I Think I'm In Crazy Town June 9, 2015

Hey y'all!

First off. Best news ever: Jose just emailed me to tell me he got the priesthood last Sunday. He is very excited to bless the sacrament and hopes that he can do it okay.  My heart is so happy!! :)

So! This week was pretty eventful. Albuquerque is weird... But that makes every day VERY interesting! Some of my favorite moments from contacting this week:

-"I am more than slightly prophetic."
-Talked to this guy and then when he walked away we saw there was a huge knife tucked in the back of his pants...
-"The Book of Mormon is 100% inspired by God."
-Talked to a man in the morning and then later that day, in a different part of town, saw him at the gas station and he bought us our drinks!
-"You could go as far to say I am a prophetess."

-walked around the sun pointe park apartments (where those elders were held hostage a few months ago) and the people there were...interesting. I think it's pretty safe to call that place sketchy. 

Moral of the story: I am glad to know that we do indeed have a prophet today-- and his name is Thomas S. Monson! I know that he has been called of God and that he is the only one who has that authority. 

Other cool things:
-A guy named Martin came up to us at the bus stop. Hermana Bleak had talked to him before at the same bus stop. He is super nice and really searching for religion right now in his life. He is very interested. The catch is... he's in the halfway house right now. So he is going to try to get permission to come to church. And the only way we can talk to him is at the bus stop so we are going to try to find him again this week!

-On Sunday we went to teach Felipe & Orelia. They weren't home but their neighbors came outside and invited us in. They are from Iraq, barely speak english, and the nicest people ever! They moved to the US 1 year ago because they are Christians and their family members were starting to get killed because of it. Turns out the elders have been teaching them for a few months. They are so cool!! And their is a lady in our branch who speaks Arabic who is going to go over with the elders hopefully. I want to learn Arabic! They taught us how to say thank you so basically we are on the way to being trilingual... ;)

-There were several times this week where we would go to talk to someone and it was really obvious they didn't want us there. They would tell us they didn't really understand so then we started speaking spanish to them and they totally opened up and were super nice. It was great. Spanish is the best.

Last night we went to an appointment to teach Ruben and his key was in the door. When he let us in we told him about the key and turns out all the other keys on it were stolen and with them...his truck. Ah. It was awful. They called the police up. Took the police forever to come. But while waiting we were able to talk to them and share a scripture about why bad things happen to good people. We said a prayer with them that his truck will be found and everything will work out. No news on that yet, but we're still prayin!

We haven't moved apartments yet but they are hoping to move us this week to the same complex that all the senior couples live in! Yessssss! Seriously the greatest thing ever.

My absolute favorite thing to talk to people and teach about is the Book of Mormon. Can I just say how amazing it is? It is such a testament of our Heavenly Father's love for us--right here, right now, in 2015! He knew that the Bible would be passed down through so many hands and that things would be taken and changed from it but He wanted to make sure that we had the fullness of truth and so he created a 'Plan B' by sending a prophet to the American continent and commanding them to write their own history and record of their dealings with the gospel. The Book of Mormon was written during the SAME time as the Bible and teaches of the SAME doctrine and testifies of the SAME Christ! And it was buried for so many years to ensure that those teachings were preserved and kept pure so that we can have the fullness of the gospel with the Bible and Book of Mormon--which support each other and help to have a better understanding of the divinity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of how we can live it! And we are promised that each and every one of us can know if it's true-- directly from the source of all truth--our loving Heavenly Father-- IF we do our part by reading it's words, pondering it's teachings, and asking Him with a true desire to know.  Isn't that amazing?!

Well, that's a wrap for this week! 

Pray for me in this crazy town! 

Con amor, Hermanita Dearden