to go.
So, there's a list of people in the area book of people/house to avoid, especially if you're a sister. Well, we ran into one of those guys. I think he made the list because he flirted with/asked out one of the previous sister missionaries... He's a really good self taught airbrush artist/muralist, and is VERY talkative, especially after I told him that I was studying art before the mission. Also a very worldly guy. But this time, he has a girlfriend who is a less active member. So I feel a bit safer now... It looks like she's had a good influence on him. And I'm excited to teach both of them.
Oh, and we had a less active member, Liliana, that hadn't gone for years come to church! She's really old and has a hard time walking. The branch president agreed to give her a ride to church, but had a hard time finding the house. He and Liliana finally arrived 30 minutes late and I don't think I've been so happy to see a less active member come back as I was today. It was great to see her exercise her faith with every tiny wavering footstep (my companion and I took her by the arms and walked VERY....slowly.) going from sacrament meeting to sunday school to relief society. Probably more walking than she'd do in a week. And she wants to come back next week! I was also so grateful for the branch president's willingness to go out and search for "the one". Hurrah for Israel!
Oh, and transfers. Looks like I'm staying in Belton and my companion Hna. Fotu is going to Fort Worth to be with my trainer, Hna. Snow! I think she might be overwhelmed by the size since the small town of Belton (pop 18200) has more people than the entire country of Tonga, and Fort Worth is HUGE! I'm grateful to stay here so I can keep teaching piano lessons and take care of the investigators/members here in Belton. I know that there's something else Heavenly Father wants me to learn here.
