Sept. 2, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! How are you! Thank you all for your sweet emails!
Hola mi familia!!! How are you! Thank you all for your sweet emails!
This week has been hard. We are having difficulty finding
new people to teach and so that is what we fasted for on Sunday. But part of
fasting, is doing all you can to prove that you are worthy to receive the
blessings you need. We didn´t feel like we did that last night, but we are so
grateful for repentance and the opportunity to change. This week is going to be
so much better as we talk to everyone, and do all we can to serve and find
people to teach. If we prove ourselves to the Lord, He will trust us and know
that we are ready to teach those who are prepared. I am excited for a new week
to work harder, and be better with the Lord´s help.
This week we taught two investigators--Josue and Paul. We
invited Josue to baptism and he knows this is what he needs to do, but he
doesn´t want to feel rushed so he didn´t accept the date. He said he would pray
about it and tonight we are going to teach him and verify if he received an
answer. But he came to church yesterday!!! Paul seems to be progressing well. We
have a noche de hogar, or family home evening tonight with him and his family
and he is going to invite his girl friend. It will be so fun. Please keep
praying for Josue and Paul! They are both progressing wonderfully so I know that
the Lord is answering all of your prayers and ours as well. Also, please pray
for Elizabeth. She feels the Spirit in our lessons, and I think she wants to be
baptized but she is really evangelical and doesn´t agree with some of the things
in the church and has a lot of questions. She wants to know that it is true and
have answers to her questions, which we promised she could receive through pray
to her Heavenly Father. Please pray that she will have the desire to pray about
the truth and ask God all her questions. I think she is afraid to pray and know
that it is all true :)
Today we had a zone activity at the beach! We played
volleyball, ate shish kabobs. and also something called Churipan. It is sausage
inside of bread. Kind of like pigs in a blanket. It was really good, and I had the
wonderful responsibility of making an American dessert for 16 missionaries. I
found an amazing recipe book in our apartment that I think one of the elders
left. I decided to make lemon squares! I made 2 batches of lemon squares and
they turned out pretty good! Who knew I would be doing that in Chile! it was
hard to find time to make them in the little free time i have as a missionary,
but I was able to do it! The activity was really great and I took some
cool pictures that I will have to send next week.
Ok, now that I mentioned the lemon squares, it is time to
talk about the lessons learned. This week we contacted different houses, and
sometimes we contact people who don´t believe in God. In this instance we
contacted a man who didn´t believe in God, and he talked to us for a while. I
didn´t want to argue, and i didn´t want to listen, i just wanted to leave in
this instance and so i watched as my companion testified that she knew that God
lived. Afterwards we were walking away, and she said why didn´t you say
anything. I felt so bad because I had had ideas come into my mind that I know
were from the Spirit and I didn´t open my mouth. She then told me a story about
how she had had a teacher once who didn´t believe in God and was arguing about
it. She was with her friend and her friend defended God and shared her testimony
that she knew that He lived, but my companion didn´t open her mouth. She said
that she felt horrible and from that day she promised that she would always bear
her testimony to those who don´t believe in God because that is all we can do,
and testimonies are powerful. I am so grateful for the example of my companion.
Now and forever I will always share my testimony and defend God because I know
that He lives. I know that our Savior lives!! I have received a witness from the
Spirit that this is true. I will never remain silent ever again. I will always
defend our Heavenly Father and our Savior because I know that They live! People
can argue with all the logic in the world, but that will not weaken my faith,
and the witness I have received from the Spirit. We must walk by faith in this
world, but faith is stronger than anything. I am grateful for the Savior and for
the forgiveness that we can receive from our Heavenly Father through Him. I am
grateful that I can repent for not opening my mouth, as I go forth now and
testify of them in every moment. I am grateful for the lesson I learned this
week, and I challenge everyone to do the same. I challenge everyone to promise
that they will always defend Heavenly Father and the Savior and bear testimony
of them when others say bad things about them. We must be firm in our
testimonies and unshaken in our faith.
This week we also had a conference with Elder Gonzalez of
the 70. He talked about the 3 aspects of missionary work. Bautismo, retencion,
and reactivacion. Baptize, retain, and reactivate. We have brothers and sisters
in all three of these areas who need to hear our testimonies of our Heavenly
Father and our Savior. Without us they might not have the opportunity to accept
and live the gospel in this life, and if they don´t the price might be their
salvation. This week I was thinking a lot about how sometimes i worry a ton
about the health and safety of others, and how horrible it would be if they
died. But think about how horrible it will be if they die spiritually.
Protecting them spiritually and helping them obtain salvation is so much more
important, because death is part of the plan. Everyone will die, but we need to
make sure that no one will die spiritually. we want all of our brothers and
sisters to be there with us partaking of the Salvation that our Heavenly Father
and Savior offer us. Our brothers and sisters who don´t have the gospel now,
those who have been barely been baptized, and need to receive strong testimonies
to remain firmly in the church, and those who have become inactive and left the
church. Everyone is important and we need to work hard in each of these areas.
The members can help by visiting investigators, new converts, and less actives
with the missionaries. We must be friends to everyone and make sure they all
feel welcome in the church, have a social conversion, a spiritual conversion,
and a calling. These are just a few of the lessons that I learned this week! I
am excited to learn more and to share with you the things that I am trying to
implement into my life! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week full of
adventure and miracles. Love you all so much!!! Hasta luego!
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