Hola Familia,
I had a very wonderful week! Although I had just sent you an email on Friday we have the regular P-Day today and everything is back to normal. Elder Mèndez and I are seeing tons and tons of miracles. Every week it is a neat to see what the Lord has in store for us as we as search for the people prepared to accept the Gospel of Christ. In our search of finding someone to help get baptized this last week, we went to a super inactive family that haven't been to church in years. It was due to fight the family had with the bishop over if they could use the church building for a birthday party. When the bishop said no they got super upset and decided that they weren’t going to come back to the church again. Sadly enough they have a 12 year-old daughter that never had the chance to be baptized.
We were praying and searching for direction as to on whom we should focus and the thought came to us to see what would happen talking to this family. The first lesson was super awkward and ended with the parents mad that we even talked about baptism. Very apprehensive we returned to see what we could do to gain the trust and confidence of
the family and then talk to the 12 year old, Anahi. We stopped by and they were in the middle of eating dinner and invited us to eat some Pambazos (it is like french bread covered in salsa with sausage and mashed potatoes inside). We talked to them for a while and ended with laughter and the tension eased up TONS. We then asked if we could talk to Anahi and they let us. We talked to her and put her on date for this coming Sunday. We left her with the assignment to pray and ask God if that was something that he wanted her to do.
We then showed up the next day to do an interview and in the interview the Elder worked with her for almost an hour and a half. When they left she said that she wasn’t 100% sure she wanted to do it still. We invited her to church and she told us that she would be going. In Sacrament meeting the theme was about missionary work and return missionaries talked about their missions and especially about baptism. The Spirit was so abnormally strong and present. After the meeting Anahi came up to us and told us, "I want to get baptized next weekend on Saturday." Elder Mèndez and I could not help but stand there a couple of seconds in utter surprise until we finally responded with excitement congratulating her on the success of getting an answer from God.
What a miracle! She was completely sure with the choice and told us that having talked to her parents they were comfortable with whatever she decided to do. She was super excited too and we know that this will help the family to begin to come to church once again. I am so grateful for the blessings and miracles that the Lord is sending us. We weren’t even sad that we didn’t have someone to baptize this next week because the baptism of Anahi is a HUGE miracle. I wish I could describe to you how hard and tense that first lesson was with this family. The father looks like if something we said didn’t go over well with him we would receive a fist in the face. However, due to the Spirit, patience, and a lot of prayers we saw the miracle! I am super happy right now and ready to see what the Lord has in store for
us this coming week!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Janis
I had a very wonderful week! Although I had just sent you an email on Friday we have the regular P-Day today and everything is back to normal. Elder Mèndez and I are seeing tons and tons of miracles. Every week it is a neat to see what the Lord has in store for us as we as search for the people prepared to accept the Gospel of Christ. In our search of finding someone to help get baptized this last week, we went to a super inactive family that haven't been to church in years. It was due to fight the family had with the bishop over if they could use the church building for a birthday party. When the bishop said no they got super upset and decided that they weren’t going to come back to the church again. Sadly enough they have a 12 year-old daughter that never had the chance to be baptized.
We were praying and searching for direction as to on whom we should focus and the thought came to us to see what would happen talking to this family. The first lesson was super awkward and ended with the parents mad that we even talked about baptism. Very apprehensive we returned to see what we could do to gain the trust and confidence of
the family and then talk to the 12 year old, Anahi. We stopped by and they were in the middle of eating dinner and invited us to eat some Pambazos (it is like french bread covered in salsa with sausage and mashed potatoes inside). We talked to them for a while and ended with laughter and the tension eased up TONS. We then asked if we could talk to Anahi and they let us. We talked to her and put her on date for this coming Sunday. We left her with the assignment to pray and ask God if that was something that he wanted her to do.
We then showed up the next day to do an interview and in the interview the Elder worked with her for almost an hour and a half. When they left she said that she wasn’t 100% sure she wanted to do it still. We invited her to church and she told us that she would be going. In Sacrament meeting the theme was about missionary work and return missionaries talked about their missions and especially about baptism. The Spirit was so abnormally strong and present. After the meeting Anahi came up to us and told us, "I want to get baptized next weekend on Saturday." Elder Mèndez and I could not help but stand there a couple of seconds in utter surprise until we finally responded with excitement congratulating her on the success of getting an answer from God.
What a miracle! She was completely sure with the choice and told us that having talked to her parents they were comfortable with whatever she decided to do. She was super excited too and we know that this will help the family to begin to come to church once again. I am so grateful for the blessings and miracles that the Lord is sending us. We weren’t even sad that we didn’t have someone to baptize this next week because the baptism of Anahi is a HUGE miracle. I wish I could describe to you how hard and tense that first lesson was with this family. The father looks like if something we said didn’t go over well with him we would receive a fist in the face. However, due to the Spirit, patience, and a lot of prayers we saw the miracle! I am super happy right now and ready to see what the Lord has in store for
us this coming week!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Janis
