Hola familia!
How was your week last week? Our week was super hard but super awesome! We had a baptism on Saturday, this girl named Mayra got baptized and it was a super awesome experience, we also had three super awesome investigators attend that baptismal service so that was awesome, the only sad part is that it turns out that one of those investigators actually lives in the assistants´ area she just is always visiting her sister who lives in our area, but it´s fine because the hermanas in the area next door had to pass us a set of triplets that´s been going to church for the same reasons so it´s all fair in the end I suppose. Mayra is cool because she is doing all of this to try and help her little son have a better life. She´s passed through a lot of hard trials so it was cool being able to see her progress in the gospel to baptism. I got really nervous on Sunday because it started to rain and I was afraid that Mayra wouldn´t go to her confirmation but when I called in the morning to tell her to not be afraid of the rain she was already up and on her way to the church and she got there before me and my companion. Even though we had rain there was actually a lot of people in church. It was one of the first Sundays where we as missionaries didn´t have to do anything during the sacrament and it was way cool because I realized of the 4 kids passing the sacrament 2 of them were these previously less-actives that me and my comp have been working with to reactivate and one of them was this kid that the assistants had baptized a few weeks ago! I thought that was super cool! There was also an entire family, mom dad and 3 kids that we´ve been working with for so long and they all came back to church (one of them passed the sacrament on Sunday). I´ve been thinking a lot lately about all of the people that I´ve been able to teach in my mission and I was thinking about my converts. I´ve been feeling a big need to be praying for them and I had a great tender mercy today that has to do with that. I went over with my companion to the mission office so he could sign into the country and there were a ton of other missionaries there. I found the elders where I heard one of my very first converts had moved to, Nidia, and I asked them if they even knew who she was. I was very disappointed when they said no, but then I wanted to make sure so I showed them a picture and he lit up and said you baptized her, I thought she had been a member for years! She still comes to church and is active! I was soooooooooooo excited to hear that because I love their little family. I felt at such great peace knowing that she was still active and that her husband has been making some positive changes as well. I just felt literally like a shepherd who had found his sheep. I imagine that´s how the Savior feels about us, sometimes we get lost but when we come back and do what He asks then he rejoices greatly. It really helped me realize that I haven´t been working this last year in vain. I´m really happy with how my mission has been up to this point and I´m super happy that I still have a really long time to keep working out here. I love my area so much. We got a reference from our branch president, I´m noticing a change in him, he seems like he wants to be more involved in the work now so I´m super pumped. He gave us the reference to someone he´s been talking to at work so we contacted him the next day and he´s super awesome. He´s been to church a lot and was going to be baptized but got a call to go down to Argentina to work for a few months so never ended up being baptized. But he brought his Book of Mormon with him and read a ton and now he´s back and wants to learn more and get baptized. He even came to Mayra´s baptismal service. I also really love Elder Beus. He understands my sense of humor so well and we're working so well together. He´s a big example to me and I feel so blessed that the Lord put us together. He has sacrificed so much and is always smiling and never complains and is just such a solid guy and a real role-model for me. I really love my district and zone. I`m super bummed because my zone leader is going home in just a few weeks and I love him so much, he was actually in my first zone with me, he was training another missionary. That`s the part I hate more than anything in the mission is saying good-bye. But other than that I love my mission so much. I even have grown to love sweating through my shirts because I feel good about having walked under the hot sun all day and put in a good days work. I also really love the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I love reading it and as a missionary I feel like everything I read in there applies directly to me and to the work, it´s super sweet. Most of all I love the Lord. I love that He´s perfect and knows how to love imperfect people and use them too to help progress His work. I have absolutely no doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and living church on the earth. I can´t tell you how convinced I am of that. I love you guys so much and I hope you have an awesome week. I hope all goes well with Maren´s big party this week too.Banner
