Hola Everyone!
So much has happened this week that has kept us busy!
It all started out on Monday when we were able to visit the
Galvan family. We decided to make Restoration cups with them so they could
practice teaching the Restoration to each other and help their oldest brother,
Bryan, understand the reason why we need to have a prophet here on earth again.
He, unfortunately, wasn't there, but we're going back again tonight, so
hopefully he will be then. We found out that they didn't answer the door when
their ride came by to bring them to church, so there's more going on than just
a miscommunication with the Hermana that was going to come pick them up. We're
going to address that tonight.
This week and last, we decided to start going through our
former investigators to see if any of them would be ready to continue learning
about the gospel and meeting with the missionaries. We were able to find a few,
but one of them, Vivian, was an especially great experience. When the
missionaries had first started teaching her, she was only 17 years old, so her
mom wouldn't let her get baptized because they were extremely Catholic. Now
that she's 19, she wants to look more into the church again and she really
enthusiastic about it. She wasn't able to come to church because her mom
decided to do something as a family last minute. We think the mom still may be
an issue, but we'll hopefully get to meet her soon and help her understand that
we're not trying to take over her daughters life and take her away from her.
(That was the way Vivian portrayed it.) We went by on Saturday to invite her to
the baptism that Elder Carter and Elder Bryson had, but she still wasn't able
to make it to that either. She did tell us however that she really wants to be
baptized. It's just her mom that doesn't approve of it.
When we went over to visit her this weekend, she wasn't
home, but we met her older brother, Rudy. It turns out that he's been looking
for what the truth is and he wants something to help raise his 10 year old son
in. He had a ton of great questions that all were able to be answered by the Restoration,
so what started out as a doorstep declaration, turned into almost an hour and a
half lesson. It was such a miracle! We were able to set up a return appointment
with him.
We've still been working with the Ruiz family. Martin (the
son) is still really hard to get a hold of and we're starting to think that
he's trying to avoid us. His parents really want the gospel in his life, but
he's in a rebellious stage of life and doesn't want to do anything that his
parents want him to do. We found him a ride for church (Danny, our ward mission
leader), but he called Danny and told him that he wasn't going to be able to
come this week. We're still trying to figure out how to best help him. His
parent's are still great though. We've been able to teach them a lot more and
they're opening up a ton to missionaries whereas in the past they wanted
nothing to do with them.
Tobias is still really depressed, but he's getting a lot
better. We were able to have a lesson with him before church yesterday with
Hno. Govea and Hna. Guzman, but we lost control of the lesson. Hna. Guzman got
so excited about being able to help us out that she launched into her whole
conversion story and why baptism is such an important step. It was a really
good lesson still and the spirit was still really strong, but Hno. Govea was
the one that kept it on track about keeping the commandments. Tobias wanted to
meet with us again after church, so we met him at the park and found out that
he still has a lot of doubts about baptism. Hna. Reyes felt the prompting to go
over the baptismal interview questions with him, so we did. It turns out that
his main doubt is whether Joseph Smith really was a prophet or not. We decided
to reteach the Restoration and it helped him a lot. I've loved being able to
work with him and see the transformation that the gospel is helping him
achieve.
We were able to go visit Rosa this week as well. When we got
there, she said that she didn't have that much time, so we decided to just read
Alma 36 with her, but we ended up being there for about an hour anyway. Her
faith and hope in the enabling and redeeming power of the Atonement has gotten
so much stronger and she's starting to seem a lot happier. She's getting
surgery again this week, so hopefully we'll be able to catch her at some point
if she's feeling better.
At District Meeting on Thursday, we were able to talk a lot
about what it means to be a consecrated missionary. We read a talk by Elder
Callister that helped me look at it in a different way. He talked about how the
law of consecration is "the law of the temple, the law of the celestial
kingdom, and the law of a Zion mission." Of course, I thought about what
else I could put on the altar of sacrifice to help this mission, our
investigators, and myself reach our true potential.
At the baptism on Saturday, Hna. Reyes, Hna. Taylor, Hna.
Player, and myself were able to sing "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti" while
Jhon was getting changed. Once again the spirit was really strong as we were
able to share our talents and our testimonies of the Savior.
The General Women's Broadcast on Saturday was so good! I
loved how much they focused on being covenant keepers and how everything we do
should lead to the temple. I also loved how much they focused on the concept
that "the errand of angels is given to women." It just made me be
more excited to help investigators enter into the covenant of baptism and to
one day be a mom and help my kids do the same.
Thanks for all the love and support! I can feel it everyday
as we're out working!
Con amor,
Hermana Halliday
Me and my comp!
The Galvan family!
The Galvan family!
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