Wow happy anniversary to me! (and Hermana Hadley of course, because we celebrate our anniversaries together!) I can't believe it's been 5 months! Holy tolito next month I will only have 1 year left of my mission! Eww Gross!!
Okay holy tolito did anyone watch general conference? talk about spiritual explosion! Wasn't it just INCREDIBLE!! oh man i'll tell you some of my favorites. David A. Bednars talk on Tithing was amazing! who would have thought? oh man he's great. Uchtdorf's talk was just stellar. I wish all of my investigators were there for that one. D. Todd Christofferson's on the moral authority of Women? wow. Mom are you helping your boys become priesthood men? S. Gifford Nelson's on how to be a member? haha I can't wait until I get home so I can be a MEMBER! haha wait isn't that a little backwards? JEFFREY R. HOLLAND. Absolute favorite. this life is super hard for sure. The only assurance we have is that we were promised a savior. Oh although his talk was directed to those who have depression, I really think it can help us all. Henry B. wow. Saddest ever I didn't get to much from Thomas s. Monson because Miguel came and we watched that one in Spanish. One that I loved a lot that surprised me was Kevin S. Hamilton who talked about attending all 3 hours of church. That one impacted me a lot. But okay I lied Holland's was my 2nd favorite. I loved the most elder Nelsons. Wanna know what I am working on? Self Mastery! Holy tolito it's hard! But one day I am going to have to stand before Jesus Christ and give an account of what I did with my precious gift of a body that he gave me! So I better be taking care of it now!
Alright enough about conference, I am sure you all watched it and loved it. Probably not as much as I did though ;) a couple things that happened this week was Hermana Hadley had a meltdown on Thursday, so we spent the whole day doing a lot of nothing. The next day though the elders made us Goobs! (aka one of my most favorite treats!) Friday was Hermana Clifton's birthday!!! That was a super fun day. Hermano Miguel is great and he bought us dinner and a cake:) Okay Hermano Miguel. Boy do I have a story for you!!!
So hermano Miguel. He has been having ups and downs. He didn't make his baptismal date for the 29th so we switched it to the 13th. so he has been having some struggles with coming to church for all 3 hours, and Conference sunday was just rough. So he promised us he would come at 9, but he showed up at like 10:15 only to hear like 2 talks. He loved them, but missed most of conference. Then he promised he would come for the afternoon session, but when we texted him he said he was far away in van nuys so he couldn't make it. It was pretty frustrating. But he invited us to come over for dinner that night. Well our did not go as planned because his house was crazy. The people that live in the back were having a birthday party, and his brother was drunk and pretty much going crazy, and his sister was way too stressed out to cook us dinner. He told us some crazy excuse for why he couldn't come to conference, and then he left the room for 2 minutes and his sister told us he was lying to us and he drank yesterday. Aye Hermano Miguel! So we were praying super hard during this lesson. Even though we were in the middle of a party, and backstreet boys was playing, and there were all sorts of fowl words coming from the drunk brother, the spirit was there. He was feeling it. And we were very straight forward and direct with him. We asked him if there was anything he needed to tell us, he said no. We asked him if he had had a drink recently, he said no. He told us he was still on track to be baptized. So we left that house SUPER discouraged. It was rough.
Well, here comes the happy part. The next day, we have a lesson with him, (yesterday.) and here is how it went down. Right after he finishes the opening prayer, he says to us, Hermana's I drank yesterday. WHAT! okay whammy right there. But of course we were ready for it. We didn't say anything for a while and we just let him talk. he told us how he felt bad, and never wanted to disappoint us. He is going to keep reading and coming to church, and he is going to be baptized. One thing though that he said that made me so proud was that he said, I prayed last night and I asked God to forgive me. We had an incredibly spiritual cita with him, and he decided that he is going to pray, and him and the Lord are going to decide together the day that he will be ready to be baptized. So we are going to figure that out today.
One thing I have learned from this whole ordeal with Miguel is Patience. Yes I am sad that Miguel isn't getting baptized on sunday, but it's okay, because He needed to have these experiences. He is gaining a testimony. He is changing his life, and the Lord is working with him in his own time. Maybe I won't get to see Miguel be baptized in this transfer, But he will be baptized, and when he is, He will have a testimony of the gospel. Here in the great California san Fernando mission, we don't just baptize, we convert people unto the Lord. I know this church is true, and I am so grateful for every single day that I have to say "I am a representative of Jesus Christ."
I love you all so very much! Keep the faith, rise to the call of the brethren, and work together with the missionaries in this great work of salvation.
All my Love,
Ness
No comments:
Post a Comment