Climbing the Mountain of the Lord

                                                                                              May 19, 2014
Hola Familia!!! Les amo con todo mi corazon y estoy emocionada escribirles hoy.
This week was amazing!!

First things first, Javiera was baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooohoooo!!!!!!!!!

 

It was so sweet and she is amazing! I love watching people change as they learn about the gospel and the Spirit touches their hearts. They might be the most prepared people, but it still changes them so much, and you can see it in their countenance.

 

She was so happy on Saturday and she is going to love the church!!! We are teaching her mom, Mirza, please pray that her heart will be softened and open to the restored gospel.
We are also working on reactivating her father.

Hermana Martinez and I are working hard. It is so fun to have the same time in the mission because now we kind of know what we are doing. ha ha sometimes...

This week we had Mario come to church, and Fernando, and we also had a new investigator come to church with a baptismal date. His name is Felix, and he is an alcoholic. He has a disease in his liver and he is basically in the final stages and could die at any moment. So he is very important to us! He was a reference from member and the first time we contacted him, he didn't open his door and he yelled at us to go away, that he would never talk to the Mormons or go to church. After that, I felt like we needed to go back because that day, someone had said something about persistence, and it kept circulating my mind. We went back, and he was nicer the next time, but he didn't let us in. Then, we saw him in the street one night, and he had no where to run, ha ha and we talked to him. We asked if we could come share a message with him to help him, because God loves him and wants him to be happy and return to live with him. And Miracle! He said we could come the next day, and when we taught him he accepted a baptismal date and the invitation to come to church. On Sunday we walked to pick him up, and he was all ready, in clean clothes and shaven. He liked church, but sadly when we passed by with members later that night, he was drunk. Please pray for him. He needs to stop drinking so that he can be baptized. Please pray that his addiction will be healed. And please keep on praying for our other investigators.

We had another miracle. A young father came to church with his 8 year old daughter. His name is Cesar and she is Jasmin. They were just a contact, but they came, and we are going to teach them on Friday!! Please pray for them!! Please also pray for my convert Loreto. She is struggling and needs a lot of prays to stay active. Thank you for your faith and love!!!

Today we had an fun zone activity!
We went to the Termas de Chillan.
They are hot springs and a ski resort where there is snow.















We were so excited because Hermana Martinez has never seen snow before, but sadly, there was only a thin layer on the ground when we got there. It was okay because it was still fun, and we hiked up the mountain.


It was hard and tiring because the ground wasn't very good for hiking and it was steep but we made it!
A lot of times, the others wanted to turn back early, but I wanted to keep going and persevere until the end!



Climbing this mountain reminded me a lot of our lives. It is exactly like climbing a mountain.

We have to be steady and sure and keep going no matter what! We can't stop because we haven't journeyed this far in the gospel just to give up and lose everything!

When we were baptized, WE PROMISED GOD that we would keep His commandments, and remember our Savior always, and represent Him in all things FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!


This means forever and always!

We cannot give up! We made these promises and the reality is, that if we don't keep them, we can't have the blessings of eternal life with our families, and with our Savior and our Heavenly Father.

If we don't keep our promises and stay active in the church, then our Heavenly Father can't keep His promises to us. It doesn't matter how strong our testimony may be, we need to keep going to church EVERY SUNDAY!!! And if our testimony seems weak, we need to go so that He can strengthen us! We must always be active! It makes me so sad to see people go inactive for different reasons, because they may have made the promises before, but they aren't valid if they don't keep them.


It is my prayer that we can keep climbing the mountain of the Lord no matter how difficult. I pray that everyone will keep climbing until we can reach Him for eternity. That means we must climb for the rest of our lives!

I love you all so much! Thank you for keeping your promises. It is our calling to help those who are struggling to do so. Have an amazing week and know that I love you! 

Con todo mi amor, 

Hermana Harris