Be all that the Lord knows you can be
July 7, 2014
Well
once again, it’s been a great week! This week really has been fantastic and we
have definitely seen miracles. We were in Santa Cruz all of Monday and Tuesday
for consejo de lideres and then a meeting with Elder Oceda of the Seventy to
talk about the work of salvation, which was incredible. And the really
incredible thing is that despite the fact that we lost two days of proselyting
time in Santa Cruz, we saw more progress in five days than in any other week in
my time here in Paraiso. People are making progress to come unto Christ and I
just love it. :)
We are working with several fantastic less actives, one of whom will be officially rescued next week, which means she is officially going to be active in the church! Another, Mauricio, is a returned missionary who quit going to church several years ago. When we taught him on Saturday I was really touched because he got emotional and thanked us profusely for helping him come unto Christ again; he said that before us, he never even wanted to talk with the missionaries but we have helped him rearrange his priorities and understand that he is missing some huge things in his life. He also said that he wanted us to teach one of his friends because he could feel the Spirit with us and knew that we would be able to teach his friend well. :) It is an honor to know that because we are trying our best, the Lord is with us and people can feel it, and that they trust us with their friends. I’m really excited to see the progress with Mauricio. We also had another menos activa, Pilar, come to church in the first time for a long time. I can’t even explain how much I love it, and I just LOVE teaching menos activos. Seeing them remember and come back to the things they knew before is such a touching experience!
We also have seen so miracles with investigators. Adriana and her son Angel are still progressing and have now gone to church on their own twice, and have a baptism date for the 26th. Cristina and Grover, a family, have traveled this week so they couldn’t go to church, but also both have baptism dates and we can see their faith growing. We are working with a great part-member family; the mom, Elsa, went to church and accepted a baptism date yesterday. The daughter who is a member, Daniela, is getting excited to go back to church, and the other kids, while they are less interested, are changing and we can see that their interest is growing as their mom’s interest grows. And we had another miracle with a golden referral from a fantastic missionary member who brought a friend to church, Mariana. We taught Mariana after church and she also accepted a baptism date for the 26th! She has been surrounded by the church most of her life and already knows that it’s true, but has never been baptized. She is fantastic!
We are working with several fantastic less actives, one of whom will be officially rescued next week, which means she is officially going to be active in the church! Another, Mauricio, is a returned missionary who quit going to church several years ago. When we taught him on Saturday I was really touched because he got emotional and thanked us profusely for helping him come unto Christ again; he said that before us, he never even wanted to talk with the missionaries but we have helped him rearrange his priorities and understand that he is missing some huge things in his life. He also said that he wanted us to teach one of his friends because he could feel the Spirit with us and knew that we would be able to teach his friend well. :) It is an honor to know that because we are trying our best, the Lord is with us and people can feel it, and that they trust us with their friends. I’m really excited to see the progress with Mauricio. We also had another menos activa, Pilar, come to church in the first time for a long time. I can’t even explain how much I love it, and I just LOVE teaching menos activos. Seeing them remember and come back to the things they knew before is such a touching experience!
We also have seen so miracles with investigators. Adriana and her son Angel are still progressing and have now gone to church on their own twice, and have a baptism date for the 26th. Cristina and Grover, a family, have traveled this week so they couldn’t go to church, but also both have baptism dates and we can see their faith growing. We are working with a great part-member family; the mom, Elsa, went to church and accepted a baptism date yesterday. The daughter who is a member, Daniela, is getting excited to go back to church, and the other kids, while they are less interested, are changing and we can see that their interest is growing as their mom’s interest grows. And we had another miracle with a golden referral from a fantastic missionary member who brought a friend to church, Mariana. We taught Mariana after church and she also accepted a baptism date for the 26th! She has been surrounded by the church most of her life and already knows that it’s true, but has never been baptized. She is fantastic!
I
know that the Spirit has guided us this week even more than usual, and it’s an
incredible feeling. I seriously love how the Spirit guides us. The other day a
lesson fell through and we prayed to know where to go. Hermana Lopez looked at
me and said, "Gabriela Flores" - surprising name because it was
someone we had contacted like two months ago and tried to teach several times
and she was never home. Well, we went to her house and to our amazement, she
let us in immediately! She was really interested in the message and already
knew something about the church, and then gave us a referral for a family in
this part of our area where we have few investigators and have been praying to
find more people to teach! MIRACLES!!!
I
can never say enough how much I love the mission. In consejo de lideres this
week we came up with an "Estandarte de la Mision" (like, Title of the
Mission, or Standard of the Mission, or something?) - basically like the Title
of Liberty from the Book of Mormon, but announcing our standards as a mission,
and then we were asked to make a personal one. I got the chance to reflect upon
the most important things to me in the mission and what is most important in my
personal conversion. For me, my personal goal is to become all that the Lord
knows I can be. I don’t want to fall short of my personal potential or fail to
become what the Lord needs me to be, not just for the mission, but for my whole
life. I’m just loving the mission and excited to keep working here!
Love
you all!
Love,
Love,
Hermana
Chelsie Faulk
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