Little Tender Mercies

Jun 9

Hi family! This week was long but not as long as the past few. Lots happened.
Monday we went to café Zupas. It was delicious! We will have to go there after my mission or maybe when you're here to drop off Christa :) it's soups salads and sandwiches :) a sweet lady who has a missionary paid for us. I also found coconut almonds at our walmart :) who knew what a blessing it would be to have a walmart near my area again. Haha.

Tuesday we did service for Sandra. She is an Argentine lady who needs a lot of help. She is not allowed to lift more than 2 lbs and her sister living with her just had foot surgery and her husband is in Afghanistan. When we did service for her last Saturday I was going to ask her about Argentina and see if there was any connections to Daddy's mission but didn't have the Chance. This time I did though and I told her my dad served in Argentina on his mission. She asked what part and I told her Salta. Then she looked at my tag again and started getting really emotional and was asking me all these questions I didn't have the answer to but we figured out that it had to have been him who was the elder who did her interview for baptism. It's amazing that she still remembers him even though he wasn't even the elder who taught her. She then told her sister who said Elder Balero is your dad? He is my friend. Small world and tender mercy. Their English is not the best though so I typed out the message to send to you and she got your message but said she hasn't had the time to sit down and reply. I might just have to give her your number to call. I hope your Spanish is still good or that you can decipher her Spanglish. Haha.

Wednesday we did a lot of walking around campus and then bought a delicious snow cone :) then we had a lesson with Tharinee. She was my first lesson in the area last week. She is Thai I believe but she served a mission and is fluent in English and doesn't respond to Thai. It has been interesting. We think from what we've heard that she might have a brain tumor which is really sad. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and finished the lesson up and then we asked if there was any questions she had and she said she wanted to learn about the law of chastity. We were kind of taken aback because we don't get that request often so we said we would talk about it next time and she said no now. And so we taught about the law of chastity. I think it went well but I think we were all just kind of in shock. Haha.

Thursday we had some non-member lessons. One was Francis. Now Francis is a former investigator. He was doing everything has had the lessons before but just wasn't ready to commit to baptism and got really busy with tennis. We got a text from him Tuesday that said "if I wanted to be baptized on June 21 what would I need to do." Haha. All in the Lords timing I guess. So I met him Thursday for the first time and the lesson went good with seeing where he was at. He has a hold up about somethings saying that no one can know for certain if those things are true but they can hope and believe 99.9%. Which is mostly true but that's where faith comes in. So I've been praying for him like crazy. We also had a lesson with Julianna. All of these I have talked about are in our YSA stakes. So Julianna we had our first lesson with last week as well and honestly it was a disaster. I don't know what happened but it was a mess so we went through the restoration again and this time was a lot better but still frustrating at times. She is catholic and just has a lot of questions  and is more curious than wanting to know if it's true. I want her to have this gospel so bad. She has a hard time understanding the godhead and apostasy and things like that. At some points I think the fellowshipper got carried away in answering her questions and bible bashing than of just testifying and keeping it simple so she can feel the spirit. I just really hope her heart is softened and she will come to know of the truth of our message. Friday the tender mercy was a light dinner of taco salad.

 We also met someone on campus and as we were talking we saw all the efy kids being escorted around campus headed to the dance which was so loud. Haha. I miss it so much. I can't wait to be a councilor next summer which is totally my plan! :) Saturday morning we did service for Sandra again. She had a bday party. In the canyon. A water party. But no water there. So that why missionaries where told to fill up buckets to put in a uhaul to take there and then carry all the heavy food and water to the furthest area. So we died in the sun hauling things. It took forever! Finally we had to go absolutely exhausted. Then we came back at 2 because guess who was invited to the party?? Alfredo! So I got to meet him. We didn't get to stay very long though so I didn't get to talk with him as much as I would have liked to but it still was a neat experience. As I said goodbye it was a tender moment as he told me how grateful he was to you daddy. That you changed his life. He was almost in tears as he told me how grateful he is that he now has the gospel because you chose to serve at that time. I hope I can have the same Impact on someone here. We then had a delicious dinner of fajitas and then yummy brownies and ice cream and get this...cotton candy grapes... Mind blown. They are grapes that taste like cotton candy. Yum! To prove I am not lying the website it said to go to on the bag is divineflavors.com
Sunday was a long day with lots of meetings. It wasn't bad though. In the evening we taught desciree. This is the first time I've met her. Her hold up is not feeling like she has had an answer to her prayers of whether Joseph smith is a prophet or the Book of Mormon is true. She is so close. I felt the spirit so strong in her lesson and I just want her to recognize it. I know that she will understand it in time though. She is so sweet. So there have been a lot of heartfelt prayers this week.
So basically that is all. I will keep you updated! Love you lots and looking forward to email Christa today because SHES GRADUATED!! CONGRATS! Love ya bunches

sister balero