Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Following Through - Jan 15th email


Dear Family,
   I hope this finds you doing well! This has been quite the week. Due to some serious plumbing issues in our basement we found ourselves homeless. I have showered in 3 different places over the last 72 hours..none of which were where I am supposed to be living. BUT I'm still alive and kicking and grateful to have a place to shower.
   I don't have a ton to report this week but I do have some really good news! We had 11 investigators at church on Sunday as well as six less actives that we had visited during the week and encouraged to come back to church. We were speaking in sacrament meetings and our branch had over 100 people in sacrament so we were pretty pumped! Our talks went really well. We were asked to speak on the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End). I took the first two principles and my companion took the last three. I talked about how the principles and ordinances of the gospel are the way that our Heavenly Father manifests his love for us and so we shouldn't be afraid to extend to others this invitation to change. They will feel our love as well as Heavenly Father's love through our sharing the gospel with them. People seemed to like it and were complimentary. My companion said my spanish was good so whether she was lying or not I'll take it.
   The Castillos came to church for the second Sunday in a row which according to the members of our ward is a big deal. They are so sweet. We had dinner and FHE with them last night and it went really well. We are so grateful that Heavenly Father gave us the opportunity to be here when the time was right for them to come back to church.
   One of the teenagers we are teaching came to church for the first time on Sunday. He is such a cool kid but has had a tough home life (his mom is a little loco) but he just turned 18. It is interesting to see how for the first time he seems to have hope that he could make his way out of the lifestyle he has always known and could have a better life for him and his future family. We taught him the restoration last night and he seemed to really like it. Hopefully he'll continue to come to church because I know it could help him reach his potential.
    We ran into an anti this week...that was interesting. We pretty much pulled a Joseph of Egypt and ran for our lives. My companion says it's interesting how on your mission you can't really feel when you have the spirit a lot of times but you can feel when the spirit leaves. That's exactly what it felt like. It was scary but so real. We also had a referral that just wanted to bash with us. It's sad to see because they just are so confused and they want to control the conversation but they are so tense and uncomfortable at the same time.
    The best feeling we get as missionaries are when people follow through with their commitments. We went before church on Sunday to Doris and Rosa's and when we opened the door there was Doris's daughter Julia all ready for church in her dress. It was awesome and that's why we're missionaries! There are a few more things I want to write about but I'm kind of waiting to see what happens with them! Until then, I love you all! Thank you for your love and prayers. I'm trying to make you proud.
 
Love,
Hermana Jones

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