Hello Everybody,
I am late on the email because the server was down all morning. I have had some good experiences this past week and I am sending 20 pgs of journal entries home. I now have 4+ RC investigators. I have another one named Kimberley that is from Las Vegas that is probably going to be baptized within in a short time and I worked with another guy Ted. Nicole Candelaria is still doing very well. Her testimony almost makes me cry ever time I talk to her. She is so simple but her testimony just burns within her. It is beautiful. My email won't be very interesting today because I don't have much to say that isn't covered in the journal entries.
Here's some journal entries-
I spoke with Nicole, my RC investigaro, on the phone for my third time. The first time I spoke to her it was 75% confusion and 25% spiritual experience. The second time was probably 50/50l But this time was incredible! It was about 90% hard core spiritual goodness. I had prayed about her mucho and had prepared many specific things to talk about and when I talked to her she was so ready to learn and commit. She had kept her committment to listen to the B of M everyday and had prepared to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She felt that she knew it was true. She had been watching the restoration video many times and was totally in love with it.
Just from seeing a picture of Pres. Monson she says she's knows he's a prophet.She offered the final prayer which was very scary for her because she felt like her words were not good enough, but her prayer was the most beautiful, humble prayer I have ever hear. It brought me to tears. I am so thankful that God gave me this opportunity, this tender mercy. Any other missionary at the MTC could have done what I did but in his mercy he gave this opportunity to me.
Jeff's have other great conversations with others at the RC(Referral Center). He loves this opportunity but says he usually gets real talkers and can hardly get a word in. He talked to another lady, Kimberly, who was so excited when he told her about templesand how she could live with her family forever. Jeff says it's so amazing to know that we can have glorious blessings if we keep our covenants.
Sept 16
Jeff pulled a few strings and was able to meet Tracy and "host" her when she got to the MTC. It was awesome for Mom and Dad to be greeted by Jeff at the MTC, even though it was just for a minute. He looks the same (Mom's words)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sept. 9, 2009
This week has been great! I had some depression at the beginning of the week but that is not uncoomon here and satan works very hard to get people down. Especially if they are not obedient. If I am not obedient, Satan combines his bullcrap with my other guilt from being disobedient and he brings me super down about things. However, this week, I decided that I would follow every single rule absolutely. 100%. I have talked about doing this in reality but it never really happened to this past week. I am going to send home all my gum and any other thing that was against the rules because I want the blessings of being obedient. We have so many nitpicky rules that used to drive me crazy but now I look at it as a challenge and it is honestly fun to be like, "ok now I cannot do this also, let's prove that it won't even bother me." Everyday we receive more rules from the district leader or branch president or even from the mission president but whatever it is I will follow it because the blessings are in blindy following.
Also, this week I talked to my progressing investigator in california, Nicole Candelaria, over the phone in the RC twice. Her life has changed so much in just the past two weeks. She radiates happiness now and she is in love with this gospel. The Lord just won't let her drop it. It is burning so deeply within her heart that she cannot stop seeking more truth. She met with the missionaries in her area on saturday and she asked them to be baptized as she committed to me she would. They gave her a baptismal date of October 24th, which made me very upset because I thought that it was so stupid to wait because she is so eager right now. However, I now think the date may be inspired because I feel strongly that her husband needs to be taught the gospel before she is baptized or her baptism will destroy their marriage. As of yet, he is not happy about her joining the church but I think his heart is softening and she has asked him to come to church for a long time and he always said no, but his work gave him an extra day off on sunday which hardly ever happens (God's hand), and he said he would go to church with her one time. I asked Nicole if here husband would let me talk to him about the church and she thinks he will. She is going to talk to him and tell me about it when I talk to her on Tuesday. I think that the Lord may soften his heart and then they both can join the church and raise their family in righteousness. Nicole committed to go to church yesterday, and I haven't talked to her yet but I am pretty sure she went, and she listens to the scriptures everyday on LDS.org because she doesn't read well enough to read them. She keeps asking me to fly out for her baptism but I told her I cannot because I will be in houston, however, we are going to keep up communication through mail.
My experience with Nicole has been an absolute tender mercy from God. The conversations with her are my favorite thing about the week. I pray for her and her family in every single prayer I say which is quite a bit as a missionary. Her testimony is so sweet and it enlightens my day.
Other than that this week has been pretty uneventful. In my class, we are playing a game were two people are anonymously selected through a drawing to be "Nativos" and they are supposed to speak solamente en espanol for the entire day. When it is time to judge, 24 hours later, the class votes on the person they think was the native and the native receives points depending on how convincing they were that they were the native. Makes sense. My explanation is not very good but anyway, I am one of the nativos right now but because it is the weekend and I have p-day today, we don't have class until tonight. I have been the native for three days and have hardly spoken anything other than espanol. My espanol has grown so much during these three days it is honestly hard to speak in english or even to think in english. I love spanish. It is so fun.
No mucho mas tiempo pero yo quiero compartir mi testimonio con ustedes. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi salvador, y redenter, y tambien se que le morio por mis pecados y que Jesucristo me ama. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.
Ten seconds more. Love ya, bye
Also, this week I talked to my progressing investigator in california, Nicole Candelaria, over the phone in the RC twice. Her life has changed so much in just the past two weeks. She radiates happiness now and she is in love with this gospel. The Lord just won't let her drop it. It is burning so deeply within her heart that she cannot stop seeking more truth. She met with the missionaries in her area on saturday and she asked them to be baptized as she committed to me she would. They gave her a baptismal date of October 24th, which made me very upset because I thought that it was so stupid to wait because she is so eager right now. However, I now think the date may be inspired because I feel strongly that her husband needs to be taught the gospel before she is baptized or her baptism will destroy their marriage. As of yet, he is not happy about her joining the church but I think his heart is softening and she has asked him to come to church for a long time and he always said no, but his work gave him an extra day off on sunday which hardly ever happens (God's hand), and he said he would go to church with her one time. I asked Nicole if here husband would let me talk to him about the church and she thinks he will. She is going to talk to him and tell me about it when I talk to her on Tuesday. I think that the Lord may soften his heart and then they both can join the church and raise their family in righteousness. Nicole committed to go to church yesterday, and I haven't talked to her yet but I am pretty sure she went, and she listens to the scriptures everyday on LDS.org because she doesn't read well enough to read them. She keeps asking me to fly out for her baptism but I told her I cannot because I will be in houston, however, we are going to keep up communication through mail.
My experience with Nicole has been an absolute tender mercy from God. The conversations with her are my favorite thing about the week. I pray for her and her family in every single prayer I say which is quite a bit as a missionary. Her testimony is so sweet and it enlightens my day.
Other than that this week has been pretty uneventful. In my class, we are playing a game were two people are anonymously selected through a drawing to be "Nativos" and they are supposed to speak solamente en espanol for the entire day. When it is time to judge, 24 hours later, the class votes on the person they think was the native and the native receives points depending on how convincing they were that they were the native. Makes sense. My explanation is not very good but anyway, I am one of the nativos right now but because it is the weekend and I have p-day today, we don't have class until tonight. I have been the native for three days and have hardly spoken anything other than espanol. My espanol has grown so much during these three days it is honestly hard to speak in english or even to think in english. I love spanish. It is so fun.
No mucho mas tiempo pero yo quiero compartir mi testimonio con ustedes. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi salvador, y redenter, y tambien se que le morio por mis pecados y que Jesucristo me ama. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.
Ten seconds more. Love ya, bye
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