Last week our water pump in the house broke and we were without water for a few days. Eventually our emergency reserve began to run out and we called a member to see if they could help us out. This family was so gracious! They have a very big house actually and live in the very rich area of our ward. They came and picked us up, filled up all of our reserve buckets and let us shower in their house. It was the first real shower that I have had in 6 months and I cannot even express how wonderful it was. If we are lucky enough to have water, our shower does not have a shower head and lacks enough pressure to use it even if we did have one. So we basically have a faucet in a tub. So to shower we fill up a bucket with the faucet and then dump the cold water over ourselves with a cup. The member´s shower still had cold water, but it had a shower head with real water pressure. I wanted to cry out of happiness. I never would have thought 8 months ago that I would one day write about a cold shower out of sheer awe and filled with gratitude.
We have a new convert in our ward named Bencina that is absolutely amazing. She lives about 2 blocks away from the church and just came one day about 3 months ago. She had been thinking she should join a church and had chosen to come here even though she lives next to an Evangelist church and passes the Jehovah´s witnesses to come. We all fought over who would get to teach her that first Sunday and the elders won because she is in their area. haha.
Bencina came to visit people with us earlier in the week and I was amazed at her conversion so quickly. We visited Amaury and were talking about answers to prayers and how to recognize if this is the true church. He asked, "What if God says that this isn´t?" Before we could answer Bencina piped up, "He won´t say no. This IS the true church. It is the only true church. God cannot lie and so He will not say no. He will tell you that it is true and then you must exercise your faith and get baptized."
Her faith is incredible and she is not afraid to share it.
She bore her testimony on Sunday and talked about how finding the gospel was a true miracle in her life and how she must work everyday to make sure that she can someday make it to the Celestial kingdom. She is saving up to be able to go to the temple next month and told us she wants to serve a mission. We went to buy Preach my Gospel in French the next day to give to her.
It really is amazing to watch these people change their lives and be filled with light and happiness as the gospel takes place in their hearts. There are definitely disappointments as we watch people choose to use their agency in a way that we know will never bless them, like when Alex said this week flat out that he has no plans of returning to church any time soon, or when you find that a less active that was starting to progress is drinking again. But the good times and wonderful experiences are so much grander than the bad that you hardly take notice. I guess it´s all what you choose to dwell on. I let go of the moments that deplete me and drink in the moments that leave me filled.
I had one of the coolest experiences of my mission this week. About 2 weeks ago Hermana Santana woke up in the middle of the night thinking of a less active that we knew of but didn´t personally know. She is Eslodia´s daughter and we knew that she was inactive but never knew where she lived. The next morning Hermana Santana asked me why we never visit her. I told her that I honestly didn´t know. Eslodia is so strong in the gospel and I found it odd that we had never visited her daughter, Arianys. That day we went to Eslodia´s house to ask her a little more. Hermana Santana asked, "Eslodia, did you pray for your daughter last night?" She responded, "I pray for her every night but last night she was on my mind a lot." We shared what had happened and said we wanted to visit her. Eslodia showed us her house and we visited her that week.
This last week we visited Arianys a few times. She has a lot of knowledge and a pretty strong tesimony of the church. I´m still not sure why she stopped coming. The last time we visited I felt like we should talk about the premortal life with her and focus on how the Lord really knows and loves us. As we started talking about what we mean to our Heavenly Father and asked Arianys how she felt about the fact that she was a beloved daughter of God, she started to cry. Then we talked about families and the blessings we find within them. We shared why we had known to visit her and that the spirit and her own mortal mother had led us there. Then she said, "I need to come back. I know it´s not going to be easy, that satan is going to work really hard on me. But I need to go back because I am His daughter." The spirit was so strong in that lesson and I felt such an immense love for this woman who I had just met the week before.
This Sunday Arianys was at church. Eslodia shared her testimony of prayer and the miracles that can happen when we pray with faith. She thanked us, the missionaries, for listening to the spirit and bringing her daughter back once more. She has been trying for over 10 years. The spirit once again was so incredibly strong. We really do have a Heavenly Father who knows and loves us. He wants us to come home. He is patiently waiting for us to return and wants us to be happy. Seeing the love and joy that Eslodia has for her daughter makes me think of just how much the Lord loves us and is waiting anxiously to be able to see us once again in His presence.
Mis Queridos, this new year is a wonderful opportunity to help someone start that journey home. Fortify yourself so that you can help others find their way. Look for the people around you that could use the gospel (EVERYONE) and then share it. Don´t be afraid of what could go wrong if you share the gospel, be afraid of what will never go right if you don´t. Like Bencina said, this is the only true church. If the people are prepared they are going to feel it. My invitation: Don´t be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Share it. We never need have fear if we are trying to do what the Lord has commanded us.
Our Heavenly Father loves us, I love my mission and I love all of you.
Hermana Ewell
Romans 1:15-16 "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you...For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth"
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