Elder Amoni Ka'ili Mission Journey: The Gift of Tongues and Spicy Food

Man what a crazy and fast week, filled with so many little miracles for me, my companionship, and our investigators!

Monday night was a crazy night because after P day and visiting some less active members me and Elder Corrasco went back to our trailer and got ready for bed! I was looking at my hair and decided I needed a haircut. Elder Corrasco has a mirror and some nice clippers that you can cut your hair by yourself.... so you know I faded myself up lol. I was actually way scared but it came out alright lol! After I was done, we got a call from our bishop from our English ward and I got assigned a talk for sacrament on following the prophets and aligning our lives with their teachings! I was actually really excited for some reason haha!

My talk was centered around 2 talks that I found, one by Gene R. Cook called " Seek out your spiritual leader" and another talk that I don't know the name of but its President Eyring and he talks about missionary work! Something that I also shared was the good examples that I have in my life of people aligning their lives with the prophets teaching and the Lord! I shared that both of my grandparents have served in many church callings and have done them without hesitation. I told the members that I wasn't telling them these things to brag about my grandparents but I was telling them because they are examples of people who have aligned their lives with the prophets teachings! When the Lord sees that we are capable and following the prophet that he has called, he is going to use us in every way. We are all instruments in the lords hands and we need to be ready and our lives need to be ready so that when he calls us to do something we have no hesitation to accept, and the best way to be ready and waiting for the call is to follow the prophets and apostles teaching to a tee!

During this week I have also been able to see the gifts of this gospel work in me and in the investigators that we are teaching! First of all in me! I have seen the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation work so strongly in me learning Spanish! During the beginning of this week I was struggling with understanding the language because everyone speaks so fast and started to gain a bad attitude because I was so frustrated! I was able to kneel down and a say prayer during my personal study and asked for comfort and asked that the gift of interpretation would work in my life so I could help during the lessons and while we are talking to people on the street! After I said amen I felt so much peace and comfort. During the 2nd half of the week I was able to understand so much more than I was able to before my prayer! I can't understand everything but it is definitely easier to understand whats going on! Little miracles like that strengthen my testimony so much and show me that the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation is all real!!!! Also that heavenly father hears our prayers and is always trying to help us, we just need to allow him!

2nd In our investigators!! We are teaching this family, The Garfias, and all of our lessons have been outside on the porch because she doesn't want us to come inside her house! One day me and Elder Corrasco felt that we needed to go see the mom. she is a single mom and when we went over there she told us that she is going through a tough time right now! We gave her a blessing and after that you could feel the holy ghost fill the house and everyone's face in the room lit up with joy! After that day she has invited us to come inside the house to teach lessons and now they set a date for October 20th for baptism! HOW CRAZY IS THAT! The Priesthood power is so REAL! From her never wanting us inside to her always wanting us to come inside! So many miracles!

On Thursday night I thought I was going to die! Haha all our lessons after dinner fell through except one, so we decided to go tracting in one of the trailer parks. Once the sun went down it felt like it was pitch black where we were walking. There were no street lights and the trailers had a scary look to them lol. We were walking around and a man came up to us in a car and said "watch out for a white lady running around with no shoes, she has a mental issue and we want to get her home safe." I was freaking out! haha and then we were walking down one of the streets and I swear in this trailer park nobody wanted to chain up their pitbulls and boxers cause that's what all the Latinos have.... I saw a dog in the dark up the road and I was like oh heck no this dog looks huge(it was a great dane) so i told Elder Carrasco lets just go to another street and he whispered to me I'm going to go pet it! I was like NOOOO if you pet it and it attacks you, you are on your own! I'm running for my life! haha but he still went up to it and I literally almost peed my pants! haha I'm such a girl with dogs and there are so many dogs over here! The means one too cause they have to scare the coyotes away at night....

On Saturday morning we were able to go to the Flea Market to eat lunch! It was so tight and it was the best quesadillas I have ever had! One of the members of the Spanish branch owns one of the stands so we got to eat there for free! It was literally so good! All the Latinos tell me that if I eat more spicy food, I will learn Spanish quicker haha so they just load up the spices on all my food! On Saturday night we went and ate at a members house and the mom Maria told me to put more chilies and spices on my tacos haha! I gave the spiritual thought after dinner in Spanish and she was like " you know why you did so good on your spiritual thought in Spanish... its because you put the chilies and spices on your tacos" haha Everyone is so nice here !

But yeah this week was filled with experiences that I will never forget because the Spirit was so strong and because I was scared out of my mind!

Thank you for all your prayers and emails! I appreciate them so much and I love you all! Have a blessed week everyone!!!!

Amor,

Elder Ka'