Comprommitments

Dang this week!! We had a mission tour with Elder and Hermana Villanueva from the seventy. It was epic. We learned a ton and I was riding on the Spirit for lessons afterwards. We learned a lot about comprommitments (that's my made up word that I accidentally say all the time because in Spanish it's compromiso and I don't really speak English anymore) and then we came back to our area and the Spirit told me to be fuerte when I extended some commitments.

There's this Haitian couple, Nelson and Kassandra. Kassandra speaks zero Spanish, only Kreyòl. So Nelson sort of translates for us cuz he also doesn't speak great Spanish. Anyway, we taught them about the Restoration in broken Kreyòl, then we come back and Kassandra tells us about the dream she had when she prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. She saw Jesus holding a lamb with a flock of sheep following behind Him. He walked up to her and said, "Joseph Smith is a prophet of God." Is that not the coolest thing ever??? They both want so badly to get baptized, but they have to get married first. They know that, and they want to. They have a very hard situation because they're not legal and they're not natives... so we weren't sure what to do. I started to testify about something and the Spirit put words in my mouth. And I told them that if they come to church every week, they will be able to get married in a few weeks. Words straight from God, because I had no idea how that promise would be realized, but I said it. Then they said, "Well, we can't come this week" and my heart broke clean in two. I've never been so devastated. The Spirit was so strong in that room and I could tell they recognized the truth of that promise. But they had some unimportant, totally movable conflict, and they wouldn't come. We were literally begging them, and they didn't budge. That killed me.

I also kind of asked some lady to quit her job too. She is progressing, except she works on Sunday. We were talking with her about her predicament and I started the sentence, "Well, I don't want to ask you to quit your job" and I'm not sure how I was planning to end that sentence, but what came out of my mouth was, "but it's not me who's asking." That surprised me when it came out of my mouth. We'll see what happens with her.

A Dominican lady also told me I need blonde hair this week. We were just walking and somebody hisses rather insistently at us, so we turn around and it's this lady standing in front of a salon. She told me she would dye my hair for free and didn't let up until I told her I would think about it (although I actually have no plans to go blonde). She made me give her our number and pressed a card into my hand. Later I found out she has a class to teach a bunch of students how to do a blonde balayage and apparently I'd be a perfect model... 

I have been reading Jesus the Christ recently and this week I learned something interesting. Something that I already knew, but the way it was worded made me stop and think. Death is the natural wages of sin—in other words, we're all going to die because we sin. Not just because we are mortal and Adam fell, but because we sin. Jesus Christ was the only one capable of laying down His life because He never sinned. Had He died for the same reason everyone dies, His death would have accomplished nothing. But because His death was not destined, He could willingly give it up to atone for the inevitable death all the rest of us will face.

That's so deeply meaningful but at the same time so truthfully simple. That's how Jesus works. He's the answer to every question, whether it's a complex question or a practically meaningless worry. It's not meaningless to Him if it means something to us, and He's there watching over us, hand extended to ease our burdens if we're willing to dump them into His waiting hands.

Les amo mucho! Have a fuego week!

Hermana Cazier 

Here's some random pics that don't have much to do with anything