This
week was wonderful. As always we had a lot of funny experiences and a
lot of miracles in our lives. I´ll start with the funny and work my way
up to the absolutely amazing tender mercies that I was able to witness.
We
have been visiting a recent convert that was baptized in April. We
decided to call him as a ward missionary because he has a really strong
testimony and is willing to work hard but he´s lacking a bit of
understanding about the doctrine. This works out perfectly because we go
to his house once a week and read Preach My Gospel with him to help him
"prepare to teach other people" and in the process he is able to learn
all of the doctrine that he is missing. This week we started reading the
restoration lesson with him. He read the first paragraph and then we
talked for 30 minutes about how God has a body of flesh and bones. I
guess the missionaries didn´t tell him that. He started trying to
explain that there is no way that God can have a body of flesh and bones
because Jesus dwells within him. This young man then told us that Jesus
couldn´t possibly have a normal body because He had visited this young
man in his room and he couldn´t touch Jesus. We kindly explained that he
can feel Jesus´s love and His presence in his life but that He cannot
literally live inside of him. That He is a resurrected, glorified being
and we don´t see Him walking around because of the veil. As far as the
Christ appearing to him personally...we didn´t want to negate his
spiritual experience (although it did throw us for a loop a bit) and so
we just continued to testify that God has a body and with faith and
diligent study we can learn the truth of all things. It was definitely
interesting. I should stop being surprised by the crazy things that this
convert says and just come to expect them.
We
received a reference for a 61 year old man this week from one of the
members. She came with us to visit him a few days ago. He lived in the
states for 50 years and speaks "English" (it is super broken and with a
very strong accent but he speaks it). He insisted on talking to me in
English for the first like 15 minutes. I kept trying to start the lesson
but he just persevered. It was really funny/uncomfortable as he asked
me if I was married and then told me that he would marry me if he was
21. After about 20 minutes of this old man hitting on me my companion
spoke up in English and he turned to her shocked, "You speak English?
You understood all of that?" "Yes. Can we start talking about the gospel
now?" I laughed so hard. We taught him and he is a humble man. We
extended a baptismal date in the first lesson and he accepted. I´m still
not sure if it is because he wants to marry me or because he is
interested in the church. I guess only time will tell. haha.
Friday
we visited Aminadia as usual and taught her the 10 commandments. It is
funny to me that in such a Christian country no one knows or understands
those. She had questions about every single one and think that there is
no problem with some of them (taking the Lord´s name is vain is SOOO
common here! Unfortunately all of the members do it too. That´s become
one of my mini missions here, to help them keep that commandment). She
also had a question about praying to statues (because that´s how she
learned from growing up Catholic). We explained to her that God has
still heard her prayers and that it doesn´t invalidate them because He
is merciful and if we don´t know any better He isn´t going to hold it
against us. But now that she knows the correct way to pray that she
needs to pray in the way that He has put forth. We´ve got a bit of work
to do there. After carefully explaining each one she agreed to live them
and we´ll keep helping her. When we finished teaching and invited her
to church again she told us she was going to the Jehovah´s witnesses
because they had passed by before us and extended the invitation first.
My heart sunk. That´s why she doesn´t feel ready to be baptized...she´s
still meeting with them-and they speak French. As I sat there words came
to my mind and out of my mouth. I don´t remember everything I said
because I know a lot of it was the spirit. I was very careful not to say
anything negative about the Jehovah´s witnesses and said that I didn´t
want her to feel pressured into anything. That this decision is between
her and God and we´re just there to invite and to help.
Sunday
morning we left 45 minutes early to go help people come to church. We
passed by 10 houses almost running to get to everyone on time. No one
answered the door or their phone except for one less active to tell us
that she was going to run errands and wasn´t going go come. I felt so
defeated. We are working so hard and trying so many things and then it
still doesn´t seem to work out. We started walking slowly back to the
church and I looked over at Hermana Santana who was crying a little. I
put my arm around her and she said, " I know it´s not about success or
having people in church but it´s still so disappointing. At least He
knows that we´re doing our best." And I said, " Exactly. It´s about
keeping the faith and still doing your best even after nothing has
worked out. After 6 months of not seeing anyone progress, or after a
long day, or after baptizing an inactive. It´s all a trial of faith to
see if you will keep going when the going gets tough." So we went to
church empty-handed again. One of the senior missionary couples rubbed
salt in the wound when she jokingly said, "There´s more missionaries
than investigators here!" I quietly assured Hermana Santana again that
it was ok.
We started
church and after the opening prayer Hermana Santana turned and said, "
Look. Aminadia came." Then I turned and saw Enrique coming in the door
with 2 of his kids. I almost started crying out of gratitude. Heavenly
Father really knows us and when we put forth that extra faith even when
it´s hard and we´re sad and tired, He will really work miracles.
Aminadia stayed all three hours. She chose to come to this church
instead of the Jehovah´s witnesses with no reminders or anything from
us. And Enrique hasn´t come to church in 3 months! If those 2 things are
not miracles, I don´t know what are. And I was so grateful that Hermana
Santana was finally able to have a little breakthrough in her mission.
She is so enthusiastic and optimistic about the work and I didn´t want
to see her discouraged yet.
The other good
news? We visited Enrique yesterday and he told us that the bishop´s
wife, Nadia, had passed by their house to help Rosa with the new baby
and tell her that she gave Dariana a part in the primary program. We
didn´t tell her to do anything. This was all on her own accord. Dariana
has been looking up primary songs online to practice and couldn´t be
more proud of her assignment to say the closing prayer. I almost started
crying again knowing that the members are finally starting to pass by
without us and form a friendship with this family. That is the key. It
is not enough to just have them in the lessons. They will really make
the difference as they reach out to them on their own and fellowship
them as friends and not just investigators. As we visited with Rosa she
was much more open and said that she wants to come to see Dariana in the
primary program (THANK YOU NADIA!!!). Another member came with us to
the lesson last night and just so happened to have a job opportunity for
Enrique. The Lord´s hand is in all of this. They have gotten rid of
their "niño jesus" statue and even say family prayers every once in
awhile. We had a great lesson with them repeating the Plan of Salvation
(because they´ve already received all of the lessons)
and...finally...after 3 months of asking...Enrique and Rosa accepted a
baptismal invitation. They wouldn´t commit to a date but I don´t know if
I can express how huge it is that they just accepted the invitation! I
left their house so elated and so grateful to my Heavenly Father for
blessing them and helping the ward to understand their crucial part in
this work. I´m so glad that we have had the faith to keep teaching them
even when we weren´t seeing a ton of progress and everyone told us we
were crazy. But the Lord knows who He is preparing and He will keep us
posted if we pay attention.
I
know that Heavenly Father knows and loves us. He blesses us for our
efforts. Sometimes it feels like we have given our all and that there
isn´t any more to give but if we keep persevering during that time, THEN
the blessings come. It´s all about choosing to keep the faith and keep
going when the going gets tough. The Lord is working miracles in our
lives and all we have to do is open our eyes to see them.
I
hope that all is going well for all of you! Look for the miracles in
your life this week. You will be amazed to see His hand in everything.
Lots of love,
Hermana Ewell
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