Week 65: A Break from the storm

It's a shame that our week had to start on a sad note. Last Monday as we were pulling in to the parking lot of a church building for a zone activity, we saw an ambulance parked in the middle of the parking lot with its' lights on and engine running. "Oooooh noooo..." I thought to myself. We walked in to the church and went to the cultural hall where we knew the other missionaries would be. And there, on the ground on her side, was poor Sister Brown, gently sobbing in absolute pain. The EMT's were kneeling by her, prepping her to lift her onto a stretcher right next to her. I thought to myself "What's the cause of all this? There's no blood on the floor, I don't see any bones portruding out of her anywhere, what the heck is going on?" So I asked one of the other elders, and they told us that while they were.....actually, nevermind, long story short, she dislocated her knee so her kneecap was on the side of her leg/knee and she fell to the ground. Um, I'm pretty sure that's not where a kneecap is supposed to be. So through pain and tears they lifted her onto the stretcher, put her in the ambulance, and took off to the hospital. After further X-rays the doctors said she might have torn her ACL as well, so Sister Brown had no choice but to return home to her family so she could let her injury recover for 6 months. It's saddens me to see her go home early; she was a good missionary who had the Spirit with her and she was a positive influence on others. Even in the midst of her inability to get around during the week, she tried to stay positive throughout the whole ordeal. We got to say goodbye to her Saturday night before she got picked up by her parents on Sunday.

In other news, our investigator Carrie is getting baptized this Saturday, we are very excited about it and she is progressing quite well in the gospel. She's quit drinking coffee and has stopped smoking which is awesome. On Saturday we taught the two oldest boys of a part member family the Restoration. They have expressed their desire to get baptized, and during the lesson we set a goal of March 18th to work towards them getting baptized! Even their less-active mother was there for the lesson, which made me happy to see all of them together as a family. On Sunday we taught the Young Women about the Godhead and why it is important for them to know about the Godhead. We even did several roleplays during which they practiced teaching their friends about the Godhead. One of the girls there, Cheyenne, is the girlfriend of a young man in the ward and she is not a member of the Church. AND SHE VOLUNTEERED TO ACT AS THE NONMEMBER IN THE ROLEPLAY!!! And it was so cool to see a young Beehive girl teach Cheyenne about the Godhead, prayer, and how much They love us. Cheyenne even asked the other girl some questions about the Gospel that she had! The Spirit was so strong there! Afterwards when we were evaluating the roleplay with the Young Women we asked Cheyenne what she thought of the roleplay, and as she tried to answer her face got a little rosy and she started to get a little emotional. And then it was as if the whole room got silent, and the "feeling" came into the room! She had felt the Spirit, and the Spirit was in that room testifying to her, and to all of us, of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the things that had been said during that class! This probably has to be one of the greatest experiences on my mission interacting with the youth.

Well, I gotta go, but I wish all of you a blessed week! Remember who you are!

Elder Ruiz

We came across some interesting fog in the canyon at night during last week.