11.5.15

gozo celestial

dearest family,

My heart is still full of a type of eternal joy after seeing you and talking to you and realizing that everything and everyone is still the same. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky — how out of all the families across mountains and seas, God gave me each of you for this life and the next. Perhaps this is one of the greatest things the mission has given me: a realization of the eternal and most important. And, well, I am just happy that you are each the most eternal and most important to me. 

There were so many other words that I wanted to say during our short time together, such as: the mariachi band that our bishop hired for the Mothers Day activity (full blown costumes and singing and dancing — it might have been my favorite thing to experience so far here, and I might be listening to mariachi music all the time once I am home); the baptism we had for Hna Esmeralda and Hna Marilyn, the daughters of two less-actives that have started coming to church again and have started to prepare to be sealed in the temple (sidenote: Hna Esmeralda had to be baptized three times due to technical difficulties, and it was slightly funny but also horrible because things like that always seem to happen to her); riding in the back of our mission leader's van, which happens to have no seats, which meant that we were sliding around on plastic chairs and a wooden bench (don't worry, we are actually really safe here. And yes, I got this experience on video); another accidental lizard killing, this time including a door; preparing a baptism for this week and then having to cancel it again because of problems with the Word of Wisdom (have I told you that this has happened to me three times? Like, every time we have a baptism prepared, our investigator drinks coffe or tea and then we have to wait another week? It is so sad its almost funny how many times this has happened to us. Our Zone Leaders are probably beginning to wonder if we fail at teaching this commandment); and experiencing the best Sunday in the history of the mission, because one investigator surprised us at Church, the other one came like he said he would, Hna Esmeralda and Marilyn had their confirmations, and we ate cake during lunch. One quickly learns on the mission that seeing other people doing the right thing is a sure way of becoming happy. 

One of the greatest things that happened this week was Hna Lupita. We had our first lesson with her last Monday, and within the first few minutes she had already informed us that the previous week she had bought a white dress and that she would like to be baptized. She is literally the coolest fifty year old I have ever met. She rides a motorcycle, bikes around every single day to sell her bread, gives us fruit and cake and jello every time we visit, and likes to surprise people in a good way. She waits for us every morning in her one-room house, sitting in her plastic blue chair next to her small wood table that holds her Bible, her Book of Mormon covered in a map of the Yucatan, and all the pamphlets that we have given her. Sometimes she tells us about her great and tragic love story — how she loved one but married another. Sometimes she tells us about her loneliness, sometimes about her search for God and the person that wouldn't let her find Him. But most of the time, she tells us about her happiness and the eternal type of happiness that she has found in the true Gospel of Christ. She told us how she had never felt true happiness before she started learning about the Church, and that a small hole has slowly been filled with each word and each eternal principle that we have begun teaching her. It made me realize that the only way to true happiness is through living what we believe, because:

pues he aqui, tan facil es prestar atencion a la palabra de Cristo, que te indicira un curso directo a la felicidad eterna. (Alma 37:44)

Wishing you a happy week, dear family of mine. Miss you and love you always!

love love,
Hermana Rhondeau

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