First off thank you for the Christmas
package Frontenac ward!!! Loved every letter and I’ll keep them forever!
These past two weeks have been
like an old comp rehash and I just can’t get over how much I love my companions!
On Sunday morning our doorbell rang and I knew it could only be one person,
GARIE! We hugged it up, like seriously don’t think we stopped hugging, and
laughed for way too short a time and then she was gone! Two days later Hna Sturt
was in my house and we were happy as two larks. The next day Hna
Hernandez was sleeping with us and we were happy all night and just trying to
make every second count in the little time that we had....because we might
never see each other again :( (yeah the Familia Neu was separated two weeks ago
when Hernandez and her comp were emergency transferred to Chilpo). And today I
topped it off with a visit with Chynoweth and Skinner. All I lack is the
beautiful face of Ferb! BOY HAVE I BEEN BLESSED!!!! Like more than I could ever
imagine! Great friends, great times :)
I wanted to write an odd to the
family Garcia to put here as a thank you for just how amazing they have been in
the course of the last week. On Saturday I received a phone call from a
voice I instantly recognized. Apparently President Kusch had given the Garcia
family permission to kidnap me for the night and to do whatever, with the tag
line, "I trust you guys." So we went to dinner, but better than
anything I just got to spend more time with GARIE +her amazing family and hear
all about things in Chilpo and in real life! AND THERE WAS NOTHING LIKE THE
MIRACLES SHE TOLD ME!!!! When we were together in Chilpancingo we had been
teaching two cousins who were our ages and they were the most amazing people
ever. Adi had gone to church three weeks in a row and was reading the
Book of Mormon. She just couldn’t get over how good she felt every time
we came and how perfect our timing was when we first found them. When we
left Chilpo it was really hard to leave them, but we had faith that we would
soon see their faces in the baptism video that we get to watch every three
months. Well while Garie was walking along the beaches in some city south
of Acapulco, she ran into Adi who had recently moved there for work!!! Talk
about small world! She hadn’t been to church after we left because the elders
had only passed by once and it was really awkward. But the Lord put her
in Garcia’s path and now once again she’s meeting with the missionaries! Truly
the Lord is mindful of all of us, AND he doesn’t give up on anyone until they
have returned to Him!
So that was the Garcia/Neu
miracle of the week (that and that everyone remembered me in Chilpo and were
quite confused why I wasn’t there with Garcia). But there were also an
incredible number of miracles that went down in our area this week. Last
week we hit rock bottom; 0 investigators, 0 con fecha, and 1 in church who is
an eternal investigator so it didn’t really count. I was mad at the
world, but I tried to take a daily dosage of humility pills and just see what
the Lord had to offer us. Because we didn’t have anyone to teach we just
rolled up our sleeves and went to work talking to anyone we could find.
The Lord not only answered, He gave double! I think the greatest example is
that of Lucio, an old man of 75 that we had just started teaching. He was
quitting smoking really really really well until the day we found him on a
street corner smoking a whole box because he had just found out that he was
getting thrown in jail for something he hadn’t done and there was nothing he
could do about it. We were crushed because finding him had been such a
miracle! Well we saw him in the street this week and he had the greatest news,
HE WASNT GOING TO JAIL ANYMORE, for once justice had come through and the real
criminal was going to jail. Well more than ever he was ready to
progress. It’s been a miracle in itself that he has been able to progress
even a little bit because he can’t read and his comprehension level is about
that of a 12 year old. We use a lot of pictures as we teach him to help
him remember things. This week we talked it over and felt impressed that
we needed to give him a Book of Mormon and invite him to read it.....yup a Book
of Mormon to the guy who doesn’t know how to read. We taught him a small
chunk of the first lesson and then I promised him that if he had faith in the
Lord, He would open up the means that Lucio could read it. We came back
two days later to the biggest miracle of my mission! Lucio simply said, "I
know it’s all true!" We were a little confused, "You know what’s
true?" "I know the whole Joseph Smith story is true!" We were
blown away because we hadn’t even talked about Joseph Smith yet so we calmly
asked him how he knew. Turns out he had read the lesson one pamphlet 4
times in preparation for our visit because we always ask so many questions and
he wanted to be able to answer them for once. The man, who doesn’t know
how to read, read the pamphlet four whole times AND got an answer! That’s what
I call a miracle!
"Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not
declare them?...All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; who among them hath
declared these things unto them? The Lord hath loved him; yea, and he
will fulfil his word which he hath declared by them" 1 Nephi 20:6,
14
The Lord fulfills our promises. He puts power to our
words. I’m here to declare this message because I know He is here
supporting me no matter what!
No comments:
Post a Comment