First of all I want to thank all of you for your prayers and fasts and support. I know I didn´t mention in my letter but mom forwarded the request for a fast on Sunday and I am pleased to let you all know that I am doing much better. I felt such a great peace this week despite some of the things I was facing and I know it was a direct result of your love and concern. Thank you for you faith in my behalf!
Hermana Ozuna and I have been working with a less active family the last few months and they have been coming back to church. This family has absolutely nothing. Not even a kitchen sink. Whenever we visit them I am so filled with gratitude for the things that I didn´t even recognize were blessings before now. I´m also afraid that they seem to go hungry a lot. When we pass by on Sunday to help them get to church the kids never eat breakfast and never complain about it. It breaks my heart a little bit but I know the Lord is looking out for them. They have 5 kids and each one is absolutely adorable. We teach them a few times a week and right now are working to try and get them to the temple. I love teaching them because their kids are angels!
One of our first visits I acted out the story of Ammon with them to help them learn some of the BOM stories. Now every time we visit they want to read and act out a story from the Book of Mormon. Last night we taught them and read various verses from 1 Ne 3 and 4 to act out the story of Nephi and Laban. We use the scriptures as dialogue and then everyone acts out their part. They gathered all of their toys when we got to the part about their welath that they took to Laban and set them at my feet (I was Laban). And then they used a stuffed snake as a sword to cut off my head. When we finished they acted it out 2 more times so that each of the boys could take turns being Nephi. I love teaching families. Kids have such a special spirit and it is fun to engage them and watch them get excited about the scriptures.
Saturday the 9 year old boy, Anderson, was baptized. He was so nervous about being able to do it right and kept practicing how to plug his nose during the talks. It was such a special thing to see this family coming back to the church and their kids progressing. Last week Antoni, the oldest boy was ordained to the aaronic priesthood and he was able to pass the sacrament on Sunday. I was so proud to see him carrying the trays with a giant grin on his face.
The other little boy, Yandel, is 7 and has the biggest crush on me. It absolutely cracks me up. At Anderson´s baptism he sat by me and kept trying to hold my hand and then insisted on being by me for the rest of the night. He has given me some of his marbles because "they are pretty like my eyes and really fun to play with." And don´t get him started on my hair. I just laugh because he´s still little and just a cute kid. He turns 8 in February and has a countdown for his baptism. I adore this family and hope I have the privilege of seeing them sealed in the temple.
The other cool experience I want to share really fast was with an investigator of the other sisters. He was supposed to baptized Saturday too but backed out last minute. The next day he explained to them that his entire family is Jehovah´s Witnesses and will disown him if he joins the church and never talk to him again. They came home and told us about this with heavy hearts. He has been coming to church for awhile and has such a strong testimony. He is an amazing young man and I was sad to hear about this too. The first thing that came to my head was that I needed to share the story of Mary Lee Bland with him. For those of you that don´t know...she was my great great great something Grandma who was disowned for joining the church, her husband died at winter quarters, but she continued on to Utah and remained strong in the faith her entire life (sure watered down version but you get the gist..she was an incredible woman). So we went and visited Ramone with the other sisters. It was so specail to talk about how grateful I am for her sacrifices and relate to his own struggle right now. I told him that I was eternally grateful for her faithfulness because that is the reason I am here today. I told him that his situation wasn´t easy and that I couldn´t completely relate but that I knew that if he chose to remain faithful to his testimony he would be able to influence not only himself but generations to come. Afterward he thanked me and said that I had given him more to think about. The other sisters told us later that he said "I know I have to get baptized. I know it´s true. But I want to make sure that I am completely ready for this covenant and never going to back out. I want to live and die faithful if I am going to convert." It was such a special experience to share something about one of my ancestors and try and help someone that I have seen have such incredible faith already. Each of our decisions really are affecting people for years and years to come. We have a special influence and if we allow that influence to work for good we can change the world through very simple means.
Well everyone, I am officially out of time. I know that this church is true. The Lord loves us. His atonement is real and His arms of mercy are open always. With whatever struggle you have right now, turn to Him. Trust in His love and know that He is enough. Through Him we can do ALL things. I know that to be true.
Spread a little love this week!
Hermana Ewell
Anderson's baptism
Clariluz and Gregori's family
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