Isabella's Letter
i know last week i said elder nielson would come but thats because i made a mistake bc everyone here mostly knows of elder nielson more. and he came on friday night and one sister tried to cut in line but i said with a smile sister hurry to the back of the line before the line grows and she got upset later inside she said well the elders let me cut bc they are not like you! i said im glad you got in. but wondered if it was fair for the people they jumped ahead of. the line had been huge for hours and i didnt feel it was fair to let people cut in line. that night i was late too and so we sat in class room and saw him on a screen not live but it was so great to see an apostle of Christ bearing testimony of him. and he was so relaxed and even a bit goofy he noticed that on the stand the stake presidents werent sitting by their wives and had them stand up and rearranged their sitting order so that they could sit by their wives. he served in france and lived in brazil so his accent was pretty fantastic to listen to. he bore testimony of the veracity of this work and asked us to endure to the end to really let our faith shine when trials come and not let it shrival. the funny thing is that all the less actives we had invited didnt show up and therefore missed this invitation from the apostle. and my investigators also didnt show up but two, and not the two we were hoping. Rodrigo who is married to a member who had been less active whose little daughter we teach the lessons came and he cried. and Edwin who is engaged to a member he just thought it was interesting how many people came. so funny how different views come from seeing and hearing the same man based on the person. also elder anderson came to a special meeting with just the missionaries and we were able to shake his hand and see him eye to eye. all missionaries were there i got a package from some friends from sucre and an old investigator she told me that viejita antonia has been diagnosed with cancer and i have a promise to keep that i will take her to the temple and now im praying that all will turn out well in His infinate wisdom. and i wasnt expecting this at all but i was asked to translate for his wife when she gave her message which was about how sometimes missionaries have support from home and some dont at all but everywhere in the world we are the most prayed for people and she related that when in the last conference prophet monson asked us all to donate to the general missionary fund her 10 year old grandchild named micheal donated 10 dollars and she said that she knew how strapped of money her daughter and son in law are since her son in law is putting himself through medical school with 6 kids and she know how much money micheal has and how those 10 dollars are a huge chunk of his savings and gave it for us missionaries because a prophet of God asked him to. i want to have that kind of faith. i confessed to the investigator i promised a home made pie in his bran new stove if he came to church that i had asked my mission president to stay in the area just because i wanted to see his baptism and had faith that he would come and how now i only had 3 weeks left probably in the area and how he hadnt come once and it made me very sad. he promised that he would come next week and i said i would be so sad if you came only for me please come with the faith in your heart that you are keeping a commandment of God. do it because you love Him! i prayed with all i have that Bryan and Christian would come and they chose not to. but what can i do but bear my testimony. i asked bryan if he wanted to know if Christ came to the americas if the book of mormon is true he said i do i said well how would you quantify that desire a lot a little or not at all he said alot! and i said with so much sorrow in my heart they why is you book dusty? why havent you read it... and i added bryan i can bet you havend even prayed this week bc if you would have you would have been prompted to read this sacred book. he shook his head stating i was right. if we all had faith to act like sister andersons grandchild, who is 10 it would impact greatly the mission field. then i translated sister wadels message (wife of general authority elder wadel of the 70) and then when when apostle anderson spoke in spanish i translted it to the sisters in english it was neat to be used as a tool in the Lords hands to help other understand important messages that were without a doubt guided by the spirit. i might want to do that for a career in the future. last week i had been thinking so much about revelation and the spirit and thats what the apostle spoke about. he said that when he was a missionary he felt that his mission was a lot of work and that he felt that he didnt feel the spirit like other were able to but throughout his life he learned how to interpret and listen to the gentle whispers of the Holy Ghost i feel that im learning the same. fridaynight some were able to shake the hands of the general authorities as you can imagine this was tried to be done quickly and on sunday elder wadel said that whe this was happening on firday a young man asked very seriously what is the purpose of life he said his mind raced what do i answer but of course his mouth was filled and said to the young man to return to our heavenly father. he reiterated that this short time here in mortality or life is to behave and stay the course shown by Christ himself and make it back to the Lord he shared many things and now i only have 5 mins left but he said how when God our father kissed us goodbye he knew the journey of life would be hard but would be possible and he gave us tools to navigate through this life and some of those were stories of journeys like that of lehi and his family through the desert, or noah and his journey by ark and moses and his journey in the wilderness and there are many more examples he mentioned so many scriptures that i will have to share next week but 4 other tools for you to meditate are the temple, prayer, scripture study, and the Holy Spirit. im glad that are all well and i will share next week. love hna florido
Isabella's Letter in the title also references John 4:35 - 38 and 43
Christopher's Letter, Photo, and Music
This week was the best week of my mission, I think. Thursday, we had a zone conference with a general authority 70, which was really edifying. We learned about planning and making goals. Saturday, we had a baptism of a sister named Oneda that has received the missionaries for at least a year. All of her family are members and now she is. Yay!
Sunday, in the morning, we didn´t have meetings, so we studied and then visited the family Mejia Martinez. And they exitingly commited to getting baptized the 10th of September! Yay! A family of five is going to get baptized. Yay!!! I´ve been praying for that for a really long time. Haha. This family has received the missionaries for 3 years the Bishop told me. Wow.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the dedication of the temple in El Salvador. Presidente Eyring presided and Elder D. Todd Christofferson directed the meeting. It was incredibly powerful and I don´t think that it can be described in words how the spirit was present. It was a power that churns wonder into knowledge like cream into cold solid butter. (That´s why when someone receives the holy ghost it´s called confirmation.)
I love you all very much. The field is white and ready to harvest. And I wish never had to leave. This week I complete 13 months. Time is ticking, and I love you all.
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| Baptism of Hermana Oneda |
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