Bolivia Bound

Guided by the Spirit J

October 20, 2014

We have had a week of seeing how the Spirit touches people in Las Misiones! We are definitely seeing the Lord’s hand guiding us in this area, although our challenge continues to be getting people to church. That will be a big focus of our personal and companionship study this week and we hope to receive revelation from our study, and see the miracles from our fast starting this Friday.

Hermana Paz and I are progressing well together. After a meeting we had for the trainers on Tuesday, I put the goal to give her more responsibility and trust in her more and I have felt a huge difference. She is contributing more to planning, making suggestions more during the day, and I can really see how guided she is by the Spirit. The other day, for example, we were walking, our lesson had fallen through and we were looking for whom to talk to. I was talking on the phone when a mom and her adult daughter passed by, the daughter crying. I wanted to talk to them but was talking on the phone and just sort of let it go. But when I got off the phone, Hermana Paz looked at me and said, "I felt something SO strong when we walked by them. We HAVE to talk to them." But we didn’t know where they were, so I just sort of dropped it. We went to look for a contact nearby who wasn’t home, when we turned around and there they were entering their house. This family we had seen lived right in front of the contact we were looking for! Hermana Paz insisted that we HAD to go talk to them, so we went over and the mom immediately invited us in and said she had been praying for missionaries to come by right then!  Turns out it was the mom and sister of an antiguo investigator that we had actually been looking for because we found out that his dad had died two months ago and we felt that he might be interested again. So, we had the chance to start to teach them, and yesterday we met the antiguo investigator, Alan, along with the mom and daughter we met a few days ago. They said they would be willing to learn more formally about the church again, and I know this is a miracle. I’m grateful to the Lord for preparing people that way, and for giving me a companion who is such an example of following the Spirit. Hermana Paz is going to be a powerful missionary!! I’m very grateful for the chance to train her.

We also had another sweet experience yesterday at church. So Saturday night, we had four people with baptism dates confirmed to go to church the next day, all of them referrals from members, and with all of them the members confirmed that they would pick them up. But Sunday came, and all of them, one by one, fell through. That was hugely disappointing, but the Lord gave us a surprising miracle... Jorge, the adult non-member son of an hermana in the ward, came to church out of nowhere, even though his mom didn’t come! He is an interesting person, has been through about five sets of missionaries before us, but has a very different way of seeing the world, isn’t a Christian and doesn’t have the same concept of God as we do, which is unusual here in Bolivia. But at church, he said that he "felt very peaceful and calm there" and said, "I think I’m going to keep coming to church. I like it." We also learned that he has been reading the Book of Mormon and a General Conference talk that we left him, so that was exciting! We really feel that this is his moment to come unto Christ and learn the truth for himself. I’m grateful, once again, for the miracles we are seeing in this area!

This Wednesday I’m going to start my last transfer in the mission. The time has gone by way too fast. I know this mission has changed my life permanently and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for giving me this wonderful privilege to serve Him as a missionary for a year and a half.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Chelsie Faulk