Hola amigos! It's been a pretty wild week.
We got a call from President Hughes this week and he asked me to be part of an emergency transfer and if I would go to Corydon Indiana to be with hermana Boyson. Of course I was not very happy with that decision. 3 weeks left on my mission and they ship me to a completely new area, with a new companion after spending the last 9 weeks working my tail off to create relationships and build up this area. With not even a chance to go to church and say goodbye. I loved my companions, I loved the area, and felt like we had a lot of really good things started. Bitter tears were shed this week, but whenever something difficult or weird has happened on my mission I've learned to ask myself "who am I to limit the Lord", so even though it hurt, I packed my bags and went. It has been hard, I've been sad, but I am determined, and will continue to kick some butt and take some names.... to the temple. ;D My new companion is nice though. She is actually and older missionary and has a pretty cool story. My first few hours there we went and taught a family who has lice... so we came home and dumped everything in the washer and will be checking each other for the next week. Joy.
We cover both an English branch and a Spanish branch. We go to the English sacrament meeting and then all three hours of the Spanish church. So it's my first actual day in Corydon and I'm in a branch where I have no idea what's going on. All the meetings are in Spanish, all the people are Spanish, and I am completely lost. People try and talk to me and my companion is talking to other people so i try to stutter out that I don't know Spanish and they just look at me and I feel like the most awkward human being. THEN they last minute ask me to play the piano for sacrament meeting. I haven't played in months or practiced hymns, have never played a sacrament hymn or in sacrament period, and I already have no idea what's going on. Not to mention the entire stake presidency was there to reorganize the branch presidency. It was the most scared, nervous, and uncomfortable I've been on my mission in a longggg time. By the end I was ready to crawl underneath all the blankets on my bed and refuse to leave. And then they asked me to give a talk... I think they want to kill me.
But even though I was freaking out most of the three hours of church. It was really cool to feel the spirit as the new branch presidency and members of the stake presidency shared their testimonies. I had no idea what they said or what their testimony was about, but the calming influence of the spirit was unmistakably understood. Christs restored gospel is Christs restored gospel, no matter what language it is preached in. The spirit will always testify of the truth and that is a universal language.
In other fantastic news. Bill quit smoking!!!!!! We had a really powerful lesson with him, pushed him kind of hard, but it was completely spirit led. Reminded me of the story in Alma where he had to "bear down in pure testimony" against them to help them change their hearts and repent. It worked. He broke his entire pack of cigarettes into my hand and committed to stop. We made him a shirt with the non smoking sign and "I'm A Quitter" on the front. We cleaned out all the ash trays and scrubbed the bathroom and walls where he would smoke. We even got up early that next morning to run and buy him some vitamin c. (Vitamin C helps break down the nicotine in your system, fun fact). We are praying so so hard for him to be able to stay committed this time. He has one of the strongest testimonies. He even volunteered to go home teaching and he's not even a member yet! He does more and attends more than 75% of the ward.
Oh and guess what?! Remember the awesome guy I taught for 6 months in Salem? Michael and his wife Vicki? Well Vicki messaged me and said Michael is finally getting baptized on March 3rd!!! I'm so excited!!!!
We also got rear ended at a light in Lexington on Friday. Nothing too major, just bent and scratched up our bike rack and gave us a headache, thank goodness for bike racks. The paperwork took more time than anything. But that was exciting.
So yeah a pretty eventual crazy week. Gotta love it.
Love you!!!
Sister Hoyt
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