week 82

Hello everyone here are some things I want to talk about this week:

24th - Saturday 

Today was my mom's birthday! I love her so much because she is literally the awesome most spontaneousestestest fun-loving and thoughtful mom. Thanks for being you mom, I love you!!! 

26th

Today we had lots of lessons, but the one we had with Oscar was phenomenal! It was an English lesson with a spiritual thought at the end (although it really turned into a full detailed lesson on the Restoration) In the middle of it, Elder Streiff's phone battery got dangerously low and so we switched over to WhatsApp to finish up. I was mostly leading the lesson, and the Spirit was SO STRONG! There was lots of companionship unity and when Elder Krogh cited the first vision, Oscar's face was up next to the camera paying 110% attention and I knew the spirit was working through Elder Krogh's heavily accented words and through the bad connection and straight to his heart. We explained very thoroughly what the Book of Mormon is and he wanted a copy of his own. I felt that we had so much power in our teaching that I can't really put it into words. I just thank my Heavenly Father for the trust he has put in me to share his gospel and giving me the strength and guidance necessary to do it with power and convictioneven though sometime I feel like I am the least worthy of all the amazing missionaries out there. But this gospel is one of personal progression, not comparison, and I marvel every day at how much my desires have changed and how much joy I have felt in diligent, obedient missionary work. And today was one of those days where we saw some of the fruit of that diligent work. We had two more incredible lessons after the lesson with Oscar and both turned out very well. With Flor we only had time to share a short scripture (Juan 16:33) and share our thoughts on it, and after doing so, she was so grateful and expressed her gratitude saying it was exactly what she needed to hear. She is certain God sent us at this exact moment to remind her of what really mattered and then she recommitted herself to the study of the scriptures despite her busy schedule. That was another unforgettable exerience that made this day AWESOME! Also we ate tacos for dinner :))))))

27th - Wednesday

Today we did service again at this place called "Habitat for Humanity" and our job is basically to take all the stuff that people didn't buy and take it out back and destroy it until it fits well in the huge dumpster. It's fun but I leave with a bad headache every time because all the workers smoke and the place smells like a dump.

Later we had district counsel and that went well for the most part besides my headache and the fact that I fell asleep while the district leaders were roleplaying and Elder Daems got a picture of me. For dinner we ate some delicious homemade mac and cheese with chicken and Valentina sauce, but the recipe had lots of milk, cheese and butter so I only ate a little bit. (Stomach issues)

Tonight we had a couple lessons and the one with a certain woman with the last name of Martinez went kinda well, but as we explained what the Book of Mormon is, I immediately saw the doubt in her mind. I asked if she had questions and she said that the Bible says that it can't be added on to and I said well done, it says that in Revelations and you know what hermana, parts of the Book of Mormon were written BEFORE that verse was ever written! She sat up straight and nodded her head a bit, and said "ooook" then I took out Ezekiel 37 and showed how the Bible prophecies of the Book of Mormon and she was left without words. We finished of by explaining that the one who really testifies of truth is the Holy Ghost and she had to ask for herself to know if all this was true, and NOT rely on evidences. I said something like "Remember the Parable of Lazarus when Abraham explains to the rich man that if the profets and the scriptures don't convince his family to change their ways, then neither will miracles like raising someone from the dead. Hermana, if you don't kneel and ask you Father in Heaven with a sincere heart if this Book is his word, no amount of physical, actual evidence will convince you of its truth even though its right here in front of you." 

We left her with a powerful invitation to read the Book of Mormon and she said that she would!

  

28th - Thursday

Today was the first in-person Mission Leadership Council meeting (MLC) that I have ever been to. It was fantastic and I participated a lot.

The APs introduced a new 6 month mission-wide training plan that will be "personal/companionship study centered, district council supported" and will focus on elements of chapter 10 pf Preach my Gospel, and the missionaries themselves ae responsible for choosing the specific doctrinal points to teach each week in their roleplays. I was proud to watch my suggestion (getting missionaries to create their own plans so they are motivated to do it instead of being bogged down by homework-assignment-like tasks that fill up their studies) grow until we had developed it into something we were going to implement mission-wide. Then President trained us on divine intervention and coached us on encouraging obedience in our zones. Tonight we had a lesson with Rolando and he brought up some DEEP questions about marraige and sealing that we said we'd get back to him on..

29th - Friday

We did service for 4 hours this moring and it was really fun as always. After lunch I was feeling SUPER motivated for some reason and so I got my companions all excited for weekly planning and we went ahead and started it. It went pretty quickly and we made the Whiteboard look niiiice. 

30th - Saturday 

Today was a somewhat good day, a little awkward from what happened yesterday in weekly planning. I happened to see in of of Elder Streiff's emails during the Device audit that this was his quietest, least interesting companionship of his mission by far and that he's really struggling with the "greenie". So today I tried really hard to talk and laugh a lot and engage everyone a little more, but I think the fact I was trying made it even harder and less natural. I decided that just being normal and working harder and enjoying myself is the best approach. Today we got and email from one of the senior couples that we are going to get a snowstorm on Sunday and Monday and so we would need to get our groceries today. We took some time out of our busy day to do it, and so that's why today my email is so long! Woohoo!!!

Also today we had 6 lessons and the best one was with Liliana Paredes. She was already ready with her Book of Mormon and Bible and then ran off to get her earbuds so she could hear us better. We taught her the Restoration with a bit of focus on the Apostasy part and the difference between Restoration and Reformation. It seemed like she understood it well this time and when we read the last two paragraphs of the introduction of the Book of Mormon, she stopped us where it said "by the power of the Holy Ghost". She was so intrigued and she asked us how excatly the Spirit had manifested the truth of the book to us, individually. We each shared our testimonies and it was very spiritual. She had so many other incredible questions, like how can she study the Bibe and the Book of Mormon together, and we explained to her the footnote system and all the cross-references to the Bible.

31st - Sunday

Snow! This morning we woke up to snow just as predicted!!! It looks pretty but it also means that we didn't get to go to church in person. But it was the best most packable snow perfect for snowballs and snowmen.

I'm going to skip all the way to tonight to the second of ten lessons because it was with our friend last-named Martinez again. It was really frustrating because she said in the beginning that she "forgot" to even look for her Book of Mormon, and then eventually said over and over that she won't believe anything other that the Bible. 

We had a member with us and they got along well and that's why she opened up a bit and said IIf I'm honest I'm not going to read the Book of Mormon. And if I'm really honest, I don't even read the Bible. It's just that the thing is the Bible is the only thing that is true for me. For ME, yup the ONLY thing. Nothing else." Elder Streiff and I were both very frustrated because she all her excuses made no sense and she has so much potential!!! Talk about Book of Mormon prophecies being fulfilled right in front of your face! --> 2 Nephi 29:3

All in all, this week was chock full of so many things and if I had more time I would tell you more about it! The most important thing is that this week my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration has grown so much. I'm so grateful that it happened and even though many people won't accept it, the Lord says "I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I have covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever." 

 And I have the privilege to to bring people into the house of Israel through the ordinance of baptism. How awesome is that??

I love you all and have a great week and if you happen to see that you have some spare time and you would really like to make an Elder happy, go ahead and send me an email because I love to see what's going on in your lives. Thank you!!!!