Buenas Tardes Familia,
We had a crazy week that ended surprisingly well. We started the week out with two complete families and a single mother to baptize but as the week progressed one by one they dropped off date. It was hard to accept Sunday morning that we weren't going to baptize but we were excited to see our wonderful, progressing families in church. We have one of the families with a baptismal date for this coming Sunday and we look forward to a wonderful experience throughout the week focusing on them. The other family needs to get married and are more excited for the wedding than the baptism....we are going to work hard with them on the importance of both things and that it is vitally important that they are baptized as soon as possible. More time they wait, more time for the opposition to do his nasty work. We are praying hard for the two families and I know that God will work a miracle. I will pray as if everything depends on the Lord and work as if everything depends on me.
We had an amazing experience this last week with inspiration from the Holy Ghost. It was Saturday night and two of our evening appointments feel through. With out any real solid plans of who we should pass by, we decided to seek inspiration. We were in a bus to go to a part of our area pretty far away when I felt the need to immediately get off the bus and knock on the door of an investigator. When we arrived at the door the investigator was not there. I was a little confused because I felt so sure that I needed to go and knock her door. On the way back to the main avenue to catch another bus we found a wayward son of Lourdes (a recent convert)!! He is the only member of the Morales family that we haven't been able to talk to because he is living in the street and goes from place to place. Lourdes, on the verge of tears, has wanted us to help him come unto Christ but without a way to contact him the Lord laid the way to find him in the street. We talked to him for a bit in front of a taco stand and invited him to come to church. He accepted but had the smell of a lot alcohol and the hopes of him remembering our little conversation was pretty slim.
After this miraculous encounter, we headed to a different part of the area to pass by another investigator. However, again I got the impression that we must get off the bus and check on a family that lives in a HUGE apartment complex in my area. We got off and I felt pretty lost and not sure of myself but I knew that I was impressed to get off and work in this apartment complex. We checked on the family and they weren't there and as we were heading out to leave the thought came to me to pass by an inactive member who we had found randomly in the street the other day. When we almost arrived at the door of the inactive member I recognized the building of a family we had received as a reference and felt the need to see how this family was doing. About 5 months ago we had passed by and the mother told us to leave and to never come back unless called upon. Not remembering this I went up to the gate to knock when one of the daughters came walking out of the house exclaiming "what a miracle!" Taken aback by her extreme excitement at seeing us we walked in ready to find out why she greeted us so happily. We started talking and she told us that her father, a member of the church, had recently died of cancer and that she had been thinking about us missionaries. She said she had just been thinking about us when her mother asked her to go outside and dump some water out. We shared a message with her but were interrupted by the mom telling us that we needed to leave. We left but before leaving the daughter said the prayer. She thanked God for allowing us to come and help her in her time of need and that only God knew what she was thinking and why she needed us to come by. We wanted to find out why she had needed us to come by but with the time cut short by the mom and her vague answers we were left with the surety that we had come when we needed to come. We also gave the message we were directed to give. I don't know if I will ever know why we were directed to pass by with her but the Lord knows and I am thankful for the chance to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.
To end I thought I would tell you the exciting news that Lourdes´s son came to church and loved it!!!!! What a cool experience to have found him in the street and that he actually came! The Lord works in mysterious ways and has taken me on quite a few wonderful adventures lately. I am excited to see what the next week has in store for us. I love all of you and I hope that you have a wonderful start to summer vacations!
Con Amor,
Elder Janis
