I Hate Emails But I Love My Grandma!

Saludos, hermanos míos! This week was so fast and tiring. Missions are so awesome! I love being a missionary.

Well, I'm gonna start with the fattest miracle I've ever seen!

So, right when I got to Aibonito on December 1, my companion had really bad knee pain. It was hurting him a lot to walk or even put weight on it. (If you want to know how he hit it, he jumped off the top bunk in the middle of the night before because he thought he was in his last area since he got emergency transferred, and he didn't remember he was on the top bunk now.) Anyways, he had a ton of pain, and we went with that for like a week or so without telling anyone. So I made him text our mission president's wife because homeboy can't even walk. So we texted Hermana Skinner, and she set up an appointment at the Caguas hospital on December 17. So we went to see the doctor after waiting 6 hours in a room (the hospital is on island time. Holy crap, it's so slow). Anyways, we finally got in to see the doctor, and he checked out my companion's knee. He said, "Oh yeah, for sure, you got I.T. band syndrome, and I'm pretty positive with the pain you have and the way your knee moves, I think you have a meniscus tear as well, which I need an MRI to be sure of. So get an MRI ASAP and come see me again." So we went out and talked to the receptionist. She said, "Alright, the next available time I have is January 15, 2022," and we were like, "What? A whole month away?" (I remember thinking a month away and hearing 15). So we went back on the 15th to get the MRI, and the lady was like, "Bruh, it said the 5th. You guys are 10 days late," and I'm like, "No way, homegirl! I know Spanish well enough to differentiate between 'cinco' and 'quince'. They are two completely different sounds." The reason too was that it was written as January 15/22, but she was telling us it was January 5th/22. I'm like, "Who would do a month name and then date it like that? It was a 1, not a dash, and her 1 was straight up and down, not even sideways. So don't even ask me what the freaking crap that is because I don't know, to be honest with you" (Mind you, she said the 15th was the first day open, and somehow it's on the 5th). Anyways, we ended up rescheduling for the 24th, so we went back on the 24th and waited like 5 hours, and he went in. I was just sitting in a freezing waiting room. I've never been in a colder room in my life. Holy crap, it was so chilly. So we got the MRI and set up an appointment for the doctor to see it. Guess what? It was on the 28th, so we went on Friday. And we saw him, and he checked out the MRI and said, "I see a line in your meniscus. Let me get another angle... (looks at another angle). Oop, there's a line but no tear." And the spirit just hit me, and it was like "the priesthood blessings," and it just hit me that we went on December 17, and I gave him a blessing on December 18, and President Skinner gave him a blessing on December 19, and his knee was feeling better the next day. We went on the 15th and had to reschedule. It got all messed up because of something, and in the moment, I was a little bit confused and just prideful, like I got that right. I remember it was the 15th; we all got that right. And looking back on it, I know the Lord needed to give his knee more time to heal. He has a line, not a tear. The only reason there'd be a line is if it healed itself. You know what? It's 100 percent impossible to heal a meniscus without surgery. The doctor said that. Google says that. His knee was healed by God through the power of a priesthood blessing, and I feel amazing to have witnessed it and been a part of it. I don't know if it was my blessing or my mission president's. I assume both played a part, but either way, I just saw a miracle, a literal miracle. No one understands but me and my comp. He really had a meniscus tear. He said he knew and felt it. I know he did, but God healed his knee.

Maria Vega was going to come to church. We had an awesome lesson with her. And then at 1 am on Saturday night, her family came over and told her she stops meeting with us or she won't hear from or talk to her again. This is insane because it's her daughters and grandkids. She's 80. All her siblings and parents and grandparents are dead, which means it's literally just her kids that don't like our church. That's their mom. I get it, they love her, but we love her too. She's not changing to be a worse person. And it's even more annoying because in the beginning when we met her and were learning about her, she told us her daughters hate church, especially the Catholic Church. They never liked to go. And then we come along, and they're like, "We are Catholic. She's Catholic. She doesn't need to change religions." Anyways, sorry for the rant. Please pray for Maria Vega's daughters to soften their hearts and pray for Maria Vega to come to church. I need more prayers. We're praying so hard, but we need everyone's faith. Maria is awesome. She knows this church is true, and she wants to come so bad, but she also loves her family. So, so much. So what does she do? Will she choose God or her daughters? What would you do? See, it's tough. She needs prayers. She shouldn't have to make a decision like this. Ugh.

To his astonishment, his father was angry with him and said, "Lamoni, thou art going to deliver these Nephites, who are sons of a liar. Behold, he robbed our fathers, and now his children are also coming amongst us that they may, by their cunning and their lyings, deceive us, that they again may rob us of our property."

Now the father of Lamoni commanded him to slay Ammon with the sword.

I'm living in this reality where Maria's family is the father of Lamoni right now, lol. Someone help me. She just wants to come to church.

And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, he was exceedingly astonished and said, "Because this is all that thou hast desired, that I would release thy brethren and suffer that my son Lamoni should retain his kingdom, behold, I will grant unto you that my son may retain his kingdom from this time and forever; and I will govern him no more."

We just love her, man. Why can't her daughters see that? What do we need to do to help them see we're not a cult or polygamists or anything bad? All they know are the rumors. We haven't talked to them, but I know it's all they know. Somebody help me.

On Monday night, we played basketball against some kids and beat them 2 to 1 in games. It was sick. Then we played yesterday against some random kids in the park and beat them too, lol.

On Monday night, we were going to go to sleep, so we lay down and turned on the fans. I saw a huge spark, then it smelled like fire. I thought it was the fans. Our outlet exploded, lol. I'm glad we have cement houses so fires don't exist.

I went on exchanges with Elder Hemming, and it was so freaking good. I love exchanges. The kid's a goat.

I hate emails. I would type more, but I am bored.

I love you guys. I hate typing.

We went to a memorial for a kid who died by getting crushed. It was super sad, but we had been doing tons of service for this lady. It was cool to be able to be there for her, and we went, and there were a lot of preachers, and they were preaching. They asked us to talk, and we politely left early on purpose. As we were in the car, we both said we didn't feel like we were supposed to talk and teach. The sister called us three times and asked where we went because we were next. We had to go to be home by 9. Anyway, we both felt good about not talking. We just wanted to serve, and that's what we did. I was happy and content. We served a lot. It was really a tender mercy from the Spirit. I feel good about what I did before the mission. I would've been like, "That's not fair. We didn't get to speak after all that service." We spent 32 hours at their house over the span of two weeks, painting, cleaning, moving things, just serving. And it felt good to serve and not get anything in return, just to serve a mom who just got divorced and lost her son because we love her. Anyway, that was really cool. I recommend serving others. It makes you happy.

Prayer and priesthood are real. I love this church. I'm so glad I have it in my life.