Family and Friends,
Well
there you have it, like I said in my last email this past week I
completed 6 months in the mission. I still can hardly believe that I am
1/4 of the way through... It is a crazy feeling and what is even crazier
is that I know the time is only going to start going by faster! My
mission president told me that the first 6 months are the slowest, the
second 6 months go by in a snap, and then the last year doesn´t even
exist. Which is sad because looking back the first 6 months flew!!!! Oh
well though, I am just trying to make the absolute best of every single
day that I have in the mission and work as hard as I can!
This past week was great and we saw a ton of miracles! It is such a
testimony builder to see the hand of the Lord at work with us here in
this mission. Like it says in Jacob 5, the Lord of the vineyard is a
work with his servants for the last time in the vineyard. This past week
we were able to have 3 baptisms!!! They were of two girls who are
sisters and another unrelated girl as well. The other two Elders that we
live with also had a baptism of a guy named Diego as well. So in total
our ward had 4 this past week. We also were able to confirm a girl who
my companion had baptized this last transfer and was never able to come
back to church to get confirmed! I know it sounds like a weird situation
and I really don´t know all the details, I just know that it was a
miracle that she could come to church and get confirmed a member and receive the Holy Ghost!
The two sisters that got baptized this week are
named Fiorella and Vanessa. They are 11 and 15 years old respectively.
They are great but their parents are really catholic and did not want to
give them permission to be baptized. We worked a ton with their parents
and saw many miracles as we tried to gain their trust and show them the
necessity of the baptism of their daughters. Finally three days ago the
father said that he would be wrong to deny his daughters when they were
trying to follow Jesus, and he signed the papers. I was able to baptize
Vanessa and it was great! I was also able to baptize Abigail who is
also incredible. She is 17 and new here from Peru. She is absolute
evidence that the Lord is preparing people here to hear the gospel and
accept all that it entails. Any time that she had a question or doubt we
just taught her the basic doctrine using the scriptures and invited
her to pray to God for an answer, and every time she was able to receive
answers to her prayers. It just goes to show that if we have faith, God
will ALWAYS answer our prayers because He wants us to know His truth!
Anyway I absolutely loved being able to be a part of those sacred
ordinances and am so happy for them and for their decision. We will be
working more with them this week as they prepare for their confirmations
this next Sunday!
Really other than that, not much else is going on around here. We
are just working hard and enjoying the mission every day! There is
always trials and hardships in all that we do but we just have to
remember that they are always for our benefit and we can always learn
from them. Like today I had the trial of having to play soccer with a
bunch of Latinos and got wrecked. It was hard and the score was very
lopsided but I know that I can take something from that experience and
move forward hahaha. No but really it doesn´t matter what trial we have
we can also learn from them and be better because of it!
Anyway I just want everyone to know that all is going well out
here and that I am happy and healthy. The area is great and so is my
comp. The language is coming along well and even though I am not near
fluent I am still learning and progressing. We are looking forward to
more success in this area in the coming weeks and I have no doubt that
there are more people here that are ready to accept the Gospel and enter
into the covenant of baptism. It is crazy the things that happen when
you just invite people to do something. Like a cousin of Fiorella and
Vanessa came to church with them and attended their baptisms, and right
after the service my companion and I put a baptismal date with her for
two weeks from yesterday! Really all we did was invite her to follow the
example of Jesus Christ and her cousins and be baptized by someone with
the priesthood authority of God. We have a FHE tonight with the family
and we will shortly be putting dates with more of their friends and
family members :) !!! Man I love this work! Haha
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