Hola Everyone!
This weeks been great!
We were able to teach the Galvan family again on Monday and
talk about the 10 Commandments while teaching them the hand signs. They loved
it! When we saw them yesterday, they told us that they had been practicing the
signs. We're trying to keep working with them to help their older brother,
Brian, understand that we love all of them and help him come back to church and
show more of an interest.
On Wednesday, we were able to contact two former
investigators, Magdalena and Elsa, that have quite a bit of promise. Magdalena
has been recently going through a lot of problems in her family that has helped
her become even closer to God than she was before. When she first started
meeting with the Sisters, she was going through something else, but told us
that they were "angels sent from God" to help her. She told us the
same thing, so we're hoping that this time around, she'll realize even more
that the gospel will help her forever and that she'll have that desire to enter
the waters of baptism.
Eva, pretty much knows every single member that lives in her
neighborhood and is really good friends with them. She had taken the lessons
from missionaries when she was younger and had wanted to get baptized then, but
her mom wouldn't let her. As she's grown older, she still likes studying about
God and wants her children to know more about Him, but she told us that she's
already committed to study with other Bible study groups. Hopefully, we'll be
able to help her remember the feelings that she had when she was younger. We
were only able to briefly teach the Restoration, but we invited her to read the
introduction to the Book of Mormon again. She accepted, so hopefully we'll be
able to follow up this week.
We started teaching Isabel, the daughter of a less active
member, this week. She just barely turned eight and is looking forward to being
baptized. Her dad thought that she could use a little bit extra preparation
before then, so we gladly offered to help. She's super sweet and is really
bright. Her mom isn't a member, but hopefully, with time, we'll be able to
start teaching her as well.
On Friday, we were able to go out with a young woman from
the ward to go to some appointments (the Medina family and Vivian). Both
appointments fell though, but we had some back ups that we had powerful lessons
with. Gabby (the young woman) is a natural teacher and it was really neat for
me to be able to see how the youth today are so prepared to serve missions. She
loves talking about missionary work and what she's doing to help the work
progress.
Yesterday was so stressful, but so worth it. We went to the
Galvan's house to make sure they were ready to go to church and wait with them
until their ride came, but their ride didn't come until 11:30 (we have church
at 11) due to some complications they had. Then it took us almost a half hour
to get to church because two of the kids got sick and they had to stop at the
side of the road a few times. We finally arrived for the last ten minutes of
Sacrament Meeting, but it was so worth it to get those kids there. They've only
been one other time since we've been here in the area. I could tell that the
adversary was working, but everything turned out okay.
Listening to Elder Nelson and the rest of the speakers that
came was absolutely amazing. I loved being in the presence of an apostle of the
Lord and being able to feel his spirit. I especially loved how much they
focused on having the faith to do whatever the Lord asks of us and to do what
we actually signed up to do as missionaries. I realized, as they were speaking,
that there are some things in my teaching habits that I want to start doing
again that I haven't done in a while such as singing more, focusing even more
on the Book of Mormon, and helping them truly understand that they are a child
of God before anything else. Overall, everything was truly inspiring. (I'll
send the newsletter that incorporates little summaries from Elder Nelson and
Elder Bowen.)
Thanks for all the love and support!
Con amor,
Hermana Halliday
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