Opening the area has been a little rough

Hola Familia!

So I planned out P-Day better and now I have the whole alloted time instead of the couple minutes I have had other Mondays.  Things are going so wonderfully; I love the opportunities the Lord has been blessing me with!  I mean, I am learning and growing like crazy.  Elder Monjarraz is exactly the companion that I have needed becuase I am finally learning how to really get lost in the work.  Like I said in the last letter we are literally running from place to place, teaching some of the most powerful lessons of my life, and finding the elect of God. 

Opening the area has been a little rough.  We have spent many hours knocking doors and talking to people in the streets and I have never received so much rejection.  However, one morning I was reading in my personal study about faith and how it is a principle that brings about the miracles.  I read in Ether 12:6 about how the testimony comes after the trial of faith.  I then remembered something that I had heard one time that in order to accomplish great big things we need great big faith.  I then started thinking about how we have a goal to baptize tons here in Santa Cecilia and in order to acheive the goal I need to adquire the faith necesary.  I then put two and two together and realized why things were happening like they were here.  We have a great big goal.  Right now I don't have the faith that is necesary to acheive it.  The Lord permits the trials of my faith and everytime I overcome a trial my faith grows and grows until I have the faith necesary.  I then had a great time being rejected, spit upon, and made a hiss and a byword because I knew that overcoming the trials would bring great rewards!

Amazingly that is exactly what happened! :)  About mid-week, the Lord blessed us with the opportunity to find someone to baptize and we found a HUGE family that came to church with us this last week!  Elder Monjarraz and I were walking on water with happiness as we realized the Lord had found us worthy of the blessings after overcoming the trials.  What a sense of peace and love from God I felt after reaching that conclusion.  I felt a satisfaction that fills you to the brim and that makes all the pain and effort worth it.  HAHA, I have to admit...it is addicting!!  Oddly, before the mission I don't think I could have seen me come home exhausted and spiritually spent grinning from ear to ear.  Sounds super cheesy but that is literally how I feel everynight coming home.  There is nothing more satisfactory than giving all that I can in the Lord's work!

MIRACLE:  We were teaching a new family that we found when one of the older kids came crying into the room with her fiancé yelling behind her.  The whole family was shocked, got up and left except for the mom of the family and the young couple.  Not knowing what to do, we just sat there and after we didn't go at first I felt that we should stay.  Not knowing why we were to stay I sat there listening.  Quickly the situation began to heat up and the young couple were talking about separating and the mom was saying tons of not so great things...the spirit in the room was dark and oppressive.  We waited for the moment to break and when it came we started to talk about the family and helping them realize the importance of forgiveness and repentance.  The Spirit filled the room, some were crying, and we finished with the problem solved.  The Spirit had resolved the problem in such a way that the couple had decided that they would get married and the rest of the family decided to get baptized  this coming week!!  As Elder Holland would say, "that was definitely a situation where a representative of Christ was needed."  I would never have known what to say but the Lord filled our mouths and miraculously the problems were fixed and we have baptisms for the coming week!!

Love,
Elder Janis