Tue, Feb
5, 2013 3:55 am
Here's an
overview on our work in our area:
We continue to see SO many miracles every day!
And it is so great to not be half deaf anymore!! Because of my good
recovery I am trying to work as hard as ever to show my gratitude to Heavenly
Father for helping me recover so quickly.
We had 21 lessons last week with almost half of them being lessons with less
active members and the lessons with member are mostly with family members of
less active members. It has been amazing working with the less actives. They
just want to be loved and cared about. They just want people to notice them and
talk to them. A lot of them have been forgotten because of all the recent
changes in our Ward. We are still waiting for a new Bishop to be called and the
Ward is still recovering from all of the big families that have recently moved
back to their own countries (mostly all last summer, including the Bishop and
his family). The members that are active
continue to be strong and faithful. We finally have gotten into almost all of
their homes, with the exception of a couple. If they don´t sign our food
calendar, we approach them personally and if they say they have no time, we
stop by their house anyway during random times of the day. It has really worked
to our advantage and we have begun to make wonderful relationships. Plus, a few
brownies deliveries also helped out. J
Our baptisms:
We are working on getting both Fausta and her daughter Cristina to the temple.
Cristina has one daughter 20 years old; who is an atheist...We are trying to
talk to her about the gospel....not going well yet. And she has one son, Daniel
who is 7 years old. He will be 8 this year and we are working on preparing him
for baptism by first trying to get him used to going to Primary. His name is
Daniel and he wants to go on a mission someday!
It has been so exciting to see this family progress. Cristina gave us the
information of almost all of her less active siblings who live in Spain. Lots
of work for us to do!
Lupe's husband Nelson is attending church now and they are preparing to go to
the temple, J but they are moving back to Peru in March...darn. The church
needs them here in Spain...but they are amazing. They just bought leather
bound, tabbed triples and Bibles. When they opened them up they acted like
children opening presents on Christmas! They were so excited and started
crying. Nelson even kissed his book! I have never seen anything like that! It
was amazing to me. How blessed we are to have the scriptures in our life. They
are so sacred and should be treated as such-not thrown around, or on the floor,
or stepped on, etc. They are letters from Heavenly Father specifically written
to us. Nelson and Lupe are amazing examples and have the most incredible faith.
They are doing so well and now have visiting teachers and home teachers. :)
Xavi, originally from Uruguay, (his Dad served a mission in Arcadia,
California) is doing great. We want to visit his siblings who also live in our
area with their families. Xavi´s Dad was inactive for years, but he finally
became worthy to baptize his son! He now is the 2nd Counselor in the Sunday
School Presidency!!! :) Xavi´s Mom and her family are all members of the
church. They all live in Uruguay still. She is now reactivated and is Secretary
in the Relief Society!!! Both the parents received their callings this last
Sunday. The baptism was beautiful-probably the most spiritual one I have been
to in the mission. It was incredible. Xavi´s Mom invited her friends and wants
to get them to listen to us! When I first started in Hospitalet First Ward this
family was one of the first that I met. We visited them almost every week and
now they are all active and they all bore their testimonies in Sacrament
meeting on Sunday and the Dad even said that they are working on going to the
temple now to be sealed as a family!!!! WOW!!! Talk about miracles! They all
bore their testimonies in the baptismal service, also Sunday night. It was beautiful.
Everyone was in tears. More than half of the Ward attended the baptism and the
Primary children sang a song. Hermana Rivera and I were privileged to give the
talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost.
Xavi is an incredible child and is 8 years old. He has the most faith I have
seen in a child. It is because of him that I really came to understand the
commandment to become as little children-submissive, meek, humble, etc. He is
so intelligent and so willing to learn. He just wants his family to be happy and
he wants to go to the temple someday with them. He encourages his parents to go
to church. He reminds them that they need to sing hymns together and read their
scriptures together and pray together every day! He is a very loving child with
strong desires to be a missionary someday as well! He has changed my life with
his example and testimony. He is incredible and it has been a blessing to teach
him. He will reactivate his whole family-grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins...I know it. I am excited to see where this family will go and to see
all the miracles that will happen thanks to Xavi.
We had another amazing miracle...We have 3 fechas!
Pabel and Evelyn finally can be baptized! They are from Honduras. They have one
daughter who they are trying to bring here to Spain this year. Evelyn´s parents
are members and her little brother is going on a mission to the Dominican
Republic! Evelyn´s sister lives here and
wants to be baptized but works all day every day. Her husband is arriving here
to Spain the end of this month and we have plans to teach him! Pabel is the
only one who knows about the church in his family. Pabel and Evelyn have been
like members of the church for about a year or two now. They will get married on March 21st and
baptized on March 23rd, and confirmed on March 24th. The whole Ward is planning
a celebration. Everyone is excited and anxious for them to finally be true
baptized members of the Church. They are faithful and even participate in every
class. They have assignments instead of callings. I feel blessed to be the
missionary that can see them get baptized because every missionary has taught
them. We see them once a week for a Family Night and they always want us to
invite investigators so they can help us teach them! They are amazing.
The other fecha is a miracle. His name is Roy and is 18 years old from
Venezuela. His girlfriend is a member who goes to the Barcelona First Ward.
Just a year or two ago Roy didn´t even believe in God. He shared with us a
special experience that he had. He said sometimes he would say kind of a prayer
to himself, but he didn´t know if there
was a God until one day he had a distinct impression that someone was listening
to him and that he wasn´t alone. He met his girlfriend and they started dating
and she started bringing him to church with her and to JAS activities. He loved
the people and made friends quickly. The missionaries started teaching him, but
he told us it just wasn´t his time yet. A few months passed by and he told the
Sister missionaries in the First Ward that he was ready to receive the
missionaries again. They taught him the first lesson and then he decided he
needed to meet the missionaries in the Hospitalet Ward that he should be
attending. We met him yesterday and taught him the Plan of Salvation. I have
never explained the Plan of Salvation in such depth before in my entire
mission. He was hungering for the truth. He just wanted more and more answers.
He told us that he has doubts but that he doesn´t know what his doubts are
until the missionaries answer them and he realizes that they are no longer
doubts. It was amazing teaching him. He told us that he wants to do this for
himself and not for his girlfriend. He wants to serve a mission someday! He is
getting baptized the 23rd of February.
People are prepared! We need to find them! We have been contacting a lot.
Getting lots of referrals and working hard! We are being the most obedient that
we can and we love the work. The 12 weeks program is also helping us a ton and
we are learning a lot every day.
Love,
Laura
