our
ward cinco de mayo party
homemade pinata. filled with vegetables and peanut butter
packets. not candy. our ward has a lot of food allergies. (: When it was broken open, and the kids saw what was inside, some of them were not too happy, ha ha!
the horchata we were bringing to the cinco de mayo party from one of our
investigators. all buckled up and ready to go! haha our investigators had a
good laugh at that
an actual icecream truck!
Feliz dia de
Madres!
So the Austin ward just had their Cinco de Mayo party, and
it was a hit! We had home made pinatas filled with vegetables and peanut butter
packets, a mariachi band comprised of the high school music teacher and
students. Authentic Mexican food provided by our Hispanic ward members and
investigators- Pazole and Horchata! and the not so Authentic Mexican food
provided by the ward members- American style burritos, and ice cream and
brownies! The mix of two cultures was so much fun! The decorations set off the
mood with hanging lanterns, colorful paper flowers hung on the walls, green
white and yellow streamers lined the ceiling, the smell of Spanish rice and the
beautiful voice of Enrique Iglesias booming through the giant speakers in the
church gym united our ward with the Hispanic culture for the night.
We finally got to hear Hermana Soto's (one of our members)
beautiful voice as she sang a solo of a Spanish love song for the ward, and we
also got to see her awesome dance skillz that competed with Napoleon Dynamites
pretty awesome moves. It made our wildest dreams come true.
We also had Lorenzo come with us, our Pentecostal friend from Guatamala
who is learning more about the church. The ward members got to know and love
him the way we do and I think Lorenzos got a new friend group! (: One thing
Lorenzo really wants are good influences and good friends, and because he came,
he got to meet a lot of great new people who want the same thing! It's really
cool to see the growth that's taking place.
We really love the Austin area for the fact that here are people here who really need to hear the gospel. This is a town that needs time, effort, patience and diligence though. Austin has churches on every corner (literally) and just about everyone already has a religion that they swear to stick by. We've come to see with the families we're teaching right now, that once you break through the firmly set religion barrier they put up, you come to find they have a lot of questions,
misconceptions, and misunderstandings. Our brothers and sisters
here in Austin want the gospel. This town is built around religion. This poses
as both a blessing and a challenge. The Lord has brought us here to guide those
who have religion already in their lives to see that there is truth in what
they seek.
The members who already know a little bit of Spanish have really started to fellowship the investigators we have brought and we've seen the excitement they are starting to have for Spanish work. Yesterday, two of our members actually wanted to come in and join our Spanish gospel doctrine class with us! And even though they only spoke a little Spanish, you could see the spark they had for wanting to be more involved. And I saw that they started to make really good connections with our Hispanic member families in the class!
There are many different goals as
missionaries. The main goal is to bring everyone closer to Christ. One of the
ways we come closer to Christ is by coming closer to each other, by seeing and
understanding who our brothers and sisters are and really truly loving them.
Because we are all a family, we have a divine duty of making sure everyone has
the opportunity of receiving all of the blessings our Father in Heaven has
given us which some of those blessings are peace, love, comfort, and
confidence. Or, in point, Joy. And what greater joy can there be than knowing
that we are part of the eternal family of Heavenly Father!
I love you all and I hope with all of
my heart that you find the excitement and joy of helping those around you to
understand their divine potential and feel the love of being part of our
family! there is no greater joy than this!
Love you! Love Hermana Ficklin
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