Hola Todos!
I dont know where everyone is this morning but thats okay... I hope this email finds you all well and happy. It had been an interesting week because yesterday were the elections here in Panama and so yesterday we had to be in the house at 2 which meant that we really didnt do any thing apart from do our weekly planning and made posters for the church where we can put pictures of the weekly English class and group night.
Apart from that this week was really weird.... not wierd but it rained every day and because it rained every day all of the members that were going to work with us suddenly couldnt and so our hopes of having a lot of lessons with members kind of went out the window pretty early on in the week.
Yet just as God sustained the children of Israel with mana from heaven in the moment that we needed it most God gave us a miracle that we had never imagined.
First came when Samuel... a guy who is good friends with a member and has been coming to church for two months now.... accepted to be baptized this Saturday. It was a big miracle because up to this point he had always put excuses as to why he could not get baptized or said that he wanted more time and when we talked to him on Tuesday he said that he wanted to be baptized.
The other miracle is some thing that I think I will remember the rest of my life. On Sunday we had scheduled to do a family home evening the home an inactive member that wsa doing every thing she could to come back to church. Her husband, is not a member. On Wednesday night we recieved a phone call from our branch president saying that her husband and said that he wanted to be baptized. WE told him that we were planning to have a family hom eevening with them the following evening and our branch president said he would be there.
So on Thursday night we showed up and as we introduced ourselves Jiame (hi-me) told us that he was happy that he had made the choice to be baptized in the church. He said for a long time he had been looking for the truth in places that he was never going to find it. The family cried as they expressed their joy that Jiame was finally going to be baptized... after seven years of prayers and trials and efforts... Jiame was going to be united with his familiy....
The following day we met with Jiame and his wife one on one to teach him the Restoration because he has none of the lessons and he accepted to be baptized this Saturday so we are going to be teaching him like crazy this week so he can be ready...
Anyway... it was one of the fastest lessons I have ever taught in my whole mission because he had read and basically explained to us what we needed to teach and so at the end of the lesson I asked him what had motivated him to decide to take this decision to be baptized...
So he told us that for seven years he had been attending different churches... he fought with his family often about doctrine and things like that... almost crying he said he was the reason that his family did not go to the temple after a year of being baptized... he said that when he quit going to church he still fought against the Mormons as he put it. He thought up questions and looked for scriptures in the Bible to show that we were wrong. He said once he got in an open argument with one of the leaders of the church who had come to their home to do a family home evening with his wife and family.
Then one day he decided to go to an institute class with his wife... as a gift for Valentines Day... he went and said he really felt nothing... and then he decided to go one Sunday to church with his wife... and he was was struck by the invitation to read the Book of Mormon... and all this time he said he was praying to know what to do... for some kind of direction in his life... a dreamm some thing that would help him to know what to do...
Then he told us that almost two weeks ago he had a dream. He said in his dream he saw a couple walking through a small city.... and they were trying to get somewhere but he did not know where they were trying to get to.. The couple came up on a park and there stood an old lady. The man asked the old woman where they should go while the wife insisted that they should take a certain way that was narrower and looked more dangerous than all the other ways they could take. The husband compalined that they could take a bus another way... or a car another... but the wife insisted that they take this narrow way...
So they did....
And they walked the way and there ferocious animals and obastacles the whole way,... and the whole way the husband complained... saying that she could not possibly know that this was the right way. Then they reached a hill.. where the path ended and the wife started to go up the hill.. saying she was sure that it was that way... and the husband complained.. saying that he was going to ask a man that was working at the bottom of the hill... and when the husband turned to ask Jiame said he heard his own voice saying... Stop compalining... stop trying to keep your wife and taking the path... she knows the way... follow her.. your wife knows the way...
He said with that he woke up... and it struck him so hard that he got down on his knees and began to pray... and as he prayed her heard his own voice in his dream saying.... she knows the way... sheknows the way... and he knew... that his wife knew the way... that she had always known the way...
He told us that he had always said he would never be Mormon because of doctrinal issues that he just could not accept.... but God had changed his heart... God had worked a mighty change in him. He said he knew that God needed him in His church and that he was ready to do whatever it took to be baptized and to help in the Lords kingdom...
So like mana from heaven Jiame and Samuel are going to get baptized this week. Pray for them please... that they can understand what we taeach and that we can find time to teach them so that they can take that step this weekend.
I love this work so much. It is such a blessing to witness on a daily basis how God has the power to change hearts and lives. I love you all so very very much and I hope that you are well and happy.
All My Love,
Hna. Wilson
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