Buenos Dias Familia!
Wow, I dont even know where to start with this email. Before I tell you all about my week I need to first tell you how much Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us and He knows what we need in order to progress. As hard as it is to believe in the moment, I know that our trials are to help us grow and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. And, if we endure patiently, Heavenly Father blesses us more than we could even imagine. But, we must remember that enduring patiently does not mean sitting around waiting for miracles to come.
Heavenly Father has blessed Hermana King and I so much this week I can´t even begin to describe all of the miracles we saw this week and the love we felt from Him and how much my testimony grew. Work wise, the last 4 weeks have been some of the hardest of my mission. We had found such great people with such great potential but lesson after lesson kept failing us and we were just trying our hardest to figure out why. We obviously understood that having lots of lessons fail is just part of the work, but the last 4 weeks was above and far beyond the normal. We were starting to become worried that us being sent here to open up this area in the island for Hermanas was some mixup or something. It was a rough 4 weeks. But then this week came. Monday started off getting super awesome, full on, pedicures form our recent convert Lady, emailing, and then having a full afternoon of lessons. And then lessons continued throughout the whole entire week until the last second of last night when we had to be in piso. Number wise this was one of the best weeks I have ever had in my mission. And the best part is that it isnt even about the numbers. We were able to find and teach such incredible people this week and have such great success. Some people that we had found weeks ago all of the sudden started answering their phones and being available to meet with us, others who had failed us several times we found in the street and were able to have great lessons with them, and when a lesson failed us, we were always able to find someone else to teach. Heavenly Father blessed us more than I can even describe to you. He blessed us and He blessed all of the people around us. And the best part of this week was that it ended with María and José Luis getting baptized on Saturday and recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Again, this email doesnt do this week justice but when Hermana King and I felt like we truly couldnt go any further Heavenly Father stepped in and our faith was strengthened so much. After every single lesson we had we said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for allowing us to help these wonderful people come unto Christ. I know that our faith is tried to the very last possible second, but if we endure patiently and continue working diligently miracles come.
Attached is a foto of us with María and José Luis. I cannot tell you how much I love them. Along with the many many miracles that we saw this week, one of the biggest was the miracle we witnessed with the baptism of María and José Luis. The were just as golden as golden gets and so prepared to be baptized but Satan is just some times so dang annoying that on wednesday the baptism was canceled. From our perspective we were still full of faith that they were going to get baptized (just not this week, maybe the following week) because from experience we know how satan works especially the week right before baptism. But to them this seemed the end of a lot of things including their baptism. But, after praying and crying with them a lot on wednesday and thursday we decided to call the bishop over to give each of them a priesthood blessing. Wow. Words are not even sufficient to describe the spìrit we felt as the bishop counseled them and gave them each a blessing. Those 30 minutes were some of the most powerfully spiritual minutes of my life as I saw the spirit work through them and help them have a mighty change of heart. Hermana King and I knew a lot (probably too much) of what was going on in their personal life but the bishop at this point knew very little yet each blessing was so specific and personal and the spirit touched their hearts and a mighty change was made. As the bishop ended he looked at each of them and said we still have a baptismal service tomorrow at 12pm and I would love to see you there in white. He left, we stayed and without even thinking for a second they both said they wanted to get baptized. We still had a few lessons to teach them so we stayed and taught them a little bit and then returned that night to finish teaching them the rest. Family, the baptism was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The smile of peace and hope on each of their face´s as they came up out of the water truly just said it all. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. I know that the power of the atonement to help one forgive and forget is real. I know that the power of baptism is real and we truly do receive a remission of our sins as we come up out of the water and we truly do start a new life. I know that the power of priesthood blessings is real. I am so very grateful that Hevenly Father allowed me to be part of this mighty change that María and José Luis made this weekend. Their testimony to end the service was one of the most powerful things I have every heard as well. There were tons and tons of ward members that were there and everyone was talking about their testimony´s on sunday. The spirit touched every heart in that room in a very powerful way.
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