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| Me, Hermana Aragon, Hermana Hernandez |
First off, the pics I´m sending are cuz I haven´t sent pics in forever!! The first one was on Christmas Eve at the top of the mountain where our converts live in Tarqui. Me, Hermana Aragon who went home, and Hermana Hernandez. The second pic is of a fake bug and a real life grillo next to it. Hermana Hernandez likes to scare us all with the fake bug and went to grab it to scare us and almost grabbed the real one hahahaha. The last pic is of Karen Cruz, me, and Hermana Hernandez at Tony Romas celebrating Hermana Hernandez´ bday! Karen is an amazing artist.
Welp this week was so very hard and feels like it was really long but has ended so wonderfully with us seeing the amazing blessings of the Lord.
Monday was such a wonderful day--we called the Cruz and Frias family to celebrate with us my comp's bday! They picked us up and we drove to Sanborondon which really is like a mini USA so we felt like we escaped to our country for a few hours! It was SO wonderful to be with my families again and see them!! I miss them so much and it's amazing that only after being with them twice, Hermana hernandez chose them as the people she wanted to invite! And not anybody from our sector here (its called Francisco de Orellana--our area here). We went to Tony Roma´s and it was SO much fun!! They are crazy and so loving and we all had missed each other. It was very rewarding.
Tuesday was great as well! Hermano Frias drove back down to our area to give Hermana Hernandez a blessing to help her out because she´s been strugggling with depression and has really been feeling down, and it was such an incredible experience. He really knows how to read people and it was such a strong, powerful and uplifting experience. Our district meeting was uplifting and afterwards, Hermana Hernandez and I started PLAN number 3: Plan Amor. We call our DL every night now and act SO happy and enthusiastic and loving and then on the other line without him even realizing it, he gets so happy too and thanks us and gets excited and acts so differently than before haha. It's been working SO well and it´s actually really fun to act like that and then hear him thanking us, recognizing our work and being really happy and supportive. Love and happiness work on everyone :)
On Tuesday we found a new investigator named Julio. It was an incredible lesson where we let the Spirit testify and he looked at us and said, wow you guys are really special. This message is different, huh? He appreciated how much love and faith we showed him and although he struggles a bit and said he was really Catholic, he accepted a baptismal date and its been amazing this week to realize that when the spirit is present in the lesson, it doesn't matter what they have originally told us, they WILL accept because the Spirit is testifying to them! We feel he will progress little by little but it was a wonderful lesson and a testimony of the power and importance of the Spirit.
Wednesday the Lord blessed us by running into Miguel who we hadn't seen in over a week! I don't know if I´ve written about Miguel but if not, I can't believe I haven´t! Miguel is the brother of a member in our ward. They are from Colombia and she is married to an RM from Ecuador. He moved down here to be with her and work, etc. He came to church and told us (this all happened a month ago) that he had been reading the Book of Mormon and pulled out a notebook full of questions and drawings he had done while studying and trying to understand. We were dumbfounded--you don´t meet people like this every day. We knew he was so special and incredible when we first met him. We have taught him a few times and he has come to church 3 times and we have been calling him to make sure he progresses. We saw him on Wed and that was so wonderful to teach him briefly and testify and see how he was doing. He has such light in his eyes!!
Thursday was a day. All of our lessons fell through and we felt super sick and then Ecuador decided to have a torrential rain storm and we literally were walking in lakes of water and so our shoes, socks, body, clothes, everything was SOAKED through even though we had an umbrella haha. Every time it's rained lately we´ve been knocking doors and you would think someone would let us in right?! Nope! We did have a wonderful lesson with Cristian giving him counsel and teaching from the scriptures in Hebrews 6:10-15. It really impacted him. He told me that before I leave the area he wants me to leave my email so when I get home he can check up on me and make sure I stay active because I really preach. hahaha I don't know what that means but we were glad we could help him.
Thursday night we learned a really hard lesson and we went through one of the most ugly experiences I think I´ve had on the mish and I really don't want to go into details but it stemmed from Hermana Hernandez making a wrong choice and it happened so fast I didn't have time to react or prevent it and I know she didn't mean to and she started bawling when we got home and I knew then she would have a hard time forgiving herself. I hugged her and told her we learned a lot and that the Lord forgives us. I basically had a choice to make--to let her know how I really felt and how it affected me or to forgive, give counsel, and love her because the process of remorse was already taking place.
Friday was hard in the morning because we still felt the effects of the night before--it was a really slow day but in the night, we had an amazing experience with a less active lady and she was crying a lot--we had no idea she was a member but had felt SO strongly we needed to talk to her husband and daughter when we saw them one day. We stopped by their house and she told us she was a less active! What?! Amazing. It´s incredible how God intricately manages His work. We felt so blessed afterwards, this work is marvelous!
Saturday we came back to the house after lunch and talked for an hour straight and Hermana Hernandez opened up about EVERYTHING with me and her internal fight. The adversary really has been attacking her internally but it was also good to get it all out there because she recognized some problems she never realized she had before but now notices. She rested for a few hours and I watched Monte del Senor--I loved that movie! We went out and had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Jacinto--another new investigator we found this week who accepted baptism in the first lesson because of the Spirit. This was our second lesson and we taught the Restoration in the most simple form I´ve ever taught it. Jacinto is an older man who lost his wife 3 months ago and he is SO special and sweet and simple. He feels the influence of the Holy Ghost very easily. He believes it all and we watched ¨The Restoration¨ to end the lesson and the Spirit testified to us all SO strongly that this was true. The environment and spirit was so thick with God´s love and His Spirit. Jacinto was very teary afterwards and he is such a sweet person who really is ready for the Gospel. What a marvelous experience and such a privilege to teach people like him and Miguel!
Sunday both Jacinto and Miguel came to church and we really feel like we have found 2 of God´s elect in this area and though it took a while--what a marvelous privilege it is to teach them and know them. They are so prepared and ready! Miguel wants to be baptized asap to get rid of the weight of his sins that he has recognized more and more studying the Gospel and getting to love its influence in his life. He is so amazing and told us how much he loves us and is grateful to us and we shared with him that we feel so so privileged to know him. He will either get baptized this Saturday (depending on the interview because he has something to clear up) or the next we think but he is incredible and Jacinto is so sweet and had so many friends and neighbors in the church. When he saw all his neighbors, he said to me, ¨None of them ever ever said anything to me about the church!¨ and that hit me so strongly. How dare us as members not share the Gospel with those we come in contact with?! We never know who are God´s elect or who is ready to accept and I think it's a wake up call for all of us when that happens. He would have liked to know before, but how amazing is God´s work that it happened now and we have this marvelous experience.
We saw Marcelo again yesterday and he´s really struggling this week and is just so sad and down. The scriptures in D&C 78 came to my mind about being a little child and not understanding what great blessings the Lord has in store for us and he started crying and we testified to him of God´s love and blessings. He really loved those scriptures. I know we are there to share God´s love for him.
Well this week was crazy and full of the Lord´s blessings and I´m so grateful for everything I am learning and the mercy and blessings of the Lord! I love you all so so much and miss you like crazy!!
Love,
Hermana Bryan
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| Fake bug and real Grillo! |
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| Karen Cruz, Me, Hna Hernandez at Tony Roma's |
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