Sunday, November 22, 2015

My new calling...

Ok in case you are wondering why my letter is coming in so late, it is because I have been in a conference in Posadas all this weekend.  But here I am writing you all in a beautiful mall in Posadas and I feel like I could almost be in the states... its amazing. 
First of all, I want to tell you all thank you for the happy birthday wishes that I recieved!  It was great to hear from you all.  And if you are wondering what I did for my birthday, dont you worry, I DID EAT CAKE.  There is this cute little family that support and help us and they made us a super delicious coconut flavered cake that we ate all in one night...we mostly did it out of stress and shear anxiousness because this week has been one of the most dificult weeks of my life.
It started off with a zone meeting a little rushed and confused, then to do fingerprinting in posadas, then to go back and plan a wedding and baptism.  Little did I know that we would also not be able to sleep because we would hear creepy whispers at night and see shadows darting across the room.  Aparently, in the past there had been problems here with witchcraft.  But dont you worry, all is well.
So the baptism was probably the most successful that I have ever had on my mission. The attendance was amazing!  There were so many people there!  We also had a great dinner with the best chicken I have ever tasted in my life.  The wedding was super cute...Mariela and Fernando are going to be a great contribution to the church and branch here in Santo Tome.  I am excited for all the things that they will be able to do.
We also have been visiting a ton of innactives and we have found so many that just wanted to know that someone cared for them.  They just complain that no one has visited them in a while so they feel helpless and alone. And only after one or two visits from us, they showed up to church on Sunday.  Speaking of less actives, we have been visiting the family Ponce and they are a super great family.  I absolutely think they are super cute together. But as we were eating together with them at lunch, they expressed to us that they are having marital issues and that she doesnt want to live with him anymore because she can tell that he no longer loves her.  And then he responded to her that the love has died.  I wanted to break out in tears and tell them that they should never give up but the missionary side came out ofme and I told them to pray and ask God because I knew that his opinion is the most important--not mine.
Then come Sunday, our investigator, Sergio, comes to church (who is a reference from a member) and I basically have to take charge of everything because of the lack of members and organization...so I taught the lessons with my companion and we made great plans with the members to visit all of the innactives with the members. I was super stoked.  Then to my surprise, our branch president calls me in for a quick interview telling me that I have been called the new relief society president in my ward. WHAT?! How do I do that and be asistermissionary leader?  I am definitely going to learn a lot of things this transfer!  And there are only like three women active in the branch so I will definitely do some reactivating.  The president also told me that before I leave, it is my job to find and baptize someone who can be the next relief society president...no pressure right?
And now I am really UNDER PRESSURE because I was just informed that Santo Tome has flooded and that everyone is evacuating to live in the schools because their homes are covered in water...eventhe church is full of water...so we cant return to our area it looks like for awhile. And now more than ever, our little branch has to work togetherto meet the needs of the struggling members and provide strength and support.  Wish me luck,
Hermana Gunter


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