bodyWord of the Week:espías (spies...in honor of the "spy" pictures we take of things sneakily on the street)

This was a fabulous teaching week for Hna. Goddard and I. Our area is starting to perk up and we are finally seeing some people progress. Here are the week’s highlights: -Mariela: She is the sister of an active woman in the ward whose oldest son is waiting for his mission call. Mariela has heard from missionaries, but about 8 years ago. She has also been greatly expoused to the church by her sister and her sister’s family. She let us into her home last week and again this week more as a courtesy than a desire to learn. This week, we were really trying to get to the bottom of things and help her see why her sister wanted us to come and visit her. So, we started talking with her and verifying to see if she’d been praying. She then went on to tell us how it would be impossible for her to become “mormon” because her live-in boyfriend is Catholic and not open to other religions. She also said that she doesn’t agree with some of the doctrines of the church, to which I asked her to specify. She told me that she believes that all people, no matter their religion, will be accepted back into God’s presence when they die. We then jumped into the Plan of Salvation with her, of which she’d never heard of. I have never taught/participated in a more powerful lesson about the Plan of Salvation. As I was explaining to her that God loves us as His children, but would cease to be God if He were to let some children back into His presence because they will not be clean. He being a perfectly clean being, cannot permit even the smallest amount of sin. Us, all being sinners, must be cleaned by Christ to be permitted into God’s presence again. God so desperately wants us to come back to Him, that He’s given us all the tools to do so, but we must accept those tools and use them daily (including the scriptures, prophets, church meetings, etc). But most of all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church with the authority to baptize and therefore cleanse us from the sins we commit. So , if we are baptized in any other church or attend any other church, we will not be clean and God will sadly have to tell us that we are not clean to come into His presence. Mariela sat there speechless, looking at the pamphlet. She had nothing to say. She only said, “well, I’ve never heard about this before.” It was such an edifying and testimony building experience for me as the Plan of Salvation really clicked in my mind and became more of a loving opportunity for us to be clean and earn eternal life with God. Mariela was crying by the end of the lesson. Unfortunately, she is hard to track down, but we are visiting her this week and are eager to build on what we established this past week. Louisa: We were knocking doors Saturday night and got into a home of a young, single mom. She had a friend there who eagerly listened to us. These two young moms just chatted back and forth about all the problems in the Catholic church—how confused they are that you have to pay to have a child baptized when Christ was baptized for free. So, we taught them about the Restoration. Louisa (the friend), then asked us to see the Bible and started flipping through it. She randomly opened the book and pointed to a verse that referred to exactly what we were sharing in that moment. She also shared with us about a reoccuring dream she had where an angelic messanger came to her home, knocked on her door and told her to be to a certain place by 10am. She ran as fast as she could to get there. She got to a big, tall, white buliding, ran in and found hundreds of doors with different names on them. She said that she was confused and didn’t know what door she should go into. She finally found the door where Christ was and she just begged him to let her in because she thought she had arrived late, but he reassured her that she had arrived early. Her dream sounded just like missionaries teaching her the gospel, including the fact that church starts a 9:30 am (just before 10). She too, cried softly as we bore testimony of the true, restored church to her. She instantly knew that she was feeling the spirit. It was an awesome lesson, the only down side is that she doesn’t live in our area…. Evelyn: So, we were able to teach Evelyn multiple times this week and I don’t think I’ve seen someone so prepared to hear the gospel since Monica got baptized in San Rafael! When we got to her house this week, she hadn’t had time to read in the Book of Mormon, so we read a little with her, re-testified, promised her blessings, and re-invited her. When we went back to her house later that week, she’d read to 1 Nephi 10! We were shocked, but what was ever more shocking was how she could remember everything that she read, down to the smallest of details. She told us how she had already noticed that she has more positive thoughts now and that she is more calm and that she can fall asleep more easily now. She said she would have kept reading all night, but wanted to read more for comprehension than just to read it. When we went back and visited her a few days later, she was in 1 Nephi 17. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. We went back on Saturday and taught her about what we do in church on Sunday and even brought over some clothes for her to try on because she didn’t want to go since she doesn’t own a skirt. We played dress up wih her and she was so excited. Unfortunately, something happened and she didn’t make it to church, but we are hopeful for this upcoming weekend. It was quite the miracle though. I asked her if she knows the Book of Mormon is true, to which she replied that she hadn’t prayed yet, but that she was sure that it is. We re-committed her to pray and she easily agreed. We are really excited to keep working with her and help her continue improving her situation in life. It was such a miracle for us this week! After no one progressing for so long, then to have her read nearly 20 chapters in about a week when all we had committed her to read was the introduction! We are thrilled and very grateful! Gyspsies: we taught a group of Evangelical gypsies this week…and even got a few spy pictures while they were crossing the street before we followed them and knocked on their door. It was one of the weirdest experiences of my mission for a number of reasons, but it was particularly weird because they lived in a big, metal warehouse that they hung cloth inside along the walls, and they spoke in some random, d ifferent language. It was so weird! Hna. Goddard and I just left totally confused and dazed. It was cool though. Elders: the hermanas and elders were switched, so now there are elders that work in our ward with us as well. It’s a blast! Elder Evans is now in our ward (he was in my MTC district). It’s cool to see the change that has taken place in him over the course of his mission and it’s nice to see a familiar face. I think those are the best highlights from the week. Things are going well here…it’s been cold this week, but at least there has been plenty of sun. Love you, Hna. Pelton