having a wicked time entertaining ourselves in our apartment now we
don't have housemates. On New Year's Eve we went on lockdown at 5pm
and had to entertain ourselves until bedtime since we weren't allowed
to go to bed early. We are actually masterchefs and made ourselves the
best chicken burger and fry meal imaginable in our apartment and
celebrated New Years at 9.30 when it ticked over in Adelaide. Sort of
celebrated. I was kind of like, yaaaay and then moved on. The
neighbours were partying hard, there were literally fireworks going on
24/7 for the week, kids lighting them off in the street, or lighting
them and throwing them in the middle of groups of people so they all
had to run away, or doing them in the middle of the day so you can't
even see them but theres loud bangs going off all the time. Apparently
there were a lot of firework related deaths around as well. Bad news.
There really are no rules here, people just do what they want with
them. And then on New Years morning when we were struggling enough to
wake up, the neighbours had hired a karaoke machine and there was a
little girl going hard all morning. Oh man. Rough morning haha.
The rest of New Years was great, we went to our RC's house and they
had been saving their best chicken for us to kill. He died a noble
death and he was delicious. The picture of Sister Lainhart is when she
puts its blood on her face. Its gross I know. Then we wandered over to
our investigator husbands house and his brother told us he was drunk.
I honestly thought he was joking because he has a smoking problem but
doesn't even drink, but we walked up to his house and saw him dancing
around the living room. When he saw us he stopped, and thought, and
put on a shirt, and just sat there. We were just like, why? His face,
he was so so guilty and so disappointed. Every time we went back he
would see us coming and run away, and his wife would cry, shes been
praying so hard for him. On Saturday we finally caught him round the
back of his house pretending he wasn't running away, and dragged him
inside, he woudn't even look at us. Instead of calling him out, we
just talked to them about fasting and how they can receive help in
their own problems and the problems of others. The next morning they
both came to church fasting , he went in for an interview with Bishop
and they sorted something out and now hes back on track. Miracles from
fasting - they are real. Fasting here is so much harder because its a
lot more hours of being awake than at home plus were walking around in
the sun still all day. But it was so worth it for everything that
happened.
Things have been going really well in our area, we felt like we'd hit
a wall there so we took a hard look at what was going on and made some
big changes. We noticed that when we put a little bit more effort into
every area the miracles happened, and making sure the members are
doing the work and were supporting them and things go a lot faster. We
found two new investigator families that are looking really promising.
On Christmas Eve in the morning we were preparing to go about our day
a certain way and I just really felt the Spirit drive me in another
direction. Its like it was literally moving me to do things. After
being prompted to read certain scriptures and certain passages in
Preach My Gospel, I wrote in my journal 'Today we will find somebody
who will be baptised'. Even I was surprised at what had happened, but
I was prompted to a girl in our ward to come out with us, it was a
miracle that she was free since she always works, and in that short
time she was out we met a lady on the street. Turns out the two of
them are from the same town in Manila. The lady we met told us she
always wanted to talk to us because she investigated the church 20
years ago in Manila but didn't think they had a chapel here when she
moved back. And she has 8 kids, who love us. She lives next door to a
lady in our ward who shes friends with and we got her to come over
with us last night and she convinced her to come to church with all
her kids. Miracles. Even if it takes time, she will be baptised. I
really think I've only got a couple more weeks here in San Nic so I'm
trying to get it all ready for the next missionary to take over so
they have plenty of investigators to work with. Can't wait to hear
about all the baptisms that happen after I've gone.
I love this work and I love you all. I have such a testimony of
everything I do. I read a quote this week that said we are responsible
for all the souls we had the opportunity to save and didn't, and I
don't want to get to judgement and regret all these things I didn't
do.
Work hard, love you!
Sister McKim
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