Monday, August 26, 2013

The Atonement and Missionary Work

                                                                                                                          July 23, 2013
Hola mi Familia Amorosa! Thank you so much for your emails! 

 This week has been amazing! We had a goal as a zone that each companionship would have 3 people attend church this week, because this is something we have been struggling with. It is hard to get investigators to go to church. But we made this our goal and we did everything we possibly could to get them there. Sunday morning I was just praying that they would come because they are unable to progress in the gospel if they don´t come to church, and we want them to have the joyous blessings of the gospel because we love them so much! I prayed that Heavenly Father would help everything to work out because we had done all that we could do. I feel like I have never worked so hard in the mission, and I am so grateful to learn early, how hard I need to work to help these people. The Lord answered our prayers, we had three people in church. Sis. V. and her son came, and we are hoping that they are going to be baptized the 10th of August. But we still have a lot to teach them in these next 3 weeks. Please continue to pray for them so that they are protected from the adversary, and continue in the lessons. They are our miracles, and we wont be able to meet with them until Thursday. 
 
Our other investigator at church was Sis. C. she is 16 and we found her this week. She was really interested the first lesson and we went back and everything was great! Her mom didn´t want to go to church but said her daughter could learn and be baptized if this is what she wanted. She knows a ton of members, and she absolutely loved church and we have a youth camp, like youth conference, this next weekend and she was planning to go. We visited her yesterday after church to talk about everything and she was shining, loving the gospel. She only needed her mom's permission to go to the conference. We said we would visit on monday and that we would be praying for her mom that she would allow her to go. Last night while we were out working, we received a call from her, and she said that she has received some sort of sign that she took to mean that the church wasn´t true and that she didn´t want us to visit anymore and that her mom doesn't want us to visit the house anymore. Hna. Garcia and I were with Loreto trying to contact someone when we received this call, and we were both heartbroken and started to cry. We love Sis. C. so much, and want her to have these blessings, and she was so perfect in the lessons. We felt so sad, but we have faith that she will return.  The adversary always tries people right after a good experience, but Heavenly Father and our Savior are so much more powerful! We are going to start slow by just asking how she is. It was so hard to work last night, we just wanted to rest after this, but then we went over to a members house for 15 minutes before we had to be home, and he showed us a video that I believe is on Youtube. It is called
"The Atonement and Missionary Work." It is amazing, and I invite you to watch it.
 
What I have learned this week is that missions aren't easy, because salvation is not easily obtainable. The Savior suffered everything for our salvation! In order to receive the blessings of Salvation, we must do our part and share the gospel. When we are sharing the gospel, we are part of the work of salvation as well. If we are in this work as well, How can we question why this suffering is necessary. He suffered so much, we can´t even imagine! But how are we to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ if we never suffer. In our life on earth, we will never suffer even the minimum of what He suffered, but we will suffer, and this suffering will bring us greater understanding of our Savior´s sacrifice, and greater love for Him. And so last night, when I wanted to rest, I thought of the Savior who after Gethsemane had every right to rest, but He continued in His work of Salvation, and even when He died, He was doing this work in the Spirit World. How can we rest, when He had every right to, and didn´t. Salvation is the most important work to the Lord. If we are to be His true disciples, and bear His name, this must be the most important work to us as well. And we must do all we can do, night and day, even with trials, to do the work of the Lord and to bring every child of God to Him. And the greatest part is that we are not alone. When we can't keep going, He will carry us. He suffered alone for us, but He will always be with us when we suffer, and He will carry us. I hope this makes sense. The video is way better, but this is what I learned this past week. I am grateful to have learned this, and I know that Heavenly Father helped me to learn it right after this trial. I love the tender mercies and miracles that I see everyday. Please pray for Sis. C. that she will know that her sign wasn´t from our Heavenly Father. It might have something to do with her mom as well, so please pray for her mom, that her heart may be softened. I know that all will be okay, and thank you for the prayers you offer for our investigators. It makes such a difference. I love you all!!!
 
On a happier note, p-day was awesome, we played soccer and volleyball as a zone! I hope you have a great week, and please be safe! Love you!!!!!


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