Californian A-Venturas: Fortieth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

This week was definitely a week of miracles!

On Monday, we had the chance to visit the Ruiz family again and to teach Martin (the son) about the Restoration more in depth. He opened up so much and told us that he wanted to increase his relationship with God. After we finished the lesson, he accepted a baptismal date of April 19th. We talked to him more about what he would need to do reach this date and what else we still needed to talk to him about. We invited him to mutual and he went on Tuesday! We ended up finding him a ride from one of the members and when he got there, the young men welcomed him right in. Hermano Juarez, the young men's president, talked to him a lot about the program and scouting and For the Strength of Youth and all sorts of other great things about the gospel. We were so excited that he was able to make it and we hope that he'll want to continue coming in the future. He wasn't, however, at church on Sunday because he was mad at his parents and knew that it would upset them if he didn't go. Other than that and working with him on trying to remember to read the Book of Mormon), he's doing so well though! We went back yesterday to teach them again, but Martin wasn't there. Instead we talked to his parents and found out that the only reason Hno. Ruiz doesn't want to be baptized was because he didn't want to pay tithing and that a missionary many years ago told him that if he wasn't baptized, their house would be condemned and they would have a lot of trials. He was obviously offended by this and didn't want anything to do with the church for many years. He's finally opening back up to wanting to take the lessons again and he has a lot of good questions. At least we know what his main concerns are now!

On Tuesday, we had so many of them. It all started out in the morning when we were contacting a potential investigator. She wasn't home, but we were able to talk to her mom, Irma. It just started out as a doorstep lesson, but then she invited us in and we had a really good lesson on how to help our kids keep good standards in today's world. We tied it back to the Restoration and how Heavenly Father really does look out for us in these perilous times. It turns out that their family isn't really practicing any religion currently and they're starting to look for one to hold to. Irma really wants something that can unify their family and give her kids a really strong support system. The spirit was really strong during the entire lesson! After we left her home, Hermana Reyes and I made it a goal to find a family to teach before the end of the transfer whether it be them or another one. Seeing Irma's desire to help her family strengthened our desire to help other families have the blessings of the gospel in their lives. I'm so excited to keep working with her.

Later that same day, we were contacting a less active who ended up not being home. Instead, we talked to her cousin, Anika. In short, she was looking for a church to join and was thinking about being baptized, but didn't know how to go about it. When we invited her to be baptized after a short doorstep lesson, she told us this and readily accepted a baptismal date of April 26th! She's really hard to catch, but we're really excited to keep working with her in the future.

Thursday night we were able to go over to the Galvan's home and teach them the Restoration using the cup visual. They loved it! They loved it so much that all the kids wanted to make their own, so we're going back over tonight to have a noche de hogar and make the cups with them. The kids, unfortunately, weren't able to make it on Sunday because they weren't ready when their ride got there, so we're going to talk to them about that tonight as well. All of them are so cute and I can tell that they love learning about the gospel. We still haven't been able to see the oldest, Brian, since we first met him, but we're working on having the kids give him encouragement to come back to church.

The Macias family is doing so well! They had some issues that they had to work out with the Bishop that we were able to convince them to talk to him about, but when I went by with another Relief Society sister on Thursday, they were a lot happier than they were last week. I love being able to see the power of the Atonement work in people's lives and the happiness that it brings them when they're trying to follow Christ and do what's right.

On Friday, we were finally able to meet with Tobias. He's still really depressed with his whole legal situation that he's dealing with, but when we were talking to Bishop, he told us that we just need to be bold with him and not let him "fester" in his bad circumstances. We just need to tell him to look at the bright side and see that he has a lot of other good things going for him. Tobias also came to church on Sunday, so that helped him feel the spirit a little bit stronger and help him feel better about his situation. He still has his date of April 19th and is coming to church faithfully, but he still doesn't have the conviction that everything we're telling him is true yet. We've been praying for him everyday multiple times, so I know that he'll be able to feel a difference in his life.

We were also able to meet with Rosa. We retaught her the Plan of Salvation and emphasized the power that the Atonement can have in our lives. She feels really guilty about some past things that she's done, but she told us that when we told her that she can be completely cleansed and forgiven she lit up and told us that she felt a little better knowing that. I don't think that she still completely understands that Christ loves her enough to suffer just for her, but hopefully in this coming week we'll make progress with her in that regard.

Saturday was also a day of miracles! We were able to go to our wards Relief Society activity and we were able to get Myra(I) there! She really enjoyed it and so did all of the other sisters that went. Lunch and a service project were included.

We had the chance to have zone conference this week as well!! Of course it went amazing!! In short...

1. we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon as our main source of teaching

2. our new christ like attribute is VIRTUE

3. we talked a lot about the Atonement and how we're all children of God

4. we found out that ELDER NELSON is visiting our mission on the 19th of April!!! I'm pumped!!!

Thanks for all the love and support that I've gotten this past week!! I love all of you!!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday