Hola Todos!
So I am absolutely in love with my area. It is so small but so amazing... the members are working with us every day and we are seeing a lot of less actives coming back to church. Things are a little bit more complicated with investigators but we now have five investigators with baptisimal dates so we have some thing... believe it or not the challenge is still getting them to come to church.... and they only have to walk five minutes... but the work is like that here so what can you do except keeping trying different ways to motivate them to come to church...
I did exchanges with Hna. Navas this week... she is from Honduras... she is one fot he hermana leaders that we have here in Colon and it was one fo the best days I have had since separating from Hna. Chavez. We worked so hard that we got back tot he house at 8:30 and that was with canceling two appoitments and our dinner... the work is crazy here. Hna. Navas and I spent a good portion of time talking and she told me that she cannot think of any thing that would keep me from training... so I think it might be possible that I could train here in Barriada Kuna... I have always wanted the opportunity but I know it will happen in the Lords time. I learned so much from Hna Navas that I am trying to apply to my teaching this week....
So we had 49 lessons this week because we did divisions with members almost every day... its awesome that there is so much work... I have never been so busy my entire mission....
The miracles of this week were first that we had the entire Porras Family in church this Sunday for the first time in a long time... they were recently sealed in the temple and went inactive so my companion and I have been working really hard to motivate them to come back to church. I am hoping this is the beginning of them remembering the covennats they made in the temple so that they can have they can be together forever.
The other miracle that I had when I was working with a member yesterday was when I went to visit Hna. Rita Quintera. She has years and years of not coming to church. When we went to visit her she told us that was busy and that she did not have time for us. The member talked her into letting us in... the plus of having a member who knows your investigator or less active... we had asked her before why she was inactive and she simply said just because... she really did not hav ea reason...
When we started the lessons we would ask her a question and she would answer it very briefly and say like... so why are you.here and when ar eyou going to leave. I said a prayer in my heart that God will help me reach her... somehow.... we asked if we could sing a hymn but when we pulled out our hymnbooks I felt impressed to ask her again why she was inactive and she told me because none of the members said hello when they were walking int he street... just all these excuses... then an idea came to my head... thanks to the Spirit... and I asked her how she thought her relationship with God was right now... she said good... I asked her if she thought God was happy that was not going to church... she told me that she was not going with her sons who are Evangelica either so that we should n ot feel bad that she is not going to church... so I said... hermana... we are going to use an example... if you ask your son to do some thing for you every week... and every week he says like.... yeah mom I will... I promise i will... but he does not do it... and then the next week he says he will do it and he does not do it... how woud you feel.... and she said she would feel bad... obviously... and so then I said... when we get baptized we promise God that we are going to go to Church every Sunday and keep our covenants... how do you think He feels that you have not been keeping the promise you made to Him.... and she paused for a long time and then said.. you hav ea good point Hermana... okay... I will go this week... and when we ended with a prayer she asked God to forgive her for all the years that she had not gone to church.... she told Heavenly Father in her prayer that she was going to come this next Sunday... and when she ended her prayer she thanked us for the visit... it was like a complete 360 and one of the most intimate moments I have had with the Spirit my entire mission... I left knowing that in that moment I had been an instruments in the hand of God to find one of his sheep that were lost...
In the words of Hna. Navas.. . the area is like Utah... only Panamanian... because its like its own little slice of Zion in the middle of Colon where almost everyone are members or less actives and the only thing to do is just to motivate everyone to keep there covenants... I love it so much... I love this work and I know that it is His work and He is the only one that knows how to do it. I hope that you will all do the little things that will bring you closer to the Lord every day... I love you all so much... until next week.
Hna. Wilson
No comments:
Post a Comment