So man oh man what an awesome week it has been! :) ok Im going to sound like a cheesy missionary right now but I dont care cause its all true! Because seriously the Lord is blessing me with being able to be the witness of so many miracles and to be able to see the change in people take place from the inside out. We are teaching so many very prepared people and I just can not explain how blessed I really do feel. I can testify that I do know there is a God and that he is extremely loving. That he does care and loves every single one of us tremendously and wants us to learn and be blessed and come to know him. How do I know this?...I not only know it because I have seen the change and the Lords hand in not only preparing but helping people hearts be softend to come unto the fold of christ but also because the Lord has had his hands in my life, prepping, guiding, and placing people in my path to help me be the person and reach the potential that God knew I could. Without him and his hand I would not be here on my mission, I would not have been able to witness the miracles that I have and I would not have this burning in my heart to share it with everyone. God loves us! He loves me. isnt that so awesome? he literally is our Father and just like my earthly father he wants the best for me and he wants me to be able to grow and feel his love. and I have! oh man have I ever. Every fiber in my being knows this and i cannot deny it.
With that being said let me tell you all the AMAZING
miracles that have happened here in North Aurora this week! :)
Well first one being we were blessed to have
7 member present lessons! We have been working alot with the part member/less
active/recent converts in our ward and it really is working. All of the investigators we have on date except 1 is from part member families.
and as such the recent convert lessons are now turning into member present
lessons :) isnt that so awesome?! we are so excited. This Sunday was also invitation Sunday where the services are basically focused for the nonmembers and the investigators. Every topic in every class focuses the basic beliefs of our church. The members invite their friends and family to come check us out. It's like an open house and we have it twice a year. So what we also take them on a tour of the church building to the different classes-primary, releif society, sacrament, young men /young women etc and explain what happens in the classes and show how the family is central to our iglesia.
We had very good potential investigators come out of it.... There is this woman named Nury and she has served many missions for her church and has quite the stories to tell she has heard of mormons before and would like to learn more. so we will be setting up an appointment to see her this week.
Well I dont remember if I have told you about Maria and
Hugo? But they are what are known as eternigators....they have been
investigating the church for an eternity and will not take the step to be
baptized. They are more active than the active members. They have all the church
books including preach my gospel and have been helping teach the new member
lessons and participating in every activity that they can. They even went out
and bought their 5 year old son a suit so he could wear it to church. and yet
they will not take the step to be baptized. When I first got to the area
Hermana Noyes told me about them and how they had to stop teaching them because
they just were not progressing anymore and the last week that we had together I
had the feeling that we needed to go see them. So we set up and appt and I had
in my mind ok, this is going to happen, they will have a baptism date and they
are going to know they are ready. If you know Hermana Noyes and Hermana Romney
they are really nice and sweet girls and so I had just figured that they just
hadn't been bold enough with this family and I have not one problem with being
bold...so thats how I was in the appt and still nothing. Tried to set them for
the next saturday and they said that was too soon and that they wanted the
decision to be their own and that they needed to study more and find out if
that was what they really needed to do. So we commited them to fasting and
praying about taking the decision for a specific date and that we would be
fasting and praying with them. Well we went and saw them and they still said
that they had yet to recieve an answer, so we focused our lesson on the Book
of Mormon due to the fact that they hadn't really been reading it. and that all
of their silly dudas all come down to knowing if the book of mormon is the word
of God. so we have been visiting them like about every other week since they
arnt really progressing. so we went back to their house this monday with the
lesson of teaching enduring to the end because we both really felt like the
reason they hadn't gotten baptized yet is because they are scared of whats gonna
happen after they get baptized, that they will fall away and that bad things
will happen. When we went and found out that they had both started the BoM over
from the beginning and were already in the book of Mosiah. (in 2 weeks) and had
a really good lesson with some awesome spirit guided questions but still being
the stubborn eternigators that they were would not say that they would be
baptized. We ended the lesson with telling them how much we loved
them and that the reason why they may feel we are being so bold about all of
this is because we love them and we want them to have the blessings that God is
waiting to give them...and then Hermana Brown asked to say the closing
prayer and I asked if we could kneel and so we did and oh man I have never
prayed so hard and fervently that their hearts would be softened in the prayer
that Hermana Brown was giving. We got up and were saying our goodbyes when
Maria says "I want to be baptized." I turned to her and I think my
mouth must have hit the floor because it took me a while to pick it back up
again as I asked "seriously?" and she began to cry and said " I
need to be baptized. I know I need to. I can feel it." We then said well
Maria we could have the baptism this Saturday if you would like and she said.
"yes. I want to be baptized." so we sat back down and began to plan
her program in all of this. Meanwhile Hugo is not saying anything and
is sitting with his arms folded. and we got all of her prgram figured out
except for the closing prayer and she asked her husband if he would give it and
he turns to her and us and says "well I want to be baptized too eh!" so
they have their interviews tonight. and isnt God
interesting? Something came up with Carlos and Karla that they
couldnt be baptized this week to make it available for Maria and Hugo to
be baptized! man I dont even have words to express how happy and excited and
blessed I feel to be able to be able to be a witness to all of this!
Lesson learned this week:
White is a color not welcome color....when dealing with
hair. Yes. yesterday I found my first white hair. but it was not a head
hair...but a white EYEBROW hair. what the?! So that hair has made it into my journal now...i still
cannot believe it. Who gets a white eyebrow hair when their only 22 years old?
Some of my favorite missionaries are now home this week
:( The Becks have finished their mission and are now back in Utah. They were
such great examples to me and helped me really feel like I had family here in
Chicago. but they are going to just jump back into the swing of things there in
Utah and I wish them the best!
Thanks so much for all your love and support. Sure miss you
guys! Have a great week!
much paz y amor, Hermana Maughan
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