Ah! Mi amoroso familia!
Los amo mucho! I can´t even stand it sometimes. I testify about the importance of families, let´s see here, every single day and I just fall more in love with my own! I am so grateful for your letters and prayers and pictures and jokes... oh man. So much joy to be had in this beautiful little world.Accomplishments of this week... my companion now says homie. My shoe tan line is coming along nicely. We got lost in the mountains and were surrounded by 8 wolf dogs... literally. We ate at 5 houses in a row one day. And I ate my first grapefruit since I´ve been here. So delicious.Thanks to my girl Sara Bareilles, I decided to just be ¨Brave¨ this week and I didn´t let anybody say no. If people said they didn´t have time for us to come in I would just start sharing right there and pulling out scriptures, pamphlets, questions, commitments... If people hesitated, weren´t sure, and didn´t know if they wanted to come to church I just answered for them and told them that they did. If someone opened the door, I stepped towards it and shook their hand on my way in. haha :) we saw miracles this week. There are so many wonderful people being prepared to hear the message of the gospel! And it applies to every single one of them.Fabiana is the most beautiful little single mother and I adore her. She wants to be clean and happy and follow the Savior. She loves the Book of Mormon and every time she opens it I just get teary as I see all her little markings and notes to the side. She always says ¨I don´t know why but I just feel like I need this book.¨... oh man I love it! We´ve been teaching her since she got here and she is finally ready. Baptism wednesday at 7 so just be praying for that one and wishing on every 11:11 on the oven and microwave clock. She asked if she could come teach other people with us so she did... bien calidad! Too bad those don´t count as lessons with a member yet... but she bore sweet testimony and the investigators could see her courage and desire to do what the Savior has asked. We have another investigator, Antonio, that is a gem and asked to come out and teach with us too. He read the entire gospel principles manual and knows everything. haha the only problem is that he is 17 and his parents are a bit crazy and do not want to let him baptize. We are praying our hearts out. Good thing is he turns 18 Sept 11 so if worse comes to worse we cant wait til that day and he says that his first decision that day will be to ¨follow the Savior and join His true church¨.I was singing a song this week and changed the words to ¨Jesus the very thought of Thee... makes me cry¨.... :) but seriously. I cannot think about the Savior without crying. I love Him with all of my heart and soul and I am so grateful to be a representative of Him. I still can´t get over how powerful that is.I am so grateful for the Saints that came before me. For Alma and Amulek- and their faith and example as missionaries, their dilligence in how they ¨labored much in the Spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his spirit upon the people... that he might baptize them unto repentance.¨ (Alma 8:10) For their trust in the Lord and humility in always saying ¨let us...exersice the power of God which is in us... but be it according to the will of the Lord.¨ (Alma 14:10,13). For Ammon´s patience amidst intense suffering while traveling ¨from house to house... [teaching] them in the streets¨ and relying fully on the power and wisdom of God to deliver them from all manner of afflictions. (Alma 26:30). For the women and children cast into fires because they would not deny the Christ... for the prophets who consecrated their lives to keeping a record for thier children and in the end sacrifices thier very lives for its preservation and safetly.For those blessed pioneers who carried forth the Restoration across America and into all the corners of the earth- in rain and snow, mud and dust, through inumerable trails and tribulation and incomprehensible suffering. But they had a fire burning brightly in their eyes and hearts as they carried their most precious possesions in those handcarts- their families, copies of the Book of Mormon, and tools with which to build the temple. They knew the worth of these things. They understood their eternal significance and thus were willing to leave behind all their earthly posessions and homes to build up the kingodm of Zion and a foundtaion for us all.All of this points to US. Our fathers have said...¨And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know what source they may look for a remission of their sins.¨ (2 Nefi 25:26)¨And how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know¨ this Christ, too! (2 Nefi 2:8)We truly are in the last days. The time for the harvest is here and we are the ones, chosen in the pre-existence and prepared all of our lives here on earth to gather the sheep, to seek out the lost and the weak, and to prepare this wonderful, wearied world for the coming of it´s Master and Creator, our Savior, even Jesus the Christ. Each of us is called to this work, just in a different section of the vineyard for a time.When the Master returns, and the time comes for me to report on my labors in my section of His precious vineyard that He so lovingly entrusted into my hands... I want to be able to say- ¨Master, I have done all that Thou hast commanded of me. I have been obedient. I have been sufficiently humble and relied on Thee for my strength. I have dedicated my mind and heart to doing Thy will. I have labored every day in all dilligence, sacrificing for the cause, and contiuning even when I was so tried and discouraged and downtrodden because I knew who was working right beside me. Thank you for those hands which bore me up and carried me forward. You have been my strength and I trust you. I have kept the faith, I have nourished this part, and we are ready to recieve you.¨The Savior is coming and I cannot wait to be there and see Him. I love the Book of Mormon. I love it! All I want to do is read it with investigators and all day long. It has unseen powers that are so real. This is the true church and these people need us to lead them into it! Let us all try a little harder this week to work a little harder is this wonderful labor of love. You are all in my prayers. We´re doing this together.Con mucho amor,Hermanita McGill
