Dear Friends and Family,
Hola, ya'll!! People really do say ya'll here...like a ton. Even
the Spanish speaking people...weird right?! Haha, well first off I just
wanna thank everyone for their support, emails, and letters. Also, for
your prayers. I can really feel the help from the prayers of my family
and I just want you to know that I appreciate ALL of it! So, this last
week went great. You really see miracles everyday out here, and really
start to gain the right perspective. My companion and I have gotten so
much closer and are really having cool experiences. We decided it's
important to be really specific during our prayers. We decided on top of
our daily goals to add one "miracle goal" each day. Example: get a
member present, contact ALL our referals, witness a change in someone,
etc. And everytime we set one of these goal and ask for it in each
prayer guess what, they ALL of come true! It's amazing the work that
needs to be done and CAN be done with diligence and the help of the
Lord. Our "miracle goals" have been making huge changes. Also, we
started to this cool new trick. When we are out contacting referals,
knocking doors, or talking to random people that all don't want to
listen or say they are not interested then we do this. We ask them if we
can sing them a song before we leave, and because all these latinos
LOVE music they say, "of course!" Anywho, the first lady we tried it on
was a huge success. This tiny, latino, old lady said, "oh, I'm not
interested, I already have a church, but yes you can sing a song...God
wants to hear us sing!" So, we sang(in Spanish of course) I am a child
of God. She got so happy! She had this huge smile, and started singing
along(even though she didn't know the song) and even dancing(well,
swaying)!! Then she said we could come back on Tuesday. It's amazing how
hymns bring instantly the Spirit and soften peoples hearts. So, we do
this all the time now when people don't want to listen...it's awesome.
Plus, I love it cause I have the chance to sing more.
We are teaching
this girl who is 11 named Valerie. She is so amazing. Everyone in her
family is inactive, but members. She has a baptizmal date for next month
and her family, except the mom, has been coming to church again! I love
them. They are all so kind, and I hope to get her mom to start coming
again, and work towards the temple. Valerie is really smart, and super
talented. She plays the violin and is pretty good and keeping her
commitments! So excited for her, and her choice to follow Jesus Christ.
Her dad, Hermano Domien reminds me of uncle David a ton, haha! We are
also teaching a few less actives that are so sweet and feed us tons,
gottat love Mexican food ;) Not all of them are Mexican's. Some are from
Venezula, Guatemala, Columbia, etc. But I'd say 97% are Mexican ;) So,
other than that not much is too new. I'm loving the culture. Most of the
white people are mean, so I'm really glad that I am Spanish speaking
and get to teach these AWESOME hispanics, because they are super
prepared and nice! There are like a ZILLION churches here. SERIOUSLY.
At least every block there's some kind of different church. Now I can
see why Joseph Smith was super confused about which one was right! Most
of the latino people that we teach are Catholic, but they have no idea
what they believe. It's mostly just a cultural thing to be Catholic and
hispanic. Didn't know it was possible, but I am falling in love with my
ward more and more. They are so kind and super solid. When they sing the
spanish hymns they basically shout it! Haha I love it, and they're
culture. I had to play the piano for the Zone Leaders baptizm yesterday.
It was so awesome. I felt the spirit so strong. They baptized a family
of four, and it got me so excited for Valerie. Plus, this family is in
my area, so we get to teach them from here on out and hopefully the dad
will be baptized one day. Welp, lucky for my zone we get to go to
Battleship with President today!!!! So, I gotta go. Love you all! Hope
to here from some of you, and I think Rissa has my address. Take care.
The church is true!!
Love,
Hermana Salcido
