Hermana Tess Crawford: Lucia's Incredible Story!

Hey family.

So today's been a rough one for companionship reasons (I'm still with Hna Tzorin and Hna Jacinto got a new comp who just barely got here from serving in the US, Hna Sorenson) and I also was just about ready to take the computer I was just using and smash it against the wall because it wouldn't work for half an hour... but yeah don't worry about it, I'll be fine in a few hours.

I loved the emails! The whole dog situation sounds crazy, and it's kind funny that it happened this week because we also had a dog situation where we pretty much adopted a little puppy that kind of looks like Jasper for a day. We named him Pancho and he followed us around for hours in Hna Jacinto's area and we protected him from all the other evil dogs that tried to attack him. I wish we could've taken him home to our pension, but sadly that's against mission rules :/ Haha so I guess I can somewhat identify with what happened with Gus! I hope you guys can figure out what will be best for Jasper and the fam though.

This week was full of more ups and downs. I'm not depressed or sad or anything, just a little frustrated sometimes, but that's all part of the mission. We had an ok lesson with Luciana on Monday and then she had apparently gone to her mother-in-law's house for the week when we went on friday when we supposedly had our next lesson. So yeah, and we still haven't talked to Marta..

There were some pretty amazing things that happened though, the biggest one being Lucia showing up to church. So a week or so ago we got a call from the zone leaders that this lady had talked to them on the street and that she has an amazing story, lives in our area, and wants to go to church on sunday. We got her number and talked to her a little bit and she said she would see us at church and we could talk more. She couldn't make it last Sunday, but yesterday after voting in the morning she was able to make it to Sunday School and Relief Society. Here's her story.. She's a 69 year old lady who lives alone and doesn't really have much family around. She's a writer and has a degree in Psychology and has also been studying Theology for 17 years, and you can definitely tell when she talks that she's very highly educated and sharp. She's been feeling a bit empty and lonely though for a while and was looking for something more. On Oct 16th she went to the library to check out some sort of religious book, but they didn't have the one she was looking for. Next to the place where the one she wanted should have been, she came across one called A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (ok well it was in Spanish but I can't remember the title in Spanish right now..) and she decided that it must not have been a coincidence that she found this book, so she took it home and decided to read it. When she read it she said that the truths it contained brought her a light and a feeling that she had been missing, and she wanted to be able to find missionaries and talk to them more about it, so she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to put missionaries in her path. The next afternoon she was walking around in the city center and the zone leaders literally crossed her path walking the other direction on the street. She pretty much went into shock when she saw them and for like a minute couldn't force herself to move or get any words out, she was just staring at them. They saw her staring though and went up and talked to her of course, and that was when she told them about how she had read the book and prayed to find them. So that's how she could the adress of our chapel and our number, and ended up at church yesterday..! She's awesome and loves reading, studying, learning, and applying what she learns- especially when the subject of study is Jesus Christ. Golden!

As you can imagine we were all amazed by her story and our testimonies that God really is preparing His children in different incredible ways were recharged. It definitely helped make all of the other challenges that were facing seem a lot more face-able. The other cool thing that happened was that I got a call from our new Sister Traning Leader this Friday night, and you're not gonna believe it, but the voice I heard over the phone was none other than that of Hermana HALES!! Haha she's the new leader for San Rafael and will be doing exchanges with us in the next coming weeks! What the?! It was great to talk to her for a bit over the phone, and were obviously both excited to be able to be comps again for at least 24 hours this transfer. It's a little crazy though because she's not only the new leader, but she's also training a girl from Peru fresh from the MTC and they're washing an area that hermanas have never been in before.... Poor woman. I know she can handle it though!

So yeah, that was as well as I could explain my week while being a little distracted by certain events this morning. Sorry I don't have a ton of exciting things to tell you, but hopefully the Lucia story is amazing enough to make up for the rest! Thanks so much for sending the Christmas package, I really hope it gets here in time! I know I'll love whatever you were able to send. Today should be getting better because we're going to eat lunch with this investigator lady in Hna Jacinto's area who is about 74 and almost completely deaf, but is the cutest thing ever (I know her because we helped her clean her kitchen last week). We just write things down on a paper or a white board and she answers normally. She's so sweet though and is convinced that Hna Tzorin is going to marry her 30 something year old son who's an inactive member. Haha she even refers to Hna Tzorin as her "nuera" (daughter in law). After that we're going to get our hair cut because my ends are terribly dead and need to be cut immediately- sorry, I know you liked how long it's getting, but it has to be done. And then we also have stake conference this weekend and the choir (which were in of course) is going to perform. We're singing "Cristo el redentor murió", "El fuego del Espíritu", and "Acompañame". Lucia's going to go to, so it'll be good!

Thanks for being an awesome family- keep doing what your doing. Can't wait to talk to you guys in a few months! Love you!

<3,

Hna Tess Crawford