Hola A Todos!
So this email is going to be basically all about Gerald. he is more than golden and I feel privileged to witness his conversion.
This week it rained every day. Every single day. Like no members wanted to work with us but there was one person who did. You guessed it. Gerald worked with us every day almost... Wednesday through Saturday. And we kept apologizing about him getting wet and he just said.. no importa... necesitamos predicar! He wants to be a missionary! He tells everyone. He also tells everyone that he is getting baptized on the 27th. I have never seen the Gospel change someone so much.
When we had the family home evening with him on Monday we taught the Resturation and when we finished the lesson we asked him if he had any thoughts and he said... just that its true.. and the world needs to know it... and i am so happy to be here with you guys... because I want to be baptized. I want to follow my Savior...
then on Tuesday he went to a family home evening wiht us and on the way he told us... do you guys know what I did today? And so we asked him what and he said... I burned every thing bad that I had... bad music... bad movies... every thing... I had always wanted to do it but never had the courage and now I do... and then in the family home evening when we talked to him more in depth about the Book of Mormon and gave him the formal inviation to read the book of Mormon while we were reading the introduction we aske dhim if he wanted ot say any thing and he told us how happy he was that he had repented and changed his life and how badly he wanted everyone to read the book of Mormon.
Then on Wednesday we went to work with him we were walking in the street... we had been rejected by numerous peoploe and he asked if we could stop and have a prayer.. He asked... not me, not my companion.. the investigator asked to pray and offered it. He asked that we could find someone that would let us in and that God could forgive us for any thing we might have done to keep us from being able to listen to the Spirit. So then we went and contacted a house. A lady named Frances, who lives by herself, let us in. We taught her about Joseph Smith and she accpeted to be bapitze don the 11th of October... unforutnately she suddenly took off to Santiago so we will not see her for a week but it was amazing to see Geralds faith.. and how God answered his prayer.
On Thursday when we went to teach him he told us that the night before he had been praying and asking God if he was fogiven for all the bad things he had done in his life. He said that he had never felt such an intense heat and he knew that God loved him.. and that he was going on the right path. He also told us that just a few days before we had met him hed had a dream.
He said in his dream he was walking from one part of our area to another. He was surrounded by light and up ahead he could see two girls... and some thing told him that they were preaching. Then he said that Christ was beside him and told him that if her wanted to progress and recieve all the blessings that God had prepared for him that he needed to turn on the light... or in other words.. make God a bigger part of his life. Then he was told that two girl would bring this light to him and that he should never ever turn away from it. That if he accepted... God had great things planned for him.... that was his dream... then two days after that... we knocked on his door.
Saturday we had a Hawiian activity.. it was pretty neat. Of course Gerald came and he ended up break dancing in front of everyone which was a big hit. Our biggest challenge with him is getting him to feel included with the members. He is very mature for a 17 year old and already wants to serve a mission. There is not really anyone else at the moment that is preparing to serve a mission int he branch but I feel like his conversion is deep enough that no matter what happens he will be strong member of the Church.
Today we are going to buy Gerald a white shirt and black pants... he does not have any and he really wants to look nice when he comes to church. Anyway, on Sunday we gave him the challenge to read the whole book of Mormon before his baptism... that was after he had showe dup to church thirty minutes early.. I am pretty sure he was one of the first people there. Anyway, I called him last night to remind him about today and he told me that he was reading the book of Mormon.. that he had started that afternoon and had beern reading almost all evening. i asked him where he was and he told me page 40. He told me how much he loved it and how glad he was that he was changing his life. That he knew it was all true. When we got off the phone I looked up to see how far he had read.. in one afternoon he had read 16 chapters!
I told my companion that I feel so blessed. I feel like this is the stamp of approval that God has decided to put on my mission. I feel like I came here to Panama to find him.. and these past 17 months I have only been looking for him... its a strange feelings.. but I feel so blessed to have a front row seat to this miracle.. and to see God change Geralds life. It has strengthened my tesitmony of the truthfulness of this Gospel.. of the love our Savior has for us... and the power of the Book of Mormon to bring people unto Christ.
Apart from Gerald there was also a less active who came to church that has not come for a really long time. We hope she keeps coming. All the members were really happy to see her and she told us she was happy to be a there.
That was pretty much my week.. while we found a few other positive people they all pale in comparison to Gerald. He is more than golden. he already things he is a member. He just needs to get baptized and I cannot wait for that day. i think I will cry with joy. I feel liek he might too. I love this work so much and I love my Heavenly Father... this work really is His.
I love you all so much! I will talk to you next week!
Love,
Hna. Wilson
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