Querida Familia!!
What a memorable week this has been! We have been super busy and this week: we found three new investigators, had six investigators in church, had interviews with Pres. Palmer and then Elder Holland came and spoke to us!! Yes, a very busy, but amazing week. :)
First off, the wonderful people with whom we are working! The Lopez family: We taught them the word of wisdom this week and it went over really well. Maria has not touched coffee since we spoke about it and Eutiquio hasn't drunk since then either. They came to church yesterday as well. We have a lesson with them tonight and the stake president was supposed to come with us, but he couldn't but he wants us to take one of his counselors. This stake presidency is very enthusiastic about missionary work. They're main focus is on the One Church Initiative as well. I love serving here. :) Alberto and Mari: we started teaching Mari this week as well. They have a lot of good questions and are really active learners. We left a chapter with Alberto to read and he called us this week because he had questions and wanted somethings clarified. What?! Yeah, we're pretty excited about them. James Dable: He is a member referral and is really going through a rough time right now. He and his wife are temporarily separated and he's going through some tough spots. We met with him on Saturday and he came to church yesterday and really hit it off with one of the members. The member invited him to be taught in his home this coming week! That's what it's all about: Members getting involved!! :) What a huge blessing. Cristal Vargas: Ha, Heavenly Father has a sense of humor... It was kind of by accident that we found her, but we're glad we did! We had an appt with an old investigator, Maura, and went by her house. Well, what I thought was her house. We haven't visited with her in a month and a half b/c she went down to CA for Christmas. Well, went and knocked on 306 #2 and this other lady opened the door. She invited us in and I was super confused. We talked to her for a little bit and then asked if we could come back and talk more and she said, "well, you can share more right now if you want." What?! But, ah! We had Maura waiting! So we asked if we could come back in an hour and she said yes. So, then we go and knock on Maura's real door and she's not there so run back to Cristal's and she lets us in and we had a really good lesson. We taught her about the Restoration and she had a lot of really good questions. She said she would come to church but then we got a text from her on Saturday saying she had to go out of town unexpectedly but that she would see us on Wednesday at our appt. We're excited to go back!
I know, lots of information, but our investigators are doing good. Thank you for the prayers on their behalf! Keep them up, pretty please :)
So, Elder Holland... We got to drive up on Saturday and then he spoke to us for about an hour and a half. Elder Bussey from the seventy also spoke and gave a great talk on the Atonement. But before all that we all got to shake his hand and then when he got up he told us that that handshake and the look in our eyes was an interview and he knows how we're all doing. He definitely is amazing. He is very passionate about missionary work, that's for sure. I sat about ten feet away from him, and when he looked into the crowd, you could definitely tell when he was looking at you. His main topic was becoming a converted member of the church on our missions. He said that the saddest thing for him is to talk to a less active member who had served a mission. That is the main reason that we have Preach My Gospel. PMG is for us, the missionaries. It's for us to become converted and then when we have that testimony, we can go and share that with others with more conviction and more love and more vigor than we had before. It's to learn the doctrines of the gospel and then to go to investigators and bring the gospel to them where they are at in their lives and show them, teach them, how the gospel will bless their lives. He also talked about the Book of Mormon and about the power that the book has. Nothing else with the restoration of the gospel happened until Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. It had to come about first. It's the evidence that God does love us and wants us to have more knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ. Elder Holland is so passionate about the gospel and you can tell he defnititely holds missionaries to a higher standard. What a blessing it was to hear from him! At the end when he was about to walk out, he blew a kiss to us and said, "Work Hard." That basically sums up his talk: Work Hard.
There is no more important work, no more important message we can share with our families and with our friends. Christ loves us, we are Children of a loving Heavenly Father, and he has restored His gospel with all of it's simple truths, principles and doctrines. I love this gospel and I know with all my heart that it's true. If you ever have fears or hesitations about sharing the gospel with others, read Alma 31:34-35 and remember that everyone is our brothers and sisters and the gospel is all about blessings. Those verses really changed missionary work for me. :)
I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Thank you all for everything! I love you all and pray for you often! Have a great week.
Love,
Hermana Haws
