Dear family,
This week was really quite epic...not really. I'm just thinking about your trip. Congratulations on finishing that, by-the-way. One cool thing that happened this week? They were filming Fast and Furious 5 in our area. That's right...word is that they've been all over the island filming crashing cars and exciting police chases, so I may need to watch it just to see the Puerto Rico all over it. We didn't see any one famous and we weren't invited to be extras either, although we really have the missionary look down. It could have been cool. So, when it comes out we can sit down and watch it, and I will tell you when my my area comes up that, "Hey! I used to contact people on that street!" Haha. It was cool. Also, there is an Elder in my district with dengue, which is also cool, but kind of sad for him.
Other cool things happened too. One of our investigators is really interesting. She has this trip to California planned for the end of this week. While in California, she will see family members and also, go to a healer who will heal her lower back pain "through the power of Jesus Christ" for the low, low price of $200. She will be with the healer for 2 hours. All she knows is that she'll "give 10 and he'll give 1," referring of course to the necessary faith. She says that he is really good and that you have to set an appointment with him one year ahead of time. Anyway. We've been hearing about this trip for a while and have been concerned about it, so we told her we were concerned this week and told her that men with the priesthood don't sell its power. It seemed to make a lot of sense to her. We asked her, "What would you do if you knew there were men right here on the island with the power to heal?" She said that she would like to meet them, "But I bet they have a long line of people waiting for that." Haha. It kind of made us laugh that she said that, but we went over with the Elders the next day to give her a blessing. We're going back tomorrow to see how she is. Something that is really admirable about this story is how much faith she really has. She has faith in Jesus Christ and his power to heal. The problem is that her faith was just a little misplaced in believing in things that were not true. I guess this experience helped me understand that Alma scripture better.
We met a lady on the street the other day named Maria. We went to her house later this week and they were just leaving, but we talked to her husband and he told us to come back another day. We hadn't even told him who we were or what our message was, but he said, "Come back tomorrow because you look really interesting." Um... It was kind of weird and I may have been a little skeptical, but they ended up being really cool. He kept saying, "That is sooo cool!" and "Wow. How interesting." Haha. We haven't taught a complete first lesson, but we will this week.
We had zone conference this week. While there, I met sister missionaries who are younger than me! (As in started being missionaries after me). It seems that the east mission was getting all the new sister missionaries since I came to PR and the west mission wasn't getting any! I have been the youngest sister in the mission (except two that came in the transfer after me) ever since I got to PR, but now we have younger sisters. It is weird, but at the same time exciting; I'm not the baby anymore!
Elder Vines came to our zone conference, which was great. He talked about making the church a multi-generational church here in Puerto Rico, because that is where true strength comes from. He also talked about some things that we want to do as missionaries to help recent converts stay active after their baptism. One change was the requirement for church attendence prior to baptism. It used to be 3 Sundays, but now investigators have to attend church as many times as is required for them to fit in comfortably as a part of the congregation. I think that is a lot better than just assuming that 3 times in church will do it.
The Solano family is feeling more and more comfortable in church. They are progressing really well. They accepted Tithing this week and keeping the Sabbath day holy. Also, Plinio got a job! We are all very excited. He is still looking around because it is not the best job, but it is great he has that because he has been looking for over a year. Maria is coming to a RS activity tomorrow and seems to be more friendly with the sisters every week. :)
We recently got Elders in our ward. It is great to have somebody working on your team. Not that we are teaming up against any one, but it is good to bounce ideas off one another. We have planned to have some sort of weekly sport night thing (it was their idea) which will help give the church a little bit more public light and help to create some sort of fellowship between church members. I am excited. Also, I guess one of the Elders was border-line hippie before being a missionary (I mean, as hippie as you can be as a mormon) and he has tie-dyed sheets. That he tie-dyed himself. So, one day we are going to make tie-dyed shirts together (maybe next p-day). I'm excited about that too.
Love,
Hermana Miller
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