His Day

This week was a roughy.....that being said, the Lord truly provides!!!

Sunday morning I woke up wondering how we were going to have anybody at church.  We received a phone call early in the morning, from the elders that we share the ward with, calling to apologize that they had basically taken all the cars to pick up investigators for church because they had so many that wanted to come (talk about salt in the wound). We hit the streets early and tried to round up a few, but found door after door of nothing.  It was REALLY hot, which didn’t help much! As a last resort we stopped by the home of a MA (less active) family that we randomly found the other day.  They’re from Chalapas and moved here about 2 months ago but their records were never transferred.  So we drop in Sunday morning and they’re all barely awake and a little shocked to see us.  We share a quick thought and then ask them what they think about going to church in an hour. Awkward silence, (in which I should mention that this family is very very very humble and doesn’t have the money for the bus to get to church).  "Don’t worry, we have a car and a member that are going to pass by for you (HUGE LIE). Can you be ready in an hour?" The family was so excited and went right to work...as did we as we crazy called everybody to see who could come get them.  In the mean time we stood on a street corner madly calling other investigators to see what we could rally up!

Well we got them to church!!! And the ward welcomed them sooooo well (I love this ward family!!!).  Then we just waited to see what else would happen in the next 20 minutes before church started.  Maritza was waiting for us in the chapel and I was so shocked I almost forgot to say hi. Guri walked in 5 minutes early with a big smile on her face as normal.  Pretty sure all the ward is super annoyed with her family because she’s basically a member just still can’t be baptized because she doesn’t have permission.  She participates more in Young Women’s then everyone else :) Next entered Damaris (a MA since age 8 who we’ve been reactivating) all smiles for her first day of real church in 10 years! And seconds behind her entered our fabulous investigator Adi, looking a little confused, but equally determined.  I think the biggest miracle of all was when another MA that we had magically found on the street showed up with her nonmember husband, her first time in church in 8 years! She was thrilled and a lot of the members remembered her from way back in the day! Lastly Bernadita and Andres walked in with about 20 minutes left in Sacrament Meeting.  (They’re so on fire and trying so hard to get everything together.  Bernadita bore her testimony about the importance of temple marriage during a lesson last week and it brought the spirit so strong I couldn’t stop smiling.  They have a goal to be sealed before the end of this year, and it’s for sure our goal too).  The elders came running over to us at the end of Sacrament Meeting with their jaws gapping wondering how many investigators we had at church that day.  We started laughing because really most of them were MA (soon to be just members, because they’re here to stay).  Everyone was just so happy and it was beyond perfect!

This week we’ve been sharing D&C 64:33 (Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great) with all the members at comidas because people have been really stressed.  They feel like our ward missionary efforts are falling apart, that the visits they are doing are for nothing, tension is high, desire is falling, and we wanted to let each of them know how much we appreciated all of them! This ward is truly the greatest ward I have ever seen! And it’s true, sometimes we feel like all of our efforts are having no effect and that nothing is progressing.  That’s when we just have to remember that this is the Lord’s work and to make a canyon the river has to flow for quite a long time!

Love,

Hermana Neuberger