My... What a week it´s been. Honestly, it was a hard week. The numbers we had were, for lack of a better term, pathetic. Sometimes you have slumps like that, but that´s no excuse. It´s us who make the slumps! Anyway, I´m a very happy boy right now, we´ve had a lot of miracles....
I will tell you first that... Cecilia and her family did not get baptized. BUT. The prayers you have all been praying have been answered. Franco has had the biggest change I´ve ever seen. I don´t know if I told you last week about his story, how the first time we went into their house to meet them and teach them, he wouldn´t even look at us. As time went on, his curiosity got stronger and stronger. Before you know it, he was listening to us. He always kept saying: But I´m just going to let you know... I´m NEVER going to be baptized. Hahaha! On Monday we went over there, and taught Cecilia and Franco, Franco and Nicolas (The 12 and 13 yr olds) together. We spoke of their family. We spoke about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We spoke of Baptism. We put baptismal dates for the rest of the family for this coming Saturday, the 15th. Never in my wildest dreams did I see such a big, miracle coming our way!! This family is wonderful. I have obviously never baptized an entire family, and this will be my first one! I´m so sorry I don´t have any pictures of them... Thanks to that dang SD card, I don´t know if I´ll be able to save the pictures on that card. Anyway, we´re going 110% with this family, and giving them every oportunity to grow and strengthen their small but incredibly tough testimonies. On Thursday, we watched the Testaments. I´ve never seen a man so into a movie as Franco (The dad) was. He was on the edge of his seat, nodding his head whenever something incredible or spiritual happened... And at the end when Christ heals Helam from being blind, he began CRYING!!! The military man began CRYING!! He went into the other room and dried off his tears then came back in. We spoke about the movie, and the message it contains. Honestly... I don´t know how any of this happened... We are so blessed, really. The missionaries were teaching this family for a year and a half and never got anywhere with them. Heavenly Father knows when people are ready to hear the Gospel, and when their hearts are soft enough to accept the Atonement. We didn´t do anything. We´re two gringos who stumble our way along in a foreign language... And Heavenly Father still works miracles through us. How lucky we are... Really. I´m a very blessed person, I know it. I feel like I don´t deserve such love and help for the terrible servant I am. There´s always so much more that we can do. It´s truly humbling... So yeah, I have my first incredible, INCREDIBLE miracle story. Well, not yet. After this weekend, I´ll have it! Hahaha. Franco works for the miilitary, so he can´t be baptized on Saturday. So what we´re going to do is baptize them after church on Sunday. We have another baptism, Alicia Tapia... The wife of a recent convert. We´ll baptize her on Saturday, then the Colque family on Sunday afternoon. It will be a White Weekend. :) I HAVE A REQUEST FOR ALL: PLEASE pray for Franco, Cecilia, Franco and Nicolas. Pray that their testimonies can be strengthened. That they can make good decisions, that when temptations and doubts come this week (AND THEY WILL COME THIS WEEK), that they can rely on their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help them through it till Sunday afternoon. PLEASE do this for me. I don´t want your prayers right now, I need them all for my investigators!!
Well, another transfer has come and gone. We will find out on Saturday night if one of us is leaving Esquel, or not. I will probably be leaving... Sadly, I have been here for 6 months, and that is the general time limit on any given area. My situation is a little bit more rare in that I´m technically not IN my old area. This is technically my second area, but still... The chances that I will stay in my beloved home - Esquel - are slim. If I do leave, it will be perfect to leave with a BANG, the 5 baptisms. It will be incredible.
We´ve really been faltering on finding new people to teach. It´s become increasingly harder and harder to find people, and that puts a drag on the work... We need your prayers that the hearts of the people will be softened enough to allow us to teach them the wonderful message of the Gospel and Restoration. As we pray and fast, the windows of heaven will be opened, and we will find people!!! It is so crucial that we have new people to teach.
I´ve become increasingly tired as the weeks go on. Two nights ago, I laid on my bed for a few minutes while E. Sharp was writing on his journal, I put myself in the most uncomfortable position possible so I wouldn´t go to sleep... And the next thing I knew, the alarm was going off at 6:10... What the...?? E. Sharp got a video of me sleeping. I was completely OUT.
Well, sorry I don´t have a ton of things to say this week... It was slow, as I said before. Just a heads up, your picky eater now likes oranges, raveoli´s, spaghetti (WITH THE SAUCE), squash, and things like that. Please don´t say I told you so!!!!!... ;) I love missionary work. Every one who is reading this, who is a guy and is coming to the age of the mission... DO NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO GO!!! GO!!!! You will find INCREDIBLE blessings and experiences here in the mission field. Christian Andrew Springer, I´m still waiting on that call.
Love you all,
Amor,
E. Cuthbert
No comments:
Post a Comment