Familia Navarro is ORO‏ - Oct. 17, 2011

Springtime in San Rafael. I love it.

I officially have spent three seasons here. I got here in fall, went all the way through a very cold winter, and now spring! This week was lots of HARD work but great. We were so tired one night I am pretty sure I walked home 30 minutes while power napping. But so it is on the mission....I LOVE IT.

Familia Navarro is amazing. We found them in a very simple way about 1 month ago. We have to do a certain amount of contacts each day and I always try to contact every family I see, kind of like I have a radar for them. I saw this cute family walking in centro and introduced myself. Knowing quickly that I was not a native Spanish speaker, they began to speak broken English to me. The hav¡d lived in Florida for a few years. We both laughed as we talked in a fun mix of English and Spanish as I asked if my companion and I could come by during to week to teach their family. They agreed and we went by the next day. 

We faught with them about 2 week. They were never there, but Hna Dana and I stopped by about everyday to see hopefully if they were there. We would run to their house at the end of the night to see if they were there. Well, lets just say our efforts were worth the time. We brought a member couple who were converts in the church 15years ago and now are the Stake Relief Society President and in the Stake High council, and they were instant friends. Familia Navarro have been assisting a baptist church (one that has a rock band to sing to and they shout and scream in their meetings) but every lesson we showed them love and showed them the spirit of reverence and love. They are a super unified family and already pay tithing in their church and have lived the word of wisdom as a family for some time. It took a lot or re-teaching, but finally they came to church yesterday. The family consists of Gustavo (dad), Virginia (mom), Matias (18yrs), Luna (7) and Morena (4). They are fireballs and have tons of doctrinal questions but have come to love the Book of Mormon. They are on fire right now and know the church is true and have been reading and praying as a family. The ward members helped us SO much this Sunday because we called them all ahead of time and let them know we had a special complete family that needed lots of support. Sunday each class they felt comfortable to comment, participate and ask questions in which each member testified to them and helped them along the way. I have never felt so much joy since the night Karina and Marcelo Garrido got married and baptized. They are scheduled for baptism the end of this month!!

To make the Sunday even better, we got permission to visit Flia Garrido in the country since we met our goals early in the week. We took the 30 minute drive out there with the help of a member with a car and surprised them. They CRIED when they saw us! I played for about 2 hours with the kids in the vineyards and orchards and we had a great family home evening after. Their branch is small and seems like they are having a hard time adjusting to being in the middle of nowhere but I am sure they will be ok. It was overall a great day! (It was Mother´s day here so it was a little sad to wait and study while Hna Dana called her family but it is ok, I will have my chance in May).

Thank you for your support and love. The Lord is putting amazing people into my hands I am sure I dont deserve but I am soooo grateful. We are being obedient and working hard to keep receiving the blessings. The vineyard really is ripe and ready to harvest here, even in your 7th month in San Rafael!!

Love,
Hermana Thatcher