This week has been rather dichotomous. The past few days have been really rough. Friday we only had 2 lessons, and Saturday we (barely) had 1. We spent the remainder of those days listening to our calls go to voicemail (on a side note, I have decided that voicemail is actually my favorite sound, just because talking on the phone-especially in Spanish- stresses me out so much), trying to track down potentials, and standing on doorsteps wondering if someone wasn't home, they were ignoring us, or they just didn't hear the first 3 times we knocked. Even in the evenings when we had "set" appointments, almost all of them fell through. We had to go home early both nights to do some serious planning because we literally had no one to see. It's mostly been difficult for Hermana Martinez because she feels like an awful trainer. Overall, I think it's been a positive experience because we have become more organized and more determined as a result. I absolutely love love love the classic missionary video "Missionary work and the Atonement" with Elder Holland (if you haven't seen it before, you should look it up, it is awesome) He points out that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and why should it be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?
On the bright side, I saw my first big miracle this week! I have had lots of cool experiences during my mission for sure, lots of mini-miracles, if you will, but this week I gained a greater testimony of revelation. Tuesday morning my companion and I were planning for where we would go finding. Hermana Martinez chose a street for us. I didn't think much about it, because I didn't think it would matter where we went. We got to the street and found that it was a richer neighborhood, and we both thought "great, we aren't going to find anyone who speaks Spanish here." It was earlier in the afternoon too, so most people were probably at work. The first door we knocked on, nobody answered, so we kept walking. I saw one house across the street that had two cars in front, so I figured there would be a higher probability of someone being home. I told my companion we should try that house. We knocked on the door, with the intention of asking whomever was home if thy knew anybody in the area who speaks Spanish. Well, the woman who came to the door was from Mexico! We talked to her in Spanish for a while and she eventually invited us into her home. Turns out her husband just passed away a few months ago, so we were able to share our message of eternal families with her. She already has so much faith, she said that Christ has helped her so much through this time. She told us she wasn't really interested in changing churches, but we still got her phone number and left her a Book of Mormon, so we will see what happens. Even if she never becomes and investigator, I think our message helped her. If anything, I feel like this experience was more for Hermana Martinez and I.
Language mistake of the week: This is so embarrassing, but we were having a mini lesson outside with two young men that we had just started talking to. I asked them who wanted to read a scripture. Apparently they told me that they can't read, but I didn't understand what they said for some reason, so I handed them the scriptures anyway! I felt so bad. I guess I can't just assume that everyone knows how to read!
Favorite part of the Week: We gave a spiritual thought to a member, and afterwards she was talking about how learning another language is difficult (she wants to learn English). Hermana Martinez said "Hermana Nielsen would understand, she is learning." and the member said "Oh learning English?" I told her no, Spanish, and she said that she couldn't even tell, the thought I was fluent!
So this week I learned that I'm good at speaking and bad at listening. Hmm.
I never have any time to take pictures, so here are a couple last minute ones. BUT we are going to the temple tomorrow, so I will get plenty of pictures then!
