Word of the Week: hilo dental (dental floss)

Yes, there is a story with this “word of the week”…I finally started the habit of flossing my teeth! Woohoo! I know I’m a little late in my life to start this habit, but hey, I’m paying back my bad-debt-habit by getting my companion to floss her teeth as well! Hahaha. Yay for starting good habits in the mission…it has only taken me a year to get on that bandwagon. This was a great week filled with some very personally strengthening experiences. At the beginning of the week, we were knocking doors by the shopping center here in San Luis in the morning. We knocked a few doors and crossed to the other side of the street to knock some doors on the other side of the street. As we were knocking some doors on the other side of the street, a man approached his house having just finished grocery shopping and looked over at us from the other side of the street (where we had just been knocking) and asked us what we needed. I crossed back over the street and started talking to him and asked him if we could share a message with him about Jesus Christ. He welcomed us right in, surprisingly. We taught him about the Restoration and he just ate it up! He even asked us to be baptized and to come to church with us! It was quite the miracle! Unfortunately, we can’t find him now. We’ve gone back by his house multiple times and he is no where to be found. There is always hope for this week! We also taught a woman (Veronica) who is Catholic and lives in some old abandoned homes. She used to teach the Catholic “classes” before people get “confirmed” in the Catholic church when they are teenagers. She is a strong believer in the Virgin Mary and all the saints. We taught her about the prophets and Priesthood authority, but she just didn’t seem to get it. She believes that Peter passed on his priesthood authority to the line of popes before he died, yet she has no idea what the name of the man he supposedly passed that authority. It just got funnier to us when she told us how she once asked one of her Priests or “leaders” in the Catholic church why Mary wasn’t able to convert the water into wine at the marriage ceremony where Christ performed His first miracle. Her Priest friend told her that it was because only God (or the godhead) have power to perform miracles and Mary didn’t have that power. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the Priesthood? We tried to make that connection for her, but she wasn’t getting it. She was quite shocked and almost offended when we comment about how Mary had other children and had a normal life after giving birth to Christ. She looked at us and told us that we were wrong. So, we defended ourselves a little bit by telling her that in the Bible, it says that Christ had siblings, suggesting that Mary had given birth to other children. She was sure that we were using a different Bible, so she brought us her Bible and we found the verse in John 6:3 where it talks about Christ, the capenter, son of Mary, and brother to x, y, z (I can’t remember their names right now.) She read and re-read the verse a few times, underlined it and marked it and then looked up at us and said, “well, you’ve just opened up a whole new set of questions and doubts for me.” All I have to say is, thank goodness for the topical guide! She was completely shocked and shaken in her “firm” belief in Mary, the eternal virgin. The real powerful experience of the week was when Hna. Cuello and I went to our favorite little “pueblito” out in the middle of nowhere. We ended up teaching Juan, Carmen (his “wife) and Gabriela (his 15 year old daughter with an 18 month old baby). Juan is the man we visited a few weeks ago, who is bedridden and yelled at us out the door as we walked back, yelling for help. Come to find out, he had a sudden heart attack while working 6 years ago that left him essentially completely paralyzed. We walked into his home this time, on a night that we REALLY cold. They live in a very humble home made of concrete, without heating, and with some sparse broken furniture. Juan was laying in his bed inside the front door, shivering under his blankets. Gabiela and Carmen were huddled around a metal tin filled with embers, trying to stay warm. They turned over a few plastic buckets and put a folded shirt on top as a cushion and let us sit down while they stood and listened to us. This time, we were able to teach him and some of his family about the Plan of Salvation and the hope he has in being restored to full physical capabilities thanks to Jesus Christ. His wife Carmen and daughter are quite receptive and were very attentive. It was a spirit filled lesson that filled their cold home with hope and the warmth of the Gospel. What was so miraculous about this whole experience was that Juan used to work with a member in our ward years and years ago in Buenos Aires. He spoke so highly of him and clearly wanted to chat with him some more, after all these years. So, we called Hno. Ferrara and asked him if he could come with us to visit Juan and his family and Saturday (since Hno. Ferrara has a car and would be able to pick Juan up and take him to church on Sunday). We met Hno. Ferrara and his wife at their home Saturday afternoon and drove up to Juan’s house and visited with them. Juan was of much better spirits, being able to sit and talk with a friend after so many years. We weren’t really able to get a word in edgewise to teach him and his family anything because Juan was so eager to chat with someone that he just kept talking and asking questions. Hno. Ferrara and his wife were so gracious in chatted with them about anything and everything, sharing mate the whole time. It was really special to watch this family light up with having visitors in their home. It was a rather jumbled sort of lesson with people coming and going through their open front door as well as dogs barking and babies crying, but it was clear to see that what we shared with them meant more than anything of monetary value. The miracle of this whole experience came on Sunday, the day after this visit with Juan and the Ferrara family. In Sacrament meeting, being testimony meeting, Hno. Ferrara bore his testimony about how grateful he is for the blessings he has in his life and how caught up in life he can get that he doesn’t realize all that he has. It sure sounded like he was referring to the experience with Juan and his family from what he was saying, but I didn’t think too much about it. In Relief Society, Hna. Ferrara got up and bore her testimony as well, sharing similar feelings, but sharing about the powerful experience she and her husband had in visiting Juan and his family with us the night before. I was so touched and moved by the spirit realizing that even though Juan and his family didn’t come to church, maybe we went to visit him and his family to not only strengthen Juan, but to bless Hna and Hno Ferrara; maybe they needed the experience more than us missionaries or more than Juan and his humble family. Another hermana in the ward also got up and bore her testimony about how we had shared with her just what she needed in the moment when we had lunch with her Saturday afternoon. She was so grateful for the thought and testimony we shared with her. I was again, amazed at the power of the spirit and reminded of the power and light we share as missionaries because when I shared the spiritual thought after lunch, I wasn’t feeling so great and felt like my thoughts and words were all jumbled. But listening to her bear her testimony strengthened my own in regards to how the spirit takes our weaknesses and makes them strengths, maybe not in our own eyes, but in the eyes and hearts of those who need, we are strong. How grateful I am to be a humble mouth piece of the Lord, that He trusts me enough to transmit His messages of love through me, despite my weaknesses. Things are going well here. Hna. Cuello and I will start this new transfer together, but next week she will head home to Buenos Aires and I will start training a new hermana fresh from the Provo MTC. Thanks for all your love and support! Hope everyone has a great 4th of July…wish I were there for the BBQ hamburgers, hot dogs, and watermelon. ENJOY! Love you, Hna. Pelton