Feliz Navidad!
December 23, 2013
Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas
everyone!!!Wow, this was an interesting week. It was kind of a tough week in some ways, but as always, the Lord gives us trials and He gives us miracles, and we saw some of each.
At the beginning of this week, we had four people with baptism dates scheduled: one, Leonela, for the 21st, another, Naireth, for the 28th, (this Saturday), and two for January. Well, we went to talk to Leonela after her long trip away from home to see how she was doing with her preparation for her baptism, and she told us that she’s going to be traveling again the 21st, and besides that, she fell again in her alcohol habit and she’s not too sure she wants to get baptized. That was a huge disappointment for us, and we left that lesson pretty sad. Then, Naireth’s aunt Cinthia, who is one of my favorite ward members, had an operation and Naireth had to take care of her a lot, so we had to push back her baptism date because she doesn’t have all the lessons. She’ll be getting baptized in January when I won’t be in Braniff anymore. Then, we learned that Scarlet, who had a baptism date for January, isn’t actually married but lives with her boyfriend, who has been traveling for months. So she has to get married before she gets baptized but we won’t be able to get her married for a long time because her boyfriend is never home. Then finally, our other investigator with a baptism date, Carola, went with us to a baptism in another ward and commented that she didn’t feel the Spirit at all because the ward members were unfriendly. Ouch. Another huge disappointment. So, for those reasons, it was a tough week.
But as always, God gives us trials to help us learn, and something I’ve really seen this week is that even though He gives us trials, He also always gives us little miracles to help us know that He loves us and He is still involved in the work. We just have to be able to recognize the "small" miracles instead of being disappointed about the trials.
Something I was reminded about this week in our Christmas devotional with Presidente Willard is that we are missionaries all the time, and should talk with everyone, even when we aren’t in our area. Hermana Lopez and I talked and made the decision that we’re going to work hard to talk with EVERYONE, especially when we’re traveling on the bus to go different places. And you know what? God helped us see miracles for our efforts!
One of these miracles was with a menos activo that we got to know this past week, Daniel Cordova. He was baptized more than 25 years ago and hasn’t gone to church in about 23 years, but other missionaries found him contacting in the street and passed us the referencia. (A miracle of other missionaries talking with everyone, including outside their area.) Turns out that he has had a really hard time since leaving the church, and really wants to change, especially because he has an alcohol habit. Then, he presented us to his daughter and the mother of his daughter, and it turns out that the mother of his daughter, Kati, is also a menos activa, and wants to come back to church! So the three of them came to church yesterday, and we’ll be working to activate them and baptize their daughter. That was one miracle of other missionaries talking with everyone.
Another miracle happened this Saturday. Hermana Lopez was sick so we had to go to the clinic, but we didn’t want to be there too long because we had a lesson an hour and a half later. On the bus, we decided to talk to a family sitting next to us and we ended up taking down their name to pass on their referencia to the missionaries in their area. When we got to the clinic, the receptionist told us the wait was more than an hour to see a doctor. We were pretty disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to make it to our lesson, which was important. But, to our surprise, 15 minutes later they called Hermana Lopez in way before all the other people waiting. We were able to make it to our cita in time, and we were super grateful. Hermana Lopez and I both feel like that was a miracle that we received thanks to our efforts to be better missionaries and talk with everyone, even if they are people who don’t live in our area.
Well, as always, I just love being a missionary. I love you all and wish you all a Merry Christmas! I invite you all to think hard and remember why we’re really celebrating Christmas, and as you give gifts to everyone around you, think as well about the gift you’re going to give to your Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ve been thinking about that a lot, and I know that the best gift we can give Him this Christmas is our obedience and our love.
Love you all!
Hermana Chelsie Faulk
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