Barcelona Mission: (Sabadell) Week-03 2012

A miracle happened this week with our fecha, Modibo.  We were talking to him about Christ and the Atonement and that He suffered for us.  Modibo then told us about a movie that he had seen from another church where it explained that Christ didn´t actually suffer on the cross.  Someone else was in Christ´s place being crucified and that Christ was watching it all from the side!  Hermana Rejon explained to him that that couldn´t be possible because of the purpose and the need for the Atonement in our lives to save us from physical death.  But he seemed to not understand.  I thought about the movie "Finding Faith in Christ" and so a couple days later we watched it, but in French so Modibo could better understand it.  Before we started it, I explained a little about the movie, bore my testimony of Christ and then offered a prayer. We were hoping that he would feel the Spirit during the movie.  After it was over, we asked Modibo what he thought and talked about some things.  He said "Now I better understand.  Christ had to suffer personally on the cross so that He could save us from physical death.  It couldn´t have been done by anyone else or that would have defeated the purpose of God´s plan."  It was just amazing to see the change in his attitude and a testimony forming.  Then he said he wanted to follow Christ´s example by being baptized.  I think one of his struggles has been in understanding the doctrine and because of a little language barrier it´s somewhat of a challenge to teach him and to make sure he understands.  We make sure to always ask him questions to see if he comprehends what we are teaching.  Hermana Rejon has been doing most of the teaching.  He says that even if he can´t always understand me, he knows I am sincere because of the smile on my face and the sincerity in my voice.
Anyway, he needs to be serious about taking the steps to quit smoking before being baptized.  And we can help him by fasting and praying together, and making sure we have daily contact.  This past week has been a little crazy trying to figure out some things, and trying to adjust to living in a different country!  But I know that if we focus more on our investigators, we can be more affective.   Modibo watched the Sunday morning session of Conference with us in the capilla yesterday and really liked it.  We gave him a children´s Book of Mormon in Spanish thinking that the pictures will help him better understand the stories.  It´s been a challenge figuring stuff out for him, but I honestly could feel God´s love for him because like it was said in a Conference talk, "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" and we are not giving up on Modibo.

I admire my Companion because she has a strong desire to do what´s right and be happy while doing it.  She often tells me that she wishes she could remember to smile more around people.  As we get to know each other better, I am realizing just how inspired it is that we are Companions.  The only issue that we need to work on is being more effective in our teaching.

This week we watched the "How to Begin Teaching" video in our District conference and it was neat because the next day we had a referral from a member and then went to the home of this great family.  The father has a great desire to learn more about Jesus Christ so he can bring up his children better.  Hermana Rejon and I used the principles that we learned from "How to Begin Teaching."  It went really well and we have high hopes for this family of five.

One night we visited with our fecha, Roberto.  He is SO ready to get baptized this weekend!   We were inspired to ask him certain questions and had a great discussion.  He told us about his fears of getting baptized and I shared some experiences I had in my life and how he will be very blessed in his life.  It was great!

I have been praying for help on loving the people and have been super grateful for the answers and help I have received in response to these prayers.
Next week will just get better!
Read Mosiah 23.....

Love,

Hermana Johnson