Hola Todos,
I am not quiet sure how to express how I feel right now. I am going to keep it short and not spill every thing that is happening to the whole world but this is the hardest companionship I have ever had. Hoever its the best numbers I have seen my entire mission but it does not make me happy because I know that we are not really working at a uited team. I am pretty sure my companion would be happy if I went somewhere and jumped off a cliff. I have tried making her breakfast and doing little things before her but it does not make a difference.... I am out of ideas and quiet frankly my desire to do these things for her is dying also.
Okay... so that was the negative thing I had to say this week... this week was not all bad... it was full of beauitful little miracles... I never cease to see the hand of the Lord.
I think the best day that I had this week was when i had the privilege of working with a member here in the area named Nubia. She is 19 years old and is thinking about serving a mission. When we started the day together she told me she was not sure if she wants to serve a mission and so i had the personal goal to show her how fun it could be to be a missionary. That day all of our appotiments fell for various reasons andthen it started to rain Panama style... which means hard enough to turn the roads into rivers.... I told her we could go inside and wiat it out or we could use it to our advantage and go looking for new investigators. We decided together to keep working. I told her that I had faith that if we keep working God would make the rain stop. We walked for about fifteen minutes looking for a house to contact and all of the sudden it just stopped raining. We went to contact a woman who was sitting outside with her two daughters and as I talked to her I realized that she was not responding to my questions at all but was actually talking on the phone. Embaressed I excused myself and we kept walking. When we reached the end of the row of houses we decided to turn around and go back. I said a little prayer telling the Lord that if we needed to talk with the woman I had tried to talk with earliar that she would say some thing to us as we passed. At that mmoment we came up on the house and as we passed she called to us... telling us that she was sorry and and asking us what we had wanted.
Exciteldly we told her who we were and talked to her about the English class I would be teaching on Saturday. She let us in and we sang a hymn with her and talked to her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. She told us openly that she was Evangelica but that she was in awe of the sacrifice that w eas missionaries do... she said that we would always be welcome in her home... we will be going back to visit her on Wednesday. Prayers please!
The other miracle that we had together is honestly the joy of my life. Her name is Ailyn... she is 17 years old and is as golden as they come.... apart from the fact that she has to finish school this week so we cannot visit her as often as we would like. I went and visited her with Hna. Nubia and she had already started to read the Book of Mormon I had left with her the day before. She had tons of questions and ate up every thing we said like she was starving. We talked about Nephi and she told us that she could not wait to read the story. She came to church this Sunday and loved it. The young women were excellent with her and they are taking her under their wing like one of their own. She is going to participate in the drama th eyoung women are going to do this Saturday for the activity we are planning and also is planning to go with the other young women to a dance this Friday at the stake center. I do not know if she will be prepared to be baptized on the 30th which is her baptisimal date but I know that she will be prepared to be baptized very soon and I wait anxiously for that day. She asked me yesterday if she could serve a mission and I told her that she could.... she just has to get baptized first... her little sister allso loves church too and her mom has decided that she wants to come this week to see what her daughters are learning and doing. Ailyn is really a light for me here... I know she is one of the people that I have come to Panama to find...
Later in the week I had the privilege of working with Nubias sister who recently came back from a mission in El Salvador. Again all of our appotiments feel through so we did my favorite thing.... contacting. We were walking towards the end of our day together when i saw a woman laying in a hammack and I said... hermana we are going to contact this person. When we started talking to her she told us that she had been a member of our church once.. its not abnormal here in Utah, Panama... We sat down and talk with her and what I thought would be like a twenty minutes appotiment turned into an hour... I was a little more forward with her then I normally am.. I asked her how she felt because she was not... how do you say... keeping her covenant with God... she laughed every time we told her she needed to go back to church and at one point I looked at her and said... hermana i am here in this area as a respresantive of Jesus Christ and we did not come here to talk with you today by accident... God prompted us to come here because He wants you to come back.. its time to come back Hermana... because thorugh the Gospel and the Church is the only way that you achieve salvation for yourself and for you family.... He loves you so much... and for that... we are here with you now... She told us that she is going to do her best to go to church this week... she has been inactive for 30 years... she said that she did not want to say were were angels sent by God but she told us that she felt that she can talk openly with us and she did... it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in a long time because I know I said the things that God wanted me to say and that this hermana is on her way to coming back to curch.
The other miracle I had with Saria was when we were looking for a nother inactive member and I found her grandduaghtrer instead. We talked with her and shared the message of the Restoration... she responded relaly positively when we shared the First Vision with her and accepte a baptisimal date for the 7th of December.. then we discovered that she lives in Pilon when it a good ways away. I happily passed the reference on though and am hoping that the other hermanas will enjoy having such a wonderful investigator.
So as far as number go it was a really geat week. We taught 58 lessons and worked with members every day... despite the difficulties with my companion I am finding joy in working closely with the members here... they are wonderful.. I wish I could bring them with me my entire mission...
I love my area and I love this work. I love all of you and mor ethen that I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. i can testify that He supports us in our trials and through our afflicions he prepares us for blessings that we never even imagined. I know that He lives. That He is always there, helping us. We just have to trust Him. I am almost out of time so i am going to send this off. i look forward to hearing from all of you very soon. Until next week.
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