Power

This has been quite the week with a lot of very interesting and unforgettable experiences. I have learned a lot in the past 7 days and feel like some of the things I have seen and felt have really impacted me and will continue to do so during the rest of my life. I´m not going to give details because they really don´t matter and I´m going to focus on the super cool stories instead. Suffice it to say that during the course of this past week I learned that Satan definitely is real. That he has power. But he only has the power that we give to him. When we tell him to knock it off, he has to. Because we are stronger than him. He has a real effect on people and he definitely doesn´t want this work to keep moving forward, but luckily he can´t stop it. I have also learned a great deal about the power of the priesthood. It is so much grander than any other assumed power on this earth. Worthy priesthood holders really can work miracles and bless lives. They act in the place of the Lord and I know that His voice is heard when people speak using His authority. 

That may have been random but I couldn´t write about this week without expressing my gratitude and testimony of the Lord´s power here on earth. This week was one of the best weeks I have had on my mission. We worked hard and smart and encountered some really cool people in some very spiritual lessons. We had many lessons with members and received even more references. We have also had a goal to work more as a team in the district and so we have spent some time in the elder´s area and they have visited some of our investigators as well. The lessons are always really cool with different sets of missionaries there because we all teach so differently. We´ve seen a lot of progress with people that weren´t changing or understanding very well in both areas. Sometimes they just need to hear the same thing in another way or from another person. 

As always, I´ve got to pick and choose some highlights for the week so I´ll give you guys the details on 2 lessons that we had. The first one was with a less active yesterday. We were visiting Clariluz and her father in law happened to be there. He is a less active as well who lives in another area in our district. We started the lesson and then I decided to change the topic a little bit. I asked him why he wasn´t coming to church. He said that one time someone had said something on a temple trip and it offended him. Before that happened he just didn´t really get along with the people in the ward and didn´t agree with everything that they had been doing. I asked him if he had a testimony of Joseph Smith. He said yes. Of the gospel? Yes again. Then I said, "So why does it matter?" I explained that there are imperfect people in the church but that doesn´t change the perfection of the gospel. As he continued to persist that the members had "changed it" for him, I said, "So let me get this straight. You are giving up the blessings of the sacrament, which includes the companionship of the holy ghost, you aren´t keeping a covenant you made with God, and you are losing the blessings of an eternal family in the temple because someone said something one time that you didn´t like?"

He looked at me a little startled (and honestly I was a little startled that all of that had come out of my mouth as well). I felt impressed to continue being bold. I said, "What are you going to tell the Lord after this life? Each of us is going to stand before Him to give an account of our lives. Are you going to say I stopped going to church, I stopped being faithful because Sister so and so didn´t invite me to such and such activity and brother so and so said something I didn´t agree with. How are you going to explain to the Savior why you chose not to honor the covenant you made when you took His name upon you?" Then I testified that the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy and return to Him. That´s why He gave us this wonderful plan. I encouraged him to think about his family. His children and grandchildren and wife and how he is the spiritual leader. That he needs to be the example of faithfulness if he wants to have a forever family and if he wants his kids to follow in the path. As I finished I watched this man change. He agreed that he needed to go to church and asked what time his ward was at. It was a really cool lesson. Very direct, very bold, but very spiritual. I nicknamed it a "Holland" lesson. haha. I imagine that´s how Elder Holland feels after conference sometimes.

We have been looking through some of the old investigators in the area book to find some new people to teach and came across a guy named Amaury. It said he had only had 2 lessons and didn´t have much information. We felt like we should visit him and so we put him down on the list a few weeks ago of people we should visit when we have extra time. When we went this week I felt impressed to tell him why we had chosen to visit him again (that we had prayed and looked at a list of people who had met with missionaries before and then chosen 10 or so). He looked at me surprised and said, "When did you guys pray about who to visit?" I told him a few weeks ago. He said he had been thinking about the missionaries and if he should go back to church or not and had prayed to have a sign. I told him that we weren´t there by coincidence. Then we talked about how the spirit works. He apparently met with many missionaries over the course of a few months (I guess one of his papers got lost). He shared that he has received various answers through the spirit and has taken a lot of things as signs that this church is true. The spirit was so strong and I could tell that this man really loves and respects the Lord and wants to follow Him. He accepted a baptismal date for January. 

On Sunday we went with the elders to pick him up for church. He was waiting outside his house with a shirt and tie. I don´t think I can explain just how rare that is in this country. No one is ever on time. And even fewer people put on a shirt and tie for church. He told us he had forgotten what time we told him and had been ready at 6 in the morning just to be safe. 

We visited him again yesterday and he taught us the first lesson. We asked him what he remembered about Joseph Smith and from there on he told us all that he remembers about the prophet and why it´s so important that the church was restored through him. If a "golden investigator" exists in this world, it is Amaury. I am really excited to teach him and watch him progress. It was also a true testimony to me that this is the Lord´s work. He orchestrates things perfectly and really directs us to the people that are ready for the work. 

Well everyone, I know that the church is true! The mission is wonderful. We have a lot of spiritual experiences and other funny moments. The DR is an adventure always. The funny this week was that one of the sisters flooded our apartment. The water goes out every day at random times. You never know when the water is just going to shut off which makes life a little interesting (especially when you´ve just put shampoo in your hair and the shower stops working. That´s when you yell for your companion to bring one of the 5 gallon drums in and you finish your shower with a cup). Apparently one of them had gone to wash their hands, turned on the faucet and saw that there was not water, and then left. We went to a service and in that time that we were gone the water came back. When we returned the entire apartment was COVERED in water. Luckily carpet doesn´t exist in this country and we just cleared out the water with brooms and mops of the course of 2 hours. No huge damage was done and it was pretty funny.

The Lord really does know and love us. He is looking out for us and helping us every step of the way. Remember the blessings that He has for you. Don´t let the little things stop you from receiving all of those blessings. Trust in the Lord and be BOLD. I know that He really does have a plan for us and that everything works out when we do our best to follow that plan. 

Love you all!

Hermana Ewell