Continue to Minister

Family!

I just want to tell you all the things! Everyone is so great. This week was pretty hard but I learned so much! A bunch of our progressing investigators moved or something drastic happened in their lives that made them have to stop listening. But then we also found so many new people and we are hoping to just keep loving and learning together with them. One day we had a bunch of citas lined up and thus went off to work. We don`t have a car or bikes or anything so we walk everywhere and a lot of people can`t pay for phones so they aren`t many ways to verify about citas. We just pray that they are there and hope for the best. After about the 5th cita that fell, cutie hermana Stephens just looked at me with tears in her eyes and smiled. I just hugged her and told her it was going to be okay and that the Lord was leading us and loving us always. Right then I just thought about Heavenly Father´s purposes in situations like that. How He, too, is so sad that they weren`t there and that they didn`t answer the door. He is hoping that everyone will be home and reverent and ready to listen. He is rooting for our success, not our failure. He doesn`t make bad things happen, sometimes He just allows them to happen for the purpose of our growth. He loves us so much! That love keeps me going.

 16 ¶For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonlybegotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.

That is what God always does. He loves us, and thus He sends us miracles and blessings and hope and peace and people to teach and light and everything we need to keep going. He just loves us, and because we feel that love so strongly we respond and we obey and we want to make and keep commitments with him. Same with companions and same with investigators. Charity. The pure, prompting, motivating, purifying love of Christ.

This week we went with la familia Garcia and they are just reading the scriptures and praying and studying and doing everything. I was reading my Patriarchal Blessing and was super impressed about a part that talks about my righteous desires coming to pass through my faith and diligence. I just prayed so hard that day that Heavenly Father could see me righteous desires and give me the faith to work and make them happen. That day we saw miracles. Santiago had gotten a little hard hearted about some things and did not want to sign for the twins to be baptized on the 26th. But that day that I had been praying so hard, we were sitting in the house waiting for Santiago to come. They don`t have a door so after a few minutes we saw him walking up through the curtain. I got so nervous. But then I just remembered my blessing and prayers and to have faith before fear. Why would he not sign the paper? (Doubt your doubts first, right?) He walked in, told us of the special peace we bring in the home even when things are really hard, and then just said ¨May God bless my daughters.¨ and signed the paper. It was such a testament to me that faith and pray really does bring about the purposes of God. I want His will to be my own.

Jorge is the best. He is so amazing. Last pday we sprinting from internet, in the pouring rain, without umbrellas, for a good mile to get the lawyer`s office. Jorge was hanging out and chatting with the lawyer who is the stake presidente over in another part of Huehue. He is such a good man. We got the process all started and hopefully the divorce will be over soon so he can be baptized. He said to us this week- ¨I don`t want to be an investigator anymore. I want to be a member of God´s church.¨ We just kept promising the blessings that will come through his obedience and he just kept saying ¨hermanas, they are already here. I see His hands in my life.¨ Oh my goodness, how we love this family! I just wish I could tell him that he could be baptized tomorrow... soon enough. He told us this week that since the day we came and visited him, he just hasn`t felt the need to smoke- and just stopped. De una vez. And never started again. Same thing with coffee. We told him that that was the Spirit leading and guiding him in his life, and how we don´t always need to be told what to do if we just follow the Spirit. I love this quote from Elder Ochoa from the conference last year-- ¨remain constantly worthy of the Spirit. The companionship of the Holy Ghost is not just a pleasant convenience- it is essential to your spiritual survival.¨ It is so true. We cannot do anything without the Lord`s guiding hands. I have learned so much about the power the Holy Ghost has in our lives and the importance of doing everything we possible can to be worthy of it. They fasted this weekend and it was so precious. Everyone in the ward loved them and a counselor in the stake presidency got up to bear his testimony and personally recognized the presence of Jorge. He said that they were childhood friends when they were both non-members and now they are both finding their way back. It was the best. Prayers and faith. Trust in the Lord`s timing.

Another cool thing is that awhile ago we were really focusing on a less active family whose dad is not a member. It was a super complicated situation and he stopped progressing so we had to drop him and it was super sad for me. But then de repente he came to the general conference (which not even active members come to) and church again this Sunday. We talked with him and he said he was ready to be married and baptized and get going with things. It was the best! It made me think of that quote from President Monson that says ¨If the message is engraved on the heart, it is not lost.¨ It is fun to see him and his family returning again and we hope to be able to work all those things out in the near future. At the end of the night his wife, hermana Suzy just looked at my with tears in her eyes and at the exact same time we said ¨Le quiero mucho¨. It was a tender moment. I love these people

3 Nephi 18:32 Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your ^asynagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall ^bheal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.

I hope that I can be a little portion of that means that brings them to salvation. I love this work. I love the hermanas. The ward is doing so well. Everything is true. It is all worth. I love you guys so much and hope you have a wonderful week! Thinking of you always.

Hermana Jane.